Smaller Consignments Bolster Fasig-Tipton Yearling Sale

Sitting outside Barn 1 at Fasig-Tipton's sale grounds, Laura Haag had little trouble keeping up with the volume at the Endeavor Farm's consignment to The July Sale, the selected summer yearling sale that will take place July 10.

"It is not as stressful," Haag said of the one-horse entry Endeavor has in the sale. "You only have to worry about getting the one horse ready and out to show."

Established five years ago after Terry Nickell and Mark Tsagalakis purchased the former Richland Hills Farm near Midway, Ky., Endeavor has only recently expanded into the selling side of the business.

"We are a boutique kind of farm, and we went through our horses at the beginning of the sale prep season and we had one that we thought was a standout," said Haag, Endeavor's sales coordinator. "We just wanted to start out small and get our feet wet."

From the first crop sired by the Airdrie Stud stallion Summer Front , the colt consigned by Endeavor as Hip 143 is out of the winning Congaree  mare Anabranch, a half sister to Yamil Junior, a champion miler in Peru. The April 30, 2017, foal was bred in Kentucky by Endeavor and CJ Thoroughbreds.

"He is a really correct individual," Haag said, adding there had been considerable interest from buyers. "He vets really well and is a great-looking colt. He was born April 30, but he is a very mature horse."

While the larger consignments garner more traffic from buyers due to the ability to see more horses in one location, smaller consignments provide a strong supporting cast at yearling sales.

Also located in Barn 1 is the two-horse consignment from Hurstland Farm, and consignor Alfred Nuckols Jr. was also moderately busy on a pleasant Sunday morning.

Nuckols said the pair he brought to Fasig-Tipton were chosen because they had solid physical presence, and he thought they would be standouts in the sale for which 347 yearlings are cataloged.

"You try to get something that is early maturing that is a standout here," Nuckols said. "Later in the year, there will be a bunch of horses in the other sales, and they get lost in the shuffle."

Hurstland's consignment consists of a Shanghai Bobby  filly cataloged as Hip 181 and a Declaration of War  colt that is Hip 257.

The filly bred in Kentucky by Hurstland and Kevin McLaughlin was produced from the Empire Maker mare Conquesta, who posted two wins and earned $82,432 and was recently represented by her first winner when Giovanna Ponti broke her maiden. Turn to Lass, the filly's second dam, is a stakes-winning sister to multiple grade 3 winner Spotsgone and stakes winner Launch a Double and is the dam of grade 1-placed Portfolio Manager.

Bred by Hurstland and James H. Greene Jr., the Declaration of War colt is the second foal out of $242,089-earner Heart of Destiny, a runner-up in the Darley Alcibiades Stakes (G1). The colt's female family includes Central Bank Ashland Stakes (G1) winner Rosalind.

"This sale is a good sale," Nuckols said. "If you can hit the average or close to it, that's what you're here for. You're also trying to get a start and see what the market is like."