The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale of 2-year-olds in training ended its two-day run May 19 in Timonium, Md., with downturns of 11.6% in average price and 10.7% in median price that weren’t nearly as severe as the setbacks experienced by many other juvenile auctions this year. In addition, the buy-back rate declined significantly, from 34.1% in 2008 to 23.1%.
“It was fine,” said Fasig-Tipton chairman Walt Robertson. “We didn’t have the sparklers today that we had yesterday, but the market was real similar. The sky’s not falling; everything is good. I don’t know a game out there that’s not down somewhere between 25% and 40%, so I’ll take 11% and 10%. The (drop in the) buy-back rate was huge.”
Fasig-Tipton officials reported that 247 horses were sold for a gross of $10,522,500. The average was $42,601, and the median was $25,000. Compared to 2008, the number sold fell 24.5% while the gross declined 33.2%. But the sharpness of those downturns wasn’t unexpected because Fasig-Tipton officials had cut the size of the Midlantic auction’s catalog from 650 horses in 2008 to 500 horses this year after deciding not to let the number exceed the sale facility’s capacity. In the past, tents had been erected to handle the overflow.
"Five hundred is a manageable number, and it worked,” Robertson said.
The sale got started with a bang May 18 when Tashop, a Tapit colt, brought $850,000 to establish a record for a horse sold in Maryland at public auction. In addition, a Yonaguska half-brother to Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) winner and Preakness Stakes (gr. I) runner-up Mine That Bird went for $485,000 during the opening session.
A Eurosilver colt topped the final day of selling with his $280,000 price. A member of his sire’s first crop, the dark bay or brown 2-year-old worked a quarter mile in :22. He is out of the 11-year-old unraced Not For Love mare Dolly by Golly and is a half-brother to the winners Buc the Spartan (by Mutakddim) and Ecton (by Ecton Park). Other family members include 1991 Preakness and Belmont Stakes (gr. I) winner Hansel and Canadian champions Cryptocloser and Ten Gold Pots.
New York-based bloodstock agent Steven W. Young purchased the Eurosilver colt, outlasting Kaleem Shah of Virginia in the bidding. Young said he bought the dark bay or brown juvenile for the same undisclosed client who will own Tashop. Both 2-year-olds will be trained by Kiaran McLaughlin.
“He’s a straightforward, genuine horse that’s been good every time I’ve seen him,” said Young of the Eurosilver colt. “He’s a very good moving horse, and he should be a two-turn speed horse. I think he’s got anything you’d want when you’re looking at a horse.”
Florida pinhooker Eddie Woods consigned the colt to the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic auction for Joe and Winifred Greeley’s Sabine Stable. Sabine acquired the colt for $60,000 from Denali Stud, agent, at the 2008 Fasig-Tipton July select yearling sale. He was scheduled to be offered at this year’s Fasig-Tipton Florida select sale of 2-year-olds in training at Calder Race Course, but had to be scratched because “all the stars didn’t align,” Woods said. “He had a couple of little things wrong, and you can’t go to Calder just OK. You’ve got to go there great, and he just wasn’t great.
The delay “probably did work in our favor,” Woods said, “because he matured out beautifully and he looked wonderful here. He trained very, very well for this sale. He’s a gorgeous mover, and he’s so easy on the eye. The whole world was on him, and he sold very well considering he didn’t have a stellar pedigree. But he’s by a nice, young stallion that’s proven to be really popular, so the buyers got on him.”
Young had watched the colt train in Florida before he had been scratched from the Fasig-Tipton select sale.
“I wouldn’t say that he’s changed a lot, but he was good then and he was good here,” the bloodstock agent said.
The results for the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic auction’s final session included a gross of $4,850,600 for the 127 horses that sold. The average was $38,194, and the median was $25,000. The buy-back rate was 23.5%.
