Yearling Season Finale at Fasig-Tipton October

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LEXINGTON, KY–The yearling sales circuit makes its final stop in Lexington this week for the four-day Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearlings sale, with sessions to be held Monday through Thursday starting at 10:00 a.m.

The October sale has become more of a destination for both buyers and sellers in recent years, and this is the third straight year that it will be held over four days, having previously featured three sessions. The catalogue of 1590 head is the most in the auction's history, and there is plenty of pedigree and sire power on offer, including nine sons or daughters of both Tapit and Medaglia d'Oro, six by Curlin and four by War Front. There are also still many opportunities for buyers to acquire youngsters by this year's stellar group of freshman sires, including American Pharoah (12), Constitution (19) and Liam's Map (10).

“This sale has really become a stopping point for a lot of people,” said Fasig-Tipton Executive Vice President Bayne Welker. “Instead of a sale by default, now it's circled on peoples' calendars from both the buying and selling sides. One of the dumbest things and smartest things we did about 10 years ago was cancel the sale [for 2009]. We were met with considerable push back from our sellers, and we said, 'If you want to continue this sale, bring us a little better product.' That message was received, and they have brought better product every year. I think buyers see it as good product, and horses have gone on–pinhookers have made money out of this sale and graded stakes winners have come out of this sale. With that, each year, it's gotten better and better.”

Last year's sale, with 963 sold from a catalogue of 1500, grossed $34,260,100 at an average price of $35,576 and median of $15,000. The RNA rate was 22.7%. Stats for 2018 were more or less in line with a record-setting 2017 renewal, with a slight decline in average but increase in median.

The 2018 topper was a $500,000 Street Sense colt purchased by agent Donato Lanni from the Eaton Sales draft. Other graduates from last year's sale include British Idiom (Flashback), just a $40,000 buy who went two-for-two in the GI Darley Alcibiades S. earlier this month for Michael Dubb, The Elkstone Group, Madaket Stables and Bethlehem Stables and trainer Brad Cox.

Previous October graduates to enjoy success on the track in 2019 include GI Awesome Again S. stealer Mongolian Groom (Hightail, $11,000 in 2016) and GI Sword Dancer S. hero Annals of Time (Temple City, $80,000 in 2014).

“I think this is one of the strongest catalogues we've ever put together,” Welker said. “There are a lot of people now who use this sale as a destination–not as a fallback. So, if they have a horse who was born in late April or May, and they know that they've got a nice horse who will benefit from the time, they'll circle that date and give the horse every opportunity to mature and be their best when they put them on the market. That's certainly paid dividends for a lot of people who have utilized it.”

Marc McLean of Crestwood Farm, which has 16 offerings catalogued, says he expects an active, and prepared, buying bench: “There are a lot of horses out there, and these guys are ramping up. The people I've talked to are coming up with five or six people so they can get through everything, and they're going to find the good ones for sure. I think it should be pretty solid. It's always a good sale.”

Market polarization has been the overarching trend for a number of years, and Small Batch Sales's Fletcher Mauk says he's hoping for more competition in the middle market.

“What I'd like to see at this sale, that I don't think we saw in September at Keeneland, is a strong middle market,” Mauk said. “When you're selling horses that are valued between maybe $35,000 and $80,000, you only have one potential buyer for every horse–you don't have multiple buyers. I'd love to see three or four people on horses in that range. If you have a $100,000 horse it's going to bring $150,000, $170,000, $180,000 because there's just so much competition at the higher end of the middle market. But when you're in the true middle market, I think there's a real vacuum for competition. So, if there's more competition at this sale, it'll be a good sale and a positive indicator for the industry. So many of those horses turn out to be nice racehorses and are realistically affordable. When people can go out and buy four or five horses in that price range, they have a real opportunity to have fun, win races and possibly even walk away with a profit.”

Visit www.fasigtipton.com for more information.

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