Fasig-Tipton Set to Close Out Yearling Sale Season

This week's Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearlings Sale  will—thankfully in the minds of most industry participants—bring down the curtain on a yearling sale season affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with sales canceled and decreased buyer participation.

According to Blood-Horse MarketWatch data, year-to-date comparisons of 2020 with 2019 show there have been three fewer yearling sales so far this year with 20, resulting in 6,207 foals of 2019 sold for gross receipts of $337,438,960, down 36.4% from the $531,031,336 aggregate a year ago for the same period when 8,242 yearlings changed hands. This year's cumulative average has declined 10.2% from $85,553 to $76,778, and the median is down 8.2% to $22,958 from $25,000 a year ago. The RNA rate is up to 27% from 24.7%.

Fasig-Tipton has cataloged 1,553 yearlings for the Oct. 26-29 sale in Lexington, with daily sessions beginning at 10 a.m. ET. Last year, from 1,590 cataloged, Fasig-Tipton reported 1,008 horses averaged $37,955 from gross receipts of $38,258,900, with a median price of $13,000. COVID-19 protocols, including temperature checks upon entering the sale grounds, masking, and social distancing, will be in effect during the sale.

Those involved in the sales arena said, all things considered, the 2020 yearling market has not been as bad as it could have been, with sales companies, breeders, consignors, and buyers hunkering down to adapt to the changing landscape brought on by the novel coronavirus.

In addition to the cancellation of three Fasig-Tipton sales—The July Sale, the Kentucky selected yearling sale; The Saratoga Sale, the selected yearling sale in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.; and the New York Bred Yearlings Sale also in Saratoga—that traditionally kick off the yearling sale season, the auctions that took place did so with reduced numbers of participants for the most part and health and safety protocols. Fasig-Tipton added a one-time Selected Yearlings Showcase to the calendar in September during the week following the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) to somewhat fill the void left by the canceled auctions.

"All things considered, it's been generally considered a successful yearling sales season in 2020 for the industry," Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. said. "There was legitimate fear and concern throughout the spring and summer about what we would be able to accomplish in terms of how we were going to be able to sell this crop. We all know it's an agricultural product that has a time and place where it needs to be sold.

"In the grand scheme of things, it's been a significant accomplishment that there has been a legitimate marketplace. It has certainly been different this year; there has been dramatically less international participation, which has impacted the sales, and there are folks domestically that have chosen not to be as active or not to attend the sales for whatever reason, whether it's economic uncertainty, whether it's health concerns, whether it's a combination thereof. Commerce has been conducted in a fairly systematic and rational process without a disastrous decline."

With buyers and sellers having traversed the changing yearling sales landscape, Browning is hopeful their participation level will continue through the end.

"The vast majority of buyers and sellers have worked to be accommodating and to recognize the industry needed cooperation and participation, and they've stepped up to the plate," Browning said. "We will be happy to close out the 2020 yearling sale season on hopefully as positive a note as possible."

Gracing the catalog cover are champion 2-year-old filly British Idiom and grade 1 winner Gretzky the Great, both of whom went through the October sale ring. Fasig-Tipton's sale marketing notes that the winners of 110 stakes (through Aug. 10) in 2019-20 were October sale graduates (either sold or bought back).

"I think it is the best catalog we've ever had," Browning said, noting that the offerings consist of yearlings pointed toward the season's final sale and some that were offered at other auctions this year. "This sale has gained in credibility and popularity in recent years. Consignors are much more comfortable bringing a horse here that might have needed a little more time from a maturity standpoint. There are some horses that have been through a sale previously. Depending upon where you fit in the marketplace, sometimes a change of scenery or competition may help you.

"The activity level on the sale grounds feels very similar to last year for this sale. Hopefully, we can come close to holding our own."

"It definitely could have been worse," said Mark Taylor, whose family's Taylor Made Sales Agency is the world's largest purveyor of yearlings at public auction, in assessing the market to date. "When we headed into the Fasig-Tipton September sale, I felt like the market was going to be down around a third. Internally, our numbers were a little better than that, with around a 25% decline in gross. It wasn't easy. It's tough times. A lot of our customers are hurting; they depend on a good yearling market to reinvest, go buy more mares in November, do matings, and pay for stud fees."

Except for the very top of the market, Taylor said he believes there will be solid future athletes on offer this week for a fraction of what they would be worth in a normal auction season as breeders try to recoup as much of their investments as possible before moving on to the mixed sales.

"I think there is going to be a lot of opportunity at this sale," Taylor said. "We've got some nice horses here that I honestly don't think are going to bring a lot of money. They could be very nice race prospects. We're at the end of the year as far as yearlings go, and a lot of money has already been taken out of the market. It always has been at this time of the year, but this year a little more so. The top 10% of the horses are going to do well, and once you get past that top 10%, there's going to be a buyers' market and a ton of opportunity.

"It's the old adage—you buy low and sell high. It takes some courage, but now is the time to buy."