SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Central Banker is continuing to ring up success this year as he looks to continue on to New York’s leading sire title. Central Banker, who stands at McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds, less than 20 minutes from Saratoga Race Course, recorded two stakes winners at the hometown track last Friday, with Bankit winning the $125,000 Evan Shipman Stakes and Bank On Anna winning the $125,000 Union Avenue Stakes. Later that night, Bankit was one of two statebred champions by his sire honored at the New York Thoroughbred Breeders Inc.’s annual awards ceremony. The champion older dirt male was joined by Bank Sting, who picked up awards as champion dirt female and female sprinter. On the heels of that success, Central Banker achieved a solid average and high clearance rate at the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred preferred yearling sale. “Central Banker is having a great year this year,” John McMahon said. “He has a lot of winners, and most recently has had [Bankit and Bank Sting] named champions, and having a great year thus far.” Central Banker, a Speightstown horse who emulated one of his sire’s wins by taking the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Stakes in 2014, retired to McMahon for the 2015 season. Now 12, Central Banker is the sire of 13 career stakes winners and is currently leading New York’s sire lists by a number of metrics more than halfway through this season. As of Aug. 14, he was atop the progeny earnings list with $3,115,181, maintaining a wide margin over War Dancer with $1,844,657. He also led Big Brown by individual winners, 48 to 30; and was the sire of a state-leading six individual black-type winners, while Freud has two. One of Central Banker’s most consistent black-type performers has been Bankit, who has ventured far beyond the state of his birth for Winchell Thoroughbreds and Willis Horton. The Evan Shipman was the sixth stakes win for the multiple graded stakes-placed millionaire, who has raced in seven states and Dubai. “We couldn’t be any more pleased to have him in the barn, that’s for sure,” said David Fiske, racing and bloodstock manager for Winchell Thoroughbreds. “And now he’s a statebred champion, so that’s even better. He’s just a professional racehorse. He goes out to the track, does his job, goes back to his stall, and goes to sleep, whether it’s going out in the morning or going out in the afternoon.” Central Banker was represented by seven yearlings through the ring at the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred sale on Sunday and Monday. Six of those sold, led by a $140,000 filly purchased under the name Saratoga Race. Overall, he averaged $68,500, against a conception stud fee of $7,500. McMahon also debuted a young New York sire at this statebred yearling sale in Solomini. The young stallion is by Curlin, whose line is white-hot at the moment. Curlin averaged a staggering $1,071,875 at last week’s Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale, and his sons at stud include Keen Ice, sire of Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike from his first crop; and Good Magic, recently the sire of Grade 2 Sorrento winner Vegas Magic in his first crop. Solomini, who also is from the female family of sires Midshipman and Frosted, recorded four Grade 1 placings during his racing career. Those included the 2017 CashCall Futurity, in which he crossed the line ahead of eventual Grade 1 winners McKinzie and Instilled Regard but was officially demoted to third for interference. “He’s off to a great start, with a great book of mares in the first couple years and lots of yearlings represented in this sale here in Saratoga,” McMahon said of Solomini. “Keen Ice is off to a great start as a son of Curlin. Solomini himself was a Grade 1-placed horse as a 2-year-old and was very precocious. His yearlings look very good.” Solomini stood for an advertised fee of $6,500 in his first season at McMahon, and covered an outstanding 123 mares, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred. From that first crop, he was represented by nine sold at Fasig-Tipton for a $50,000 average, led by an $82,000 colt purchased by August Dawn Farm. “He was a good horse – he was kind of one of those where he was always the groomsman, not quite the groom very often,” said Conrad Bandoroff of consignor Denali Stud. “But he was a very hard-knocking, sound horse. He always showed up and ran second and third to some really good horses. He’s by Curlin, it’s a good pedigree, and I think he suits this New York market well.”