Interest Level High for Fasig-Tipton Sale

As horse owners, agents, and trainers went about the business of inspecting horses on the Fasig-Tipton sales grounds Oct. 22, there were indications that the yearling auction season could end on a solid note with the sale’s company’s October sale.

The Oct. 24-26 auction, with daily sessions beginning at 10 a.m. EDT, brings down the curtain on the yearling sales that have resulted in slight declines in cumulative average and median prices, indicators of a stable marketplace. More than 1,250 yearlings are on offer at Fasig-Tipton, down 15.4% from the 1,485 cataloged a year ago.

“There is more interest in this sale than we have seen in the past,” Fasig-Tipton president and chief executive officer Boyd Browning Jr. said as he milled about the sales grounds, basing his assessment on pre-sale credit requests and overall inquiries with sale personnel. “People are still looking for horses to buy.”

With the recent hot and dry weather giving way to more seasonable temperatures in the mid-40s, following some much-needed rain, it was a cool start to the day Saturday, as buyers and sellers wanted to get their sales work out of the way before going cross-town to Keeneland for the afternoon races.

Browning said the October sale has continued to grow into a venue in which buyers, especially trainers and pinhookers buying to resell their purchases as 2-year-olds, have confidence in the caliber of horses on offer.

“People want to be associated with success, both at the sales and on the track,” Browning said. “Fortunately, the October sale yearlings have been performing well on the track.”

According to Fasig-Tipton, horses sold in October have won or placed in more than 190 stakes in 2016. Among the 12 October sale alumni that have won stakes since Sept. 1 are grade II winners Irish Jasper, Free Rose, and Calgary Cat, and grade III victors La Coronel and Caren.

While some of the October sale entrants have been specifically pointed to that auction by their connections, other yearlings in the sale were scheduled to go in other venues, but for one reason or another got bumped back to the end of the season, and some went through the ring at other sales but went unsold.

The highest-priced RNA yearling in the sale is a Tapit   colt bought back for $500,000 when offered at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select yearling sale. Consigned by South Point Sales as Hip 942, the chestnut colt was produced from the grade III-winning Cherokee Run mare Cherokee Queen, an 11-race winner who earned $628,312 and is the dam of stakes-placed Entertainer.

“It was a head-scratcher why he didn’t sell at Saratoga,” said South Point’s Mike Recio. “He was shown over and over. But I think he will stack up well and be in the upper-crust here. He catalogs well and his physical is going to carry him to the top. The owner is a commercial breeder and the horse is here to sell.”

Recio is also expecting a solid sale, buoyed by the activity Saturday at his consignment, which is housed in the temporary tents erected by Fasig-Tipton since the number of yearlings in the sale exceeds the sales company's barn capacity.

“I think it is going to be very similar to the (Keeneland) September sale (average decreased 4.7% from and the median fell 20%,” Recio said. “A lot of pinhookers didn’t get their orders filled in other sales. I think there is going to be a lot of value, especially in the $20,000-40,000 (range) where a lot of horses will fall through the cracks.”

Browning doesn’t anticipate much change in the October sale from trends seen in other sales earlier this year, in which there was stiff competition for the horses perceived to be of better quality and a steep fall at the bottom.

“They (buyers) will be selective and that will be across the board,” he said.