F-T Midlantic Sale Starts Monday

The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale begins its two-day run Monday morning at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium, with the first horse scheduled to go through the sales ring at 11 a.m.
A day after a record-setting renewal of the GI Preakness S. and roughly 10 miles north of Pimlico, activity was brisk at the sales barns on an overcast Sunday morning.
“I think it's going to be a great sale,” consignor Randy Miles smiled from just outside his Barn E. “We've been very busy. The horses have been shopped hard. Up here in this sort of regional market, a lot of those guys will come out on Sunday and Monday and do a lot of looking. So we've been busy up to this point and I expect it will get even busier.”
Among the trainers shopping on the grounds Sunday were Preakness participants Mark Casse and Steve Asmussen, as well as John Servis, Linda Gaudet, Rick Violette, Simon Callaghan, Linda Rice, Mike Maker, Keith Desormeaux and Pat McBurney.
Mike Ryan, who co-bred this year's GI Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming (Bodemeister) and purchased Saturday's Preakness winner Cloud Computing (Maclean's Music) as a yearling, was also busy looking at horses Sunday morning, as were bloodstock agents Donato Lanni, David Ingordo, Dennis O'Neill, Ben McElroy, Charlie Boden, Patrick Lawley-Wakelin, Alistair Roden, Jane Buchanan, Marett Farrell and Kim Valerio.
Owner Kaleem Shah was at the barns, as were West Point Thoroughbred's Terry Finley, WinStar Farm's Elliott Walden, Spendthrift's Ned Toffey, Three Chimneys' Jacob West and Gainesway's Michael Hernon.
The Midlantic sale is popular with consignors, thanks in large part to its placement, both geographically and on the calendar.
“We're always excited about coming here,” said Al Pike, who sold last year's $1-million sales-topping Uncle Mo filly. “This is our go-to sale. We try to bring what we consider to be our best horses here. It's late in the year and you don't have to rush your horses. If you have some uh-oh moments, you have time to get over it. It just works out. It's a great time to have a sale with the Preakness going on and everybody is in town. It's makes for a good atmosphere to sell horses.”
David Scanlon consigned last year's second-highest priced offering, an $825,000 son of Friesan Fire. Now named Army Mule, the youngster was tabbed a 'TDN Rising Star' after his 8 1/2-length debut romp at Belmont Apr. 30.
“This has always been a favorite spot of ours,” Scanlon admitted Sunday. “We've done well here in the past; we sold Afleet Alex here and the colt last year. Every year, it's been a pretty consistent place for us to come and get horses sold. There is always good trade going on here and horses get moved. Because of the proximity to a lot of the racetracks, you get a lot more trainers here. The traffic is good because there is a lot of racing in the area.”
A steady supply of successful graduates has only heightened the sales reputation and attracted a stronger-pedigreed catalogue. GII Rebel S. winner and 'TDN Rising Star' Malagacy (Shackleford) is a 2016 graduate of the Midlantic sale, having sold for $190,000 to bloodstock agent Steve Young from the De Meric Sales consignment.
“This sale has grown and a lot of good horses have come out of it, so it gets shopped harder by the top-end guys,” Miles said. “So we've started to bring better horses here.”
This year's Midlantic sale follows on the heels of a very successful OBS April Sale and consignors hope to see a continuation of increased competition for middle-market horses.
“I pray it's as good as April because April was as good a sale as there has been for years and years,” Clovis Crane said. “Let's hope it carries over.”
Wavertree Stables' Ciaran Dunne admitted, “[OBS] April was surprisingly good. It was surprisingly good in that $50,000-$100,000 range, which none of us really expected. So hopefully that will continue here. [The Midlantic sale] has historically been a good sale. For the top horses, there is plenty of money here. The East Coast trainers support it well, so you hope to get horses sold at every level. Which is what we need. Clearance is what it's all about, especially at this stage of the game.”
The Midlantic catalogue originally numbered 575 head, but 117 had already been scratched from the auction by Sunday afternoon.
“We're very excited by the horses we have in the catalogue,” said Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sales Director Paget Bennett. “Obviously, we wish we didn't have so many outs, but it's just part of the 2-year-old market–you look at any 2-year-old sale and you'll see lots of outs. But this sale has become so popular and it's great the consignors feel confident bringing these horses here.”
During last year's two-day sale, 337 juveniles grossed $23,136,400. The average, which was a sales record $88,859 in 2015, was $68,654 in 2016 and the median was $32,000.
The Midlantic sale will be held Monday and Tuesday with sessions beginning daily at 11 a.m.