Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale Starts Monday

TIMONIUM, MD – The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Fall Yearlings Sale opens with an abbreviated session beginning Monday at 4 p.m. at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium. Monday's session of the two-day auction will include the first 150 yearlings in the catalogue and hips 151 through 435 will be offered during Tuesday's session, which begins at 10 a.m.
“Based on the traffic here on the grounds, I am feeling pretty positive,” Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Director of Sales Paget Bennett said Sunday morning. “With the results that have come out of this sale-pinhookers have done well out of here, the end-users have done well out of here–so they are all back to shop because they know they can get good horses out of there.”
The Fall Yearlings Sale comes a little over four months removed from a record-setting Midlantic May 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale which set new marks for gross, average, and sales price.
“A lot of the big scores in the May sale have been yearling grads here, so I think there are a lot of people who see that and make sure they come up here and check out this sale,” Bennett added.
Recent graduates of the Fall Yearlings sale include GI Belmont Derby winner Henley's Joy (Kitten's Joy), who sold for $20,000 in 2017, and Call Paul (Friesan Fire), who sold for $20,000 that same year and brought $210,000 at the following year's Midlantic May sale. The bay colt is now a two-time graded stakes winner.
Both Call Paul and his half-sister Pink Caddy (El Padrino), who sold for $40,000 at the Fall sale last year, were stakes winners at Delaware Park Saturday. Both were consigned by Marshall Silverman, whose 2019 consignment to the sale includes a half-brother to the pair by Bullsbay (hip 22).
“We've been getting hammered this morning and yesterday we were busy all day,” Silverman said between shows at his Barn J at the fairgrounds Sunday. “People are getting into town now and I'm sure Monday, with the sale starting at 4 p.m. and the guys coming down who are racing today, we'll really get hit tomorrow. Traffic has been good.”
Silverman, who will send some 60 yearlings through the ring during the next two days in Timonium, said he expects to see a continuation of the polarization which as been a staple of the marketplace in recent years.
“I think the bottom line is that people are going to be keying in on certain horses,” Silverman said. “A lot of horses who are bread-and-butter type horses are probably going to be bought reasonably and then I think the better horses will be really strong.”
Silverman added those bread-and-butter types were often worth a second look.
“We had horses last year that people weren't crazy about the vetting and now they are stakes horses,” Silverman said.
Two years ago, Silverman sold Gotta Be Strong (Strong Mandate) for $2,100 at the Midlantic Fall Sale. Now a stakes winner, the filly has earnings of $254,340.
“Gotta Be Strong was a big, racy-looking filly,” Silverman recalled. “But you pulled her out and people said, 'Thank you,' because she was back in her knees. And now she's won a stakes and made a couple hundred thousand. And she cost $2,200.”
One of the strengths of the 2018 Midlantic sale was a low 21% buy-back rate.
“We want to get horses changing hands and hopefully we'll be able to do that in the next couple of days,” Bennett said.
Silverman added, “You just hope they dig deep into their pockets. At this sale, you get a lot of people who buy horses behind the ring. That's where you really have to work sometimes. But they do buy them.”
During the 2018 Midlantic Fall sale, 338 yearlings sold for $7,318,700. The average was $21,653 and the median was $15,000. A filly by Into Mischief brought's the sale's highest price of $210,000.