Breeding Stock Season Winds Down at F-T Winter Sale

A standout catalog full of options for every buyer comprises the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale, offering one last opportunity for buyers to add breeding stock to their herd for the spring season. The two-day sale begins Tuesday, Feb. 8 at the Newtown Paddocks in Lexington with 608 horses cataloged. The sale was pushed back one day after Kentucky recently experienced winter weather that covered the Bluegrass in ice.

The Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale will close out the breeding stock sale season before auction houses gear up for the juvenile and yearling sales this coming spring and summer.

"It's a mixed sale—we have something for everybody and probably the best group of short yearlings we have ever had for this sale, in terms of quality and pedigree," Fasig-Tipton's president and CEO Boyd Browning Jr. said.

"It's always a good sale, a great time of the year to buy horses who have had updates to the page. There is a fair amount of nice foals in the sale, a few bargains usually, and some racing or broodmare prospects that bring decent money," consignor and buyer Nicky Drion said. "I am just selling this sale, I was able to fill my quota at the January and November sales, but I have bought here in the past."

Baldwin Bloodstock's Amy Bunt specifically consigns to this sale, based on the market seen from previous sales. This year she brought 19 horses that will go through the ring, including short yearlings, broodmares, broodmare prospects, and racing or broodmare prospects.

"The reason I target this sale is it's smaller and every single horse gets looked at. Sometimes at the larger sales, horses can fall through the cracks. With there not being as many horses to look at in this sale, I feel like people can do their homework," Bunt commented. "And it's the last sale of the year to buy short yearlings for pinhooking. In my experience, people get desperate when they haven't gotten their orders filled every year that the market is strong, people get pushed back a little further. When you have a nice physical, they tend to bring a premium at this sale."

"We have some nice, interesting mares in foal. Some significant updates have taken place and offer real potential for some of those mares," said Browning. "As usual, we have some interesting racing and broodmare prospects, some of which have racing ability left in them, along with some high profile broodmare prospects with live pedigrees. We literally have something for everyone, depending on what your wants and needs are at this time in the year."

This year an additional 108 supplemental entries were cataloged to the sale, headlined by Brilliant Cut, a 4-year-old daughter of Speightstown  . In her most recent start Dec. 26 at Santa Anita Park, Brilliant Cut was runner-up in the La Brea Stakes (G1). She is from the active family of Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes Presented by 1/ST BET (G1) winner Life Is Good . Highgate Sales consigns her as Hip 541.

Another filly with current form, Eloquent Speaker , by Flatter  , most recently ran second in the La Verdad Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack Jan. 2. She comes from the immediate family of sire and multiple grade 1 winner Behrens . Taylor Made Sales Agency consigns the 5-year-old as Hip 536.

"Simply stated, it's business. We live in a world where there is more emphasis on equity and transactional nature when you have a significant update to the pedigree or a change in circumstances and people decide they want to sell a horse," Browning commented. "We have done supplements for years for a large number of our sales, and we are fortunate this year we have several horses with exceptional quality in our supplement. It's an opportunity to promote commerce. It's all anyone in the auction world is trying to do. Giving people the opportunity to buy and sell horses, we are here to facilitate that."

On offer will be broodmares in foal to leading covering sires American Pharoah  , Constitution  , Flatter, Gun Runner  , and War Front  , as well as to sires whose first foals drop in 2022 such as Complexity  , Echo Town  , Fog of War  , Global Campaign  , Honest Mischief  , Honor A.P., Improbable  , Instagrand  , Maximum Security  , Shancelot  , Spun to Run  , Tiz the Law  , Tom's d'Etat  , Vekoma  , Volatile  , and War of Will  .

The 205 short yearlings in the catalog include Kentucky-breds as well as many offerings bred in regional states or provinces such as Indiana, Louisiana, New York, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.

After scratches, Nicky Drion Thoroughbreds has a draft of three horses. The consignment's lone short yearling is a filly by second-crop sire Mohaymen   consigned as Hip 227.

"The Moyhamen filly is a nice April foal. She vets clean. Her page is a little weak, but I think the sire is off to a good start," Drion said. "I like the filly for what she is and I think down the road the sire is going to have some success."

Bunt was high on three of Baldwin Bloodstock's short yearlings, which have been well-received over the two initial days of showing.

"Hip 2, by Karakontie  , is probably the best physical in the barn and I have heard from others on the grounds he's possibly one of the better ones in the sale, and he has a huge pedigree," Bunt commented. "Our Maximus Mischief   (Hip 86) out a Tiznow  mare is probably the most popular. She is classy, correct, and vets. She has leg, which a lot of the Into Mischief   lines lack. You want to add to that, and she's got that. It was a well-thought-out mating process that went correctly."

Wednesday, Bunt will sell a short yearling colt by Mitole  , whose first yearlings this year have averaged $60,222. In 2021, Mitole's first weanlings averaged $86,400.

"Our Mitole (Hip 267) is a super nice physical, and he's correct and vets. He's a great walker," Bunt said. "We targeted this sale with him because of how well they are being received at the previous sales."

Last year the two-day sale concluded with 425 horses changing hands for $12,506,700. An average price of $29,428 was achieved along with a median of $10,000. The RNA rate was 18.9%.

The broodmare Beloveda , by Ghostzapper  , topped the 2021 sale at $510,000. She was sold to Gainesway out of the Gainesway consignment in foal to Street Sense  .

The highest priced short yearling at this sale in 2021 was the Nyquist   colt out of the Invisible Ink mare Honey Chile. The colt sold for $170,000 to Machmer Hall out of Bill Reightler's consignment. 

Last year St Elias Stables purchased 15 horses for gross receipts of $1,725,000 to be the sale's leading buyer. The leading consignor was Taylor Made Sales Agency, which sold 24 of the 28 horses on offer from their draft for gross receipts of $1,681,700.

"The market is robust. We have seen it across the world, and fortunately, horses seem to be a very desirable asset," Browning commented. "The racing product is good. We see the handle up in most places. There is a lot of interest in our industry and the sales market has been good around the world. We have every expectation that the market we saw in 2021 will continue in 2022."

Hip 1-300 will sell Tuesday and Wednesday's session will start with Hip 301 and run through the end of the supplements. Both sessions start at 10:00 a.m. ET.

As of Monday afternoon, 108 horses have been withdrawn from the sale.