Maryland Sale Strong Within Softer Overall 2YO Market

The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale was still a buyer's market, but the buyers worked a bit harder than they had to during the two previous juvenile sales in Ocala, Fla.

The average price for the top 10% of the horses sold in Maryland this week dropped 15% as compared with the average price of the top 10% sold at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale. Such a drop would otherwise be concerning but is actually relatively good news when compared with results for the North American 2-year-old market year to date.

One tool BloodHorse MarketWatch uses to monitor the auction markets is to calculate average price by decile. The results from the Ocala Breeders' Sales March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training and OBS Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training combined with the Midlantic sale results show the overall average for the top 10% is down 21% compared with 2019. So a 15% decline doesn't look so bad.

Consignor Kip Elser with Kirkwood Stables told BloodHorse's Meredith Daugherty after he sold a $325,000 American Pharoah  filly to Speedway Stable that the Midlantic sale had more of a middle market than previous sales this year. His observation was spot on, with the average price for the fourth through sixth deciles dropping between 1% and 6%. The average price for the fourth decile (horses that sold in the $50,000-$80,000 range) was essentially even with last year's sale, dropping a mere 1% to $66,200. None of the other deciles for this year's Midlantic sale alone produced declines higher than 20%, while only two deciles for all the 2-year-old sales so far combined produced an average that was under 20%.

The redistribution of select-caliber horses previously cataloged to The Gulfstream Sale, Fasig-Tipton's 2-year-olds in training sale that got canceled, continued to be a boon to other auctions. Six of the 23 horses previously entered in the Gulfstream sale and eventually sold at the Midlantic sale were among the top 10% by price. The top seller among the six was an Upstart  filly out of the Pure Prize mare Plum that Cary Frommer sold for $400,000 to agents Hanzly Albina and Nick Sallusto.

The 23 Gulfstream-cataloged horses sold at the Midlantic sale for an average of $133,304 compared with the sale's overall average of $77,797.

When the juvenile sales season concludes in Ocala during the OBS July 2-Year-Olds and Horses of Racing Age Sale July 14-16, this segment of the market will likely be down around 20%. The deciles for all sales year to date are down 15-24%, and the base prices for each decile are following the same trend, with declines of 18-29%.