A Street Cry filly, which was the second horse in the sale ring, brought $775,000 as the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select yearling auction opened the evening of Aug. 2 in upstate New York. Helen K. Groves, who signed the sale ticket, said she bred the bay yearling in partnership and was buying out the ownership interests of her daughters and co-breeders, Helen Alexander and Dorothy (D.D) Alexander Matz, in the filly.
“I owned a little piece of her and my daughters owned bigger pieces,” Groves said. “I thought she was worth $1 million, and they didn’t think so. I didn’t want to sell her, so I’m afraid I bought her. That’s probably a dumb thing to do, but I’m 82 going on 83, I’m still here, and how many more fillies like her am I going to hope to get to the races? I can’t ride cutting horses anymore, and can’t touch a horse and can’t go inside the sale pavilion because I’m allergic and it gives me asthma, but I can watch the races.”
Consigned by Eaton Sales, agent, the filly is out of the winning A.P. Indy mare Alchemist, who finished third in the 2003 Anne Arundel Stakes (gr. III) and is a full sister to 2008 Turnback the Alarm Handicap (gr. III) winner Altesse. The yearling is a half sister to the winners Atwitter and Burj Dubai, both by Distorted Humor . Burj Dubai finished second in this year's S.W. Randall Plate Handicap in Canada.