SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – The sales barns were filled with shoppers Saturday morning and, with plenty of buzz around the state's racing and breeding program, optimism was high ahead of the Fasig-Tipton New York-Bred Yearling Sale in Saratoga Springs. The auction begins with an offering of 100 catalogued yearlings beginning at 7 p.m. Sunday and continues with 218 head on offer Monday beginning at noon.“It's been very busy, and people appear like they're really shopping,” Gabriel Duignan said in front of the Paramount Sales barns as the early morning fog burned off into a sunny and balmy Saturday afternoon. “It's probably busier than usual.”Conrad Bandoroff had a similar view from the Denali Stud consignment.“Activity's been good,” Bandoroff said. “We had a very solid day of showing yesterday. The barn has been very busy so far this morning, and I think foot traffic's been good. Our showing yesterday was up about 10% year-over-year from last year. I think there's going to be good momentum carrying over from the last sale.”The two-day Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, held last Monday and Tuesday, produced frenetic bidding and record-setting results.Asked if he expected the momentum from the select sale to trickle down to the New York-bred sale, Bandoroff said, “It is a different buying bench, but I think there's been plenty of people talking with some agents, talking with some buyers that didn't get anything bought in the last sale. I think there was some frustration, and agents that had orders in the last sale that weren't able to get horses bought, and they have clients that buy New York-breds. It could make them more aggressive in this market.”As the quality of the New York-bred program has continued to improve, it has forced Kentucky-based consignors to increase the quality of the stock they offer at the annual yearling sale.“I think the New York program is getting so healthy,” Duignan said. “It's fantastic. There are a lot of positive things going on in New York. Our standards for bringing horses here has gotten better. I think it's been improving for the last seven or eight years. And actually, [the local horses] are prepared a lot better. The bar has gotten higher.”Driving the increase in quality are a bevy of incentives and increased opportunities for New York-breds, from the arrival of full purse parity in 2027, which will offer equal purses for state-bred and open races, to a new Belmont Park which will feature an all-weather surface, in addition to its traditional dirt and turf surfaces. Also debuting next year will be the Empire Trillium Series which will offer $3.2 million in total purses for races pitting New York-breds against Canadian-breds.“This is now our second year where we're going to have the purse parity, and I think that's a huge bonus for New York breeders and New York owners,” Bandoroff said. “And now there is the Empire Trillium series.”Of the addition of a Tapeta track at Belmont, Bandoroff said, “I think it gives everybody more options. A horse that somebody might have had to run at Presque Isle, now it's got a home here in New York. I think it opens up more opportunities for horses and obviously with more purse power as well.”Anne Morgan | Fasig-TiptonWhile Kentucky-based operations like Paramount Sales and Denali Stud saw action during the select sale earlier in the week, local operations like Anne Morgan's Mill Creek Farm will join the fray for the two-day New York-bred sale.Located not far from Saratoga Springs in Stillwater, Mill Creek will offer five yearlings at the auction.“It's been very, very busy,” Morgan said Saturday morning. “They started very early, and everybody's really interested in everything.”Morgan agreed the new Belmont Park and purse parity were helping to create additional buzz around the sale, but she added, “The other thing that's really helping is the new breeders' awards. They've upped the breeders' awards, and that really interests the breeders, obviously, and the whole class of horses, New York-breds. Not only the Kentucky-sired, but right now especially the New York-sired. People are very, very interested in the New York-sired yearlings.”The Mill Creek consignment includes yearlings by Kentucky-based sires Taiba, Charlatan, and Arabian Lion, as well as a pair of yearlings by New York-based stallion Americanrevolution.“We've brought some better stallions into the state, and the product that they're putting out, and the mares that are getting bred to them are better, and that interests people,” Morgan said.'A Permanent Smile on My Face': Murray Smith Back Doing What She LovesLongtime horsewoman Murray Smith was back in action at the sales grounds at Fasig-Tipton in Saratoga this week after an absence from the auction scene of some 14 years. Smith spent several years among the top 2-year-old consignors in the country, with GI Kentucky Derby winner Monarchos among her most famous graduates. But the years of training and breaking 2-year-olds took a heavy toll physically.“I did everything,” Smith said from the sales grounds Saturday. “I used to break them myself and ride them. And over the years, the injuries mounted up. So I had to stop, I was in so much pain. My right arm was almost totally paralyzed, my back was so bad, I had man-made scoliosis.“For the last 10 years, I have had neck fusion, two back surgeries. One, they put two 18-inch rods and 22 screws in my back. Three hip replacements, a knee replacement, ankle surgery, reverse shoulder surgery, and wrist surgery.”Murray Smith | Fasig-TiptonSmith faced her biggest challenge this past spring when she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.“I had cancer surgery in March of this year,” she said. “It was the Whipple procedure, and thank God they got it all out.”After several rounds of chemotherapy, Smith said, “My doctor told me, 'You're one of the very few patients of mine that has pancreatic cancer that I don't say you have two weeks to two months to live.”With her cancer battle behind her, Smith, who had been working in real estate in Ocala, was seeking a sign for what to do next.“It wasn't my passion,” Smith said of real estate. “So, when I got out of this cancer deal, I said, 'You know what? I've got to find a way back to the horses.' That's where my heart and soul is, and I don't know if you believe in miracles or not, but I walked outside one night and prayed to God. I looked up in the stars and I said, 'Please tell me where I'm supposed to be.' And the very next day, Patti Miller called me and asked me to come to Saratoga.”Smith has been short-listing for Miller all week and, inevitably, found other people who wanted to work with her.“I'm doing the short-listing, looking at all the individuals, the conformation, because that's what I'm best at,” Smith said. “And you know, while I'm up here, everybody is saying, 'Glad to see you again. Can you help me in this sale? Can you help me in that sale?'”Smith teamed up with Keiber Rengifo to purchase a colt by Arabian Lion (hip 151) for $200,000 as a pinhook prospect during the select sale and expects she will be an active buyer at the New York-bred sale.“This is my first year back,” Smith said. “I don't want to overdo it. I'll be at the sale with anything that I'm a part of. But I'm not going to have a consignment in my name yet. I had like 10 surgeries and cancer surgery. I don't want to come back and then falter.”For the time being, Smith is enjoying being back where she loves to be.“Listen, I have a permanent smile on my face looking at horses,” she said. “For me to just be here on the grounds and be around my peers and my friends that I've missed, you know, people that I can relate to, this is where my heart and soul is. This is what I'm passionate about.”The post Saratoga Bidding: Fasig-Tipton New York Sale Starts Sunday appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.