Building on a stellar 2026 racetrack campaign with six graded stakes winners, Nyquist extended his dominance to the sales ring Aug. 10 during Day 1 of Fasig-Tipton's The Saratoga Sale in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Nyquist sired three of the 15 seven-figure yearlings Monday night, led by sales topper Hip 83, who commanded $3.2 million from Boyd Racing via agent Brittany Linton.
The strapping bay colt quickly rose into seven-figure territory with spirited bidding coming from inside the pavilion and from an online challenger. Randy and Jenny Boyd of Boyd Racing chose to go against their usual strategy—buying fillies with elite pedigrees to use as future broodmares—and secure the son of Nyquist.
"We came here with the strategy of buying two fillies, but we just fell in love with this colt," Randy Boyd said. "As we say, we have a strategy and we stick to it, but every month we change the strategy, and today we changed the strategy. But it was just a colt that we couldn't pass up.
"I think he's going to be an amazing colt. We think he has a possibility of being a (Kentucky) Derby horse one day."
Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings bred the colt out of out grade 2 winner Slammed, a daughter of Marking out of multiple stakes winner Hennesey Smash. Slammed is a half sister to three other stakes winners, including grade 2-placed stakes winner Smash Ticket (Midnight Lute). Gainesway consigned the colt on behalf of Stonestreet.
"That exceeded our expectations, but the people here love the horse, and he was vetted as much as anything in our consignment," said Brian Graves, general manager at Gainesway. "The cream rises to the top. It exceeded our expectations a little bit, but we thought the horse was going to bring seven figures and well into it.
"He was a picture of a horse, just a leggy horse with a huge girth, and all the movement and athleticism you'd want to see. I'm sure the success of (Metropolitan Handicap winner) Nysos helped him along a lot this year, but he was everything you'd want to see in a horse. We're elated."
The Boyds have made a splash in both the North American sales scene over the last year, and overseas, with their purchase of group 2 scorer Green Sense for £700,000 (US$938,466) at the Goffs London Sale in June.
In March, Boyd Racing purchased a juvenile filly, also by Nyquist, for $2 million at the Ocala Breeders' Sales March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale.
Last year they purchased the highest-priced filly of the Saratoga sale—a daughter of Gun Runner out of grade 1 winner Paradise Woods—for $2.6 million. They also purchased multiple grade 1 winner Vahva, another daughter of Gun Runner, for $3.1 million at last year's Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.
"We're buying fillies for the long term," Boyd said. "We want to buy fillies that have great potential to be a broodmare, and hopefully they'll have a good career while they're racing. But the most important thing is to buy the broodmares."
Shortly after they purchased Hip 83, Boyd Racing, with Linton as agent, went to $1.5 million for Hip 104, a daughter of Quality Road out of the grade 3-winning Violence mare Talk Veuve to Me. The dam is a half sister to Tiffany Case, the dam of 2025 champion 3-year-old filly and recent Whitney Stakes (G1) runner-up Nitrogen.
Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings also bred Hip 104, who was consigned by Denali Stud.
In addition to the sales topper, Nyquist also had the third-highest-priced filly of the session with Hip 49, who sold for $1.375 million to Dan Hayden, agent for Blue Devil Racing. Hip 49 is out of the Bernardini mare Pray for Leslie, who is the dam of multiple graded stakes winner Praying (Vekoma ). The filly was bred in Kentucky by Jeff Kerber and Jeff Prunzik.
John Stewart's Resolute Bloodstock went to $1 million for Hip 75, a son of Nyquist, also out of a Bernardini mare, Me and Mine. She is the dam of two horses to race, both winners, including stakes-placed Golden Gamble (Laoban). He was bred by Capri Bloodstock and Luneack Bloodstock.
Hip 100, a daughter of Not This Time , was the top-priced filly of the first session at $1.9 million. Japanese trainer Mitsu Nakauchida came out on top to secure the filly, who is a full sister to multiple graded stakes winner On Time Girl. She is out of the Uncle Mo mare Girl Daddy and was bred in Kentucky by Albaugh Grands Stables.
Lively Opening Session
Numbers were up across all metrics compared to last year's corresponding session. At the end of the day of trade, 79 horses had changed hands for gross receipts of $54,395,000, including private sales, up 35% from $40,175,000 (78 horses). The average was up 34% to $688,544 from $515,064, and the median jumped up to $500,000, a 25% increase from last year's median of $400,000.
Eighteen horses failed to meet their reserve, resulting in an RNA rate of 19%.
"The energy was palpable. Very, very strong, tremendous session," said Boyd Browning Jr., president and CEO of Fasig-Tipton. "We were optimistic putting together the Saratoga catalog; we were more optimistic when we saw the horses get off the van and get on the sales ground. We were even more optimistic when we saw the level of activity on the grounds.
"Despite all that optimism, we exceeded expectations."
Flying Dutchmen was the leading buyer of the night with five horses totaling $5,225,000. Taylor Made led the consignors, selling 15 from their draft for a total of $12,015,000.
The action continues Aug. 11 at 6:30 p.m. ET for the second and final session of the sale, with hips 115-230 slated to head to the ring. As of Monday evening, Fasig-Tipton had reported 18 outs.
"I often say after the first night, don't make any bold proclamations, but we played a hell of a first half," Browning said. "I like where we are at halftime, and we hope to be able to put together another great sale tomorrow night.
"We've got another batch of really good horses to go through the ring tomorrow. I'll sleep a little better tonight, but we still have half the work to do."
