Fifty Shades of Grey and the Saratoga Sale
Reporting on Fasig-Tipton's biggest night—from the couch.
I made it four years—actually, more than four years—without getting Covid. I was beginning to think I was some kind of superhuman when, bam. Sore throat. Fever. Chills. And on the eve of the most fun four days of the year, no less.
Not only was it Whitney weekend, but Monday and Tuesday were the annual Saratoga Sale, which sees hundreds (thousands?) of spectators descend on Fasig-Tipton for the two-night horse auction. Bobby Flay was even there on Monday night. And I was on the sidelines.
Luckily, over the course of the last two-and-a-half years writing for SLAH, I’ve been inadvertently training my roommate and go-to plus-one, Maddy Halverson, in the fine art of party reporting. When she offered to take some photos and chat with the masses on the second night of the Sale for me, I made her a SLAH starter pack—a small notebook with some standard-issue conversation starters, business cards with our Substack URL, and two Miller Lites.
“This evening is mildly resembling the opening scene of Fifty Shades of Grey,” Maddy said before heading out. “The reporter friend is stuck at home sick and the girl goes to interview a rich person and ends up marrying him.”
When Maddy headed off to Fasig-Tipton, which is known for its high concentration of rich people, I switched on Netflix to find out what the heck she was talking about. Indeed, in Fifty Shades, journalism major Kate falls ill and off-handedly tasks her unprepared and quite frankly uninterested English lit major roommate Anastasia with an extremely important interview for the school newspaper. Unsurprisingly, Anastasia bombs the interview with the eponymous Christian Grey, but does—two movies and innumerable sex scenes later—end up marrying the guy.
Did Maddy do a better job than Anastasia as a substitute journalist? Was this year’s Saratoga Sale even fun without me there? And, most importantly, did Maddy find her own Christian Grey? Read on for party pics, vibe checks and to find out.
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