Fasig-Tipton officials reported Aug. 11 that there were no positives for exogenous anabolic steroids among horses sold during the company’s Saratoga select yearling auction that were tested at the request of their buyers. Thirty (24.6%) of the 122 yearlings that were sold Aug. 4 and 5 in New York were tested.
Fasig-Tipton began offering the steroid testing option for sale yearlings at the company’s Kentucky July select auction in Lexington. Twenty-two (7.2%) of the 305 yearlings sold during that auction were tested, and there were no positives.
"There are two points that I find interesting about this," said Boyd Browning, the chief operating officer and executive vice president of Fasig-Tipton. "One is that there was a reasonably high percentage of horses tested (for the Saratoga sale), which shows that buyers are interested in it. And two, there have been no positives during the first two sales (in which Fasig-Tipton has offered the opportunity to test). I view both as positive developments."