Danato Lanni stood in the back stable yard of Taylor Made's Fasig-Tipton consignment and did what everyone else in Saratoga had been doing in the days leading up to the sale of selected yearlings: he stared at a horse. She was hip number 88, a long, lean, tall, strong daughter of Medaglia D'Oro. The one to watch. Classy. The buzz horse. The one everyone wanted to buy. Lanni was no exception. "She was the best filly in the sale, probably the best horse in the sale," he said. "She was gonna cost whatever." A bloodstock agent whose job it is to select top runners for high-rolling owners, Lanni knows good horseflesh when he sees it. But he also knows when his hands are tied, as they were Aug. 10 when Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum decided he also liked the filly. And wanted to buy her. "They were gonna buy her," Lanni said. "So, you know, where were we left off, $1.3 million, $1.4 million, we were there. But at a sale like this when people are bidding at that level, it's not about how much. Our program is to buy the best yearling out there and she was out there and we swung hard and we try to compete at the highest level. But it didn't matter what she cost, they were gonna buy her." The filly Lanni coveted went to the ruler of Dubai for $1.5 million, pocket change compared to the $2.8 million he spent the next day for one of the last Storm Cat yearlings available. The underbidder on that colt was Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, who knew he was beat when he figured out his competition. "I felt I was (bidding against Sheikh Mohammed's team) because of the way they bid and the way it came back so strong, there wasn't any hesitation," Lukas said. "So we sat here and said, 'That's gotta be where it's coming from.' Frankly, I got a little sick to my stomach." It's a disappointing feeling for a bidder, to look at a horse and sense greatness slipping through your fingers. But there's always the next prospect, the next potential runner. "You have a drink and forget about her," Lanni joked. "But when they look like that, you've gotta try hard, because not too many of them look like that."