$950,000 Pioneerof the Nile colt tops first day of F-T Saratoga Yearling sale

A colt by leading sire Pioneerof the Nile topped the star-studded first session of the Aug. 8-9 Fasig Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale, with powerful buyers Stonestreet Stables and Coolmore partnering to acquire the the bay colt, already named Ocean Pioneer.

Consigned by Gainesway, agent, and cataloged as hip No. 111, the bay Kentucky-bred is out of Ocean Goddess and is a half-brother to Sam F. Davis S. (G3) winner Ocean Night.

“He is a pretty horse by a great stallion and we own his brother (Ocean Night),” Stonestreet’s agent John Moynihan said of the new purchase. “We thought a lot of his mother, we still do. He was one of our favorite horses here, so we took a shot.”

The yearling was bred by Pavla and Erik Nygaard’s Thor-Bred Stables.

“I think it will take me some time to process the whole thing, but it was absolutely amazing,” Pavla said. “It was a culmination of a lot of things which are not easy in this industry. The mare was at first accepted for Pioneerof the Nile. And then, when the mare was in foal, at some point, the vet said it doesn’t look like the foal is going to make it. So there were a lot of things that we did to help her, and I was going through a lot of doubts, but when the foal was born, the vet said, ‘This is the healthiest foal on the farm.’”

The yearling is bred similarly to Pioneerof the Nile’s 2015 Triple Crown hero American Pharoah, whose damsire is a son of Storm Cat.