The July Sale Lays Foundation for Yearling Sale Season

It was a solid start to the yearling sale season July 9 at The July Sale, Fasig-Tipton's selected yearling sale in Lexington, Ky., as a $440,000 Flatter  colt led a competitive marketplace that appeared stable when compared with 2018.

From 364 horses cataloged, Fasig-Tipton reported 202 horses sold for gross sales of $18,621,000, down 5.8% from the $19,762,500 paid for 196 yearlings in 2018. The average price dipped 8.6% from $100,829 to $92,183, and the median remained unchanged at $75,000. The 98 horses that did not sell represented an RNA rate of 32.7%, compared with 30.5% a year ago.

"All in all it was about as expected; a very consistent marketplace when compared to 2018," said Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. "I think it was a healthy market. There is not irrational exuberance, unfortunately. It was a fair and balanced marketplace."

Browning said the decline in average was not significant enough for concern, noting that such a fluctuation either up or down could have been impacted by a few large purchases.

"It could have been the absence of two expensive horses. The market was remarkably similar to 2018 levels," Browning said. "It is not an easy market, but it is not an impossible market. Buyers always want it easier and sellers want it better. That's human nature."

The sale has become a favorite for pinhookers—those speculators seeking to get a head start on the market buying young stock that they hope to improve on and resell as 2-year-olds next year—but Browning said the trade Tuesday was balanced.

"One of the things we battle is the image that it is a 'pinhooker's sale,'" the executive said. "I think we saw broad participation this year. I think one of the reasons there are successful graduates from this sale within the 2-year-old marketplace is that our emphasis is on early, precocious, athletic horses and those are the horses that exhibit the traits desirable at an early 2-year-old sale."

Tom VanMeter of VanMeter-Gentry Sales said the consignor's targeted horses for the sale that were foaled early in 2018 would be well-regarded by pinhookers looking for forward horses that will perform well during the spring juvenile sales next year.

"There are a few end users here but we're selling them to Florida pinhookers basically," VanMeter said. "And they all end up liking the same ones because they want the ones that can go fast for a furlong. You've got to bring a certain one—an early horse that appeals to those guys. It's a good sale for us, because we can raise some cash flow."

The sale topper, consigned as Hip 22 by Indian Creek, agent, was bought by the formidable partnership of Maverick Racing and China Horse Club.

Bred in Kentucky by Susan King, the colt is out of the multiple stakes-placed Cherokee Run mare Ruth and Neva, who was also bred and campaigned by King. His second dam, the Pleasant Tap mare Tap for Gold, produced grade 3 winner Sassy Sienna and two other stakes-placed runners.

"We thought he was the best horse here from a proven sire," said Elliott Walden of WinStar Farm, for which Maverick is the racing arm. "He was what we like as far as going forward with our racing program. I thought (the price) was right where we thought he'd be. That's where the market should be on a colt like that. He's a pretty obvious horse. I think he'd look good in the stud barn if he wins a grade 1."

Indian Creek's Shack Parrish said interest in the horse prior to Tuesday's sale was proportionate to his final sale price.

"I'd say we're happy," said Parrish. "There has been overwhelming (interest). We knew he was nice but in the last month and a half, once he got here and got into sale prep he really did well. We knew if the end users stayed in we could go there. If it was pinhookers it would be another number. The end users stayed in so we did well. The ex-owner is down at the barn hugging him. She (King) raises these wonderful horses."

As The July Sale's graduates have excelled on the track, interest in the sale has grown, with more and more buyers seeking to get an edge on a market the goes through October.

Buyer Ciaran Dunne of Wavertree Stables said regardless of placement on the calendar, The July Sale typified the recent market reality that there is stiff competition for the yearlings perceived to have the best future athletic ability.

"It doesn't matter where you buy them," Dunne said. "The good ones bring plenty. Everybody wants to go and look for the horse that falls through the cracks. In our world, the ones that fall through the cracks land right on top of you. You overpay for one that you really, really like and you go home and feel really bad about it, but you're probably going to be just fine because it's a good horse. If you go home and think, 'Man I stole that one,' the reason you stole it will show up on you when you're not looking."