Fasig-Tipton's Welker Discusses Upcoming Auctions

Officials at Fasig-Tipton are confident next month's Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale will be able to proceed on the scheduled dates of June 29-30 at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium.

The auction will consist of horses that had been initially targeted for The Gulfstream Sale, Fasig-Tipton's selected 2-year-olds in training sale that was cancelled in March, and horses that would have been entered for the Midlantic sale that was previously scheduled for May 18-19. Cancellation of The Gulfstream Sale and rescheduling the Midlantic auction were both due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bayne Welker, Fasig-Tipton executive vice president, said in an interview posted on YouTube May 11 that company officials believe restrictions in Maryland related to the novel coronavirus will be lifted in time for the sale to take place, with certain protocols in place to protect sale participants.

YOUTUBE VIDEO: Bayne Welker and Donnie Snellings

"We are encouraged we are going to be able to hold that sale on the stated date at the end of June," Welker said in the interview with Donnie Snellings, the Denali Stud president who is president of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers Club. "We are in constant contact with The Stronach Group, with their protocols they are putting in place (for Maryland racing), and we are in constant contact with the board of directors with the Maryland State Fairgrounds.

"We have very reasonable expectations moving forward, working through the Department of Agriculture and Fairgrounds, that by the end of June things should be opened up and moving freely enough that we are going to be able to conduct business and have a 2-year-old sale. We feel reasonably confident at this time that is going to happen."

Welker said Fasig-Tipton will also have new protocols in effect for the Selected Yearlings Showcase that Fasig-Tipton has scheduled for Sept. 9-10 at its Lexington headquarters that is taking place of The July Sale, The Saratoga Sale, and the New York-Bred Select Yearling Sale.

The sale's placement on the calendar comes during the week between the rescheduled Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) and the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

"The world has changed a lot in the last two months and will continue to do so as we move forward," Welker said. "What that will look like by September, we're just going to have to wait and see. There are certainly going to be social distancing measures that are put in place. You will try to minimize the amount of personal contact that you have.

"We are going to do everything we possibly can, both on the grounds and internally ourselves, to mitigate the amount people that come in contact with each other," he continued. "It will probably involve some grouping on the grounds to try to limit the amount of cross exposure. We are retrofitting bathrooms as we speak to minimize having to touch handles, paper dispensers, and those things like that."

Welker noted Fasig-Tipton has worked with Keeneland to coordinate the September sales, including a schedule that would not necessitate non-Kentucky buyers and sellers to have to come to the state more than once. 

"That is why we scheduled the sales close together, so people can stay in the state of Kentucky during the month of September," Welker said. "Buyers and consignors can utilize this as one whole event."

With a June 15 deadline for entries to the Selected Yearling Showcase, Welker said the precise makeup of the sale would be known later but the focus will be on individuals that are good physicals.

"We don't have a predetermined number of horses that we have to have in the sale," Welker said. "We've made our mark being a physical, select sale and we're going to stick to that model because that model is what's worked for us. We'll take the top one-half to top one-third of horses that would have worked in July, we'll take the top one-half to top one-third of horses that would have worked in the New York-bred sale, and then we figured the horses that would have been nominated and selected to Saratoga would be able to stand on their own anywhere in any horse sale.

"The one segment that will be a little bit different is that because the New York breeders will have pretty much lost their home base, we will have a segment of that sale that will be a grouping where all the New York-breds will be able to sell. We don't know how that will fall. Al of of that will depend on the number of horses we get in the sale and how it's broken up over the two-day period as to where that grouping will be cataloged."

With the KTFMC monthly meetings on hiatus due to COVID-19, Snellings said the video was part of an effort to keep members informed on current events and would continue if there was sufficient interest.