New York-Bred Yearling Sale Debuts New Format

Like other large operations that sell Thoroughbreds, South Point Sales Agency offers consignments in many different markets, targeting yearlings for what it hopes is the proper venue to capitalize on each individual's value.

That is why South Point has added the Fasig-Tipton New York-Bred Yearling Sale, which takes place this year Aug. 11-12 at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., to its list of venues.

This year's auction will be conducted under a new format, beginning Sunday with a 7:00 p.m. EDT start and continuing at noon Monday. Previously, the sale was held on Saturday and Sunday evenings.

The New York incentive program is the most lucrative in the country, and this year some $60 million in awards will be given to breeders, owners, and stallion owners of New York-breds. Under the program, horses qualify if they were produced from mares that were based in New York for a required residency period after being bred, regardless of state in which the stallion to which the mare was bred stood. There are also additional owner and breeder awards for horses sired by stallions based in the Empire State.

After a Maclean's Music  colt and Cairo Prince  filly were withdrawn, as of the morning of Aug. 10 South Point's flight consisted of 17 yearlings, representing a diverse group of new and established sires, including some based in Kentucky and others standing in New York.

"This is the biggest group I've brought up here," said South Point's Mike Recio. "The market keeps getting better and better for these New York-breds. The averages keep climbing and they have New York-sired races for a half-million dollars this year. It's incredible."

Recio said another desirable feature of the New York-Bred Sale is that it is at a location convenient to a large number of East Coast and Mid-Atlantic trainers and end-users, rather than being so reliant upon pinhookers to sustain the numbers.

"Because this market has become so incredible for New York-breds, a lot of local owners are buying these horses and pushing pinhookers harder," Recio said. "I've noticed fewer and fewer New York-breds going to 2-year-old sales, because end-users are holding on to them. But if you do go to a 2-year-old sale with a New York-bred, it makes it more competitive where some of those buyers have a great appetite for New York-breds. I'm excited. They've put together a great catalog."

Fasig-Tipton has cataloged 332 entries, only slightly above the 327 cataloged in 2018. As of Aug. 10, 45 yearlings had been withdrawn.

Statistics recently released by BloodHorse MarketWatch rank the New York-Bred Yearling Sale highly among all major North American yearling sales in several categories. The sale is currently among North America's top-ranked yearling sales by percentage of stakes winners sold, average earnings per starter, and percentage of winners sold with earnings of more than $150,000, and percentage of graded stakes winners sold.

Indicative of the success New York-breds have had when competing against the highest levels of competition in North America are Diversify and Fourstar Crook, winners of last year's Whitney Stakes (G1) and Flower Bowl Stakes (G1T), respectively, and among five New York-bred sale graduates on the catalog cover.

Among the leading North American sires represented in the catalog are Quality Road  and Uncle Mo , along with established New York-based stallions Freud , Bellamy Road , and Big Brown . The lone yearling by Triple Crown winner American Pharoah  entered in the sale has been withdrawn. Young New York-based sires that are off to a fast start at stud with yearlings cataloged include Central Banker  and Mission Impazible . Effinex, the late grade 1 winner who stood in New York, is represented by his first and only crop of yearlings, with additional first-crop sires including graded stakes winners Laoban  and War Dancer .

Fasig-Tipton has set the bar high for this year's sale, as it is coming off a stellar auction in which a Pioneerof the Nile colt sold for a record $600,000. Last year, 172 yearlings grossed $18,492,000, an average price of $107,512, and a $76,000 median, all records for the sale.

Those reflect consistent growth since 2010 when 94 horses averaged $39,106 on gross receipts of $3,676,000.

Given last year's success and overall growth in the New York-bred market in recent years, Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. said he envisions a 2019 edition on a par with 2018.

"There are a lot of folks who are recognizing the benefit of breeding and racing New York-breds, and the rewards program is unquestionably the best in the U.S.," Browning said. "I think stability this year would be a good thing, considering the dramatic growth of the sale in terms of number of horses and average in the past few years."

Browning said pushing the sale's start back by a day came as a result of feedback from buyers and sellers that more time was needed to inspect the sale's entries, especially since both sessions began not long after the day's racing program at nearby Saratoga Race Course, which is dark on Monday, when the second session will be held this year.

"With a lot going on, including the races, the sale has reached a level of importance that buyers and sellers felt they needed more time to look," Browning said.