By CLIVE CARNIE

By CLIVE CARNIE

Democrat Staff Writer

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — The well-bred boys had to take a back seat to the good-looking girls at the Spa this year.

Fillies with good conformation and almost any type of breeding attracted the buyers at Fasig-Tipton’s most popular summer sale. Well-bred, goodlooking colts still sold well, but they couldn’t match the good-looking fillies.

“There’s always been a strong market for fillies,” said Tyson Gilpin, a bloodstock agent from Boyce and a member of the Fasig-Tipton Company’s board of directors. “People think of fillies for their residual value for the future. If a colt breaks down or doesn’t do well at the track, you’re nowhere, but with a filly you can still breed her.”

Bringing the top price at the August 6 to 8 sale, and setting a new Saratoga record, was an attractive chesnut filly by Alydar. This sire appears to be making up for his 1978 Triple Crown defeats by Affirmed by far outperforming the latter horse in the breeding shed. Among his winning progeny have been 1983’s top 2-year-old fillies, Althea and Miss Oceana. The record-selling Saratoga filly, who is out of Irish Castle, is a full sister to stakes winner Saratoga Six who was undefeated in four starts as a 2-year-old.

Also encouraging, after many years of sales dominated by foreign buyers, was the fact that the toppriced yearling was bought by an American. Texas oilman Mike Rutherford bought the filly from St. Louis realtor, Joseph Morrissey.

Perhaps more important than a record-priced filly though, was the fact that the sale was able to raise its overall average 3.82 percent from last year. This is all the more remarkable because only five of the 196 yearlings sold brought more than $1 million. Last year seven yearlings sold here for more than $1 million, including two colts for $4 million or more and a filly for $2.5 million.