The Fasig-Tipton Texas sale of 2-year-olds in training, scheduled for April 1 at Lone Star Park in Texas, has a higher quality catalog than it did a year ago, according to Fasig-Tipton Texas’ director of sales, Tim Boyce.
“I think the horses coming in her are a little bit better caliber this year,” he said. “I know people like (consignor) Robert Brewer have said, ‘I’m bringing my best ones here.’ I’ve been looking at some of the individuals on the track and there are a lot of beautiful-looking horses out there. I don’t know that we’ll have the $270,000 horse, but we could. There are some Valid Expectationsthat look good, and the Early Flyers look really nice. I’ve had lot of people tell me that the catalog is much better this year.”
The makeup of the catalog, which lists 303 horses, also has changed somewhat.
“We have quite a few horses by freshmen sires, which is unusual,” Boyce said. “Normally, we have horses by older, proven sires that might be considered past their prime down in Kentucky and yet down here, there still is a good market for them. But I think the buyers are becoming more in tune to the younger blood, and these horses (by first crop) sires are coming in to fill that need. We have horses by young sires like Sarava and Birdstone .”
The auction starts at 10 a.m. (CDT).
“The standard of pedigrees is much higher than in the early days of this sale,” said Terence Collier, Fasig-Tipton’s director of marketing. “It’s improved by leaps and bounds. Given that and given the fact that we have a good showcase in which to put them in front of the buyers, our expectations are that this will be a solid sale. We’re bringing a lot of (offspring by) top Kentucky sires into Texas, and they truly do stand out here.”
Last year, the Fasig-Tipton sale suffered significant downturns in its gross revenue, average price, and median price. Compared to 2006, the average fell 23.1% and the median dropped 33.3%. The gross declined 27.1%.
“Texas could be classified as cutting back quite a bit, but the Southwest, on a whole, is getting much stronger,” said Boyce of the general health of the Thoroughbred industry. “There are new farms and new breeding opportunities starting up in Louisiana and Oklahoma. There’s new interest from national owners who are moving into the Southwest because of all the money they’re giving away in Louisiana and Oklahoma and New Mexico. It’s three or four times what it used to be, so the industry seems to be getting healthier and healthier. Some people like Bret Calhoun and the Asmussen family still have a lot of horses in their stables in Texas. It should be a pretty good season for racing, so I’m hoping that translates into a need for horses at our 2-year-old sale.”