Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sees Across-the-Board Gains

The 2017 edition of the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic fall yearling sale held Oct. 2-3 in Timonium, Md., saw increases in gross, average, and median prices compared to last year's one-day sale.

Overall, the two-day sale had 312 yearlings sell for gross receipts of $7,855,100, an increase of 22% from last year's total of $6,436,600. The average was $25,177 and the median was $14,000, up from last year's average of $24,017 and median of $10,000. The RNA rate was 29% with a total of 128 head not sold.

For Tuesday's session, Fasig-Tipton reported 231 head changed hands for a total of $5,745,900, an average of $24,874, and a $14,000 median. With 81 not sold, the RNA rate was 25.96%. There was no comparable session in 2016, when the sale was comprised of a single session.

"I think we had a good horse sale," Midlantic sales director Paget Bennett said. "We had a good crowd. People stayed until the end. People found horses they wanted. (With the) good ones, they battled on. They're going to good spots and hopefully we'll see them down the road.

"(The RNA rate has) been no different than what we've seen all year," she added. "It's been a selective market, unfortunately you'll see that at all the sales, and unfortunately you can't find spots for all of them."

With significantly more horses cataloged this year, 513 compared to 368 in 2016, the sale was split over two days. The first session at 4 p.m. Oct. 2 included Hips 1-150 and the Oct. 3 second session began at 10 a.m. with Hips 151-513. Bennett said she thought the format worked well and would like to see the Midlantic fall sale extend into two full-day sessions in the future. 

"We've been trying to get to two days and we're trying to get our numbers up," she said. "We didn't quite get to two full days, but hopefully we can grow on this. 

"We'll get over 500 to start with next year before we do a supplement at the end. I think yesterday, easing into a short session, kind of just got everybody going and everybody was ready for today."

Hip 294, a colt from the first crop of Airdrie Stud's Cairo Prince , brought the sale's highest price when he sold for $300,000 to Eisaman Equine. Consigned by Becky Davis as agent, the colt named World Affairs is out of the Curlin  mare Current Event. 

Eisaman Equine was the leading buyer for the sale with 16 yearlings purchased for a total of $1,123,000. In addition to the sale topper, Eisaman purchased a Tale of the Cat  filly for $150,000 and a Quality Road  filly for $100,000. 

Dr. Barry Eisaman said while he found Keeneland's marathon September sale a difficult arena to make a purchase, he thought the Midlantic auction was a good place to find a standout.

"(Keeneland) September was very, very hard to buy horses at. Right to the end it was very hard," he said. "There are some nice horses here. When you sift through them, there are some usable horses here, and we've been fortunate enough to get a few."

For a second year in a row, the sale topper was consigned by Becky Davis.

"For me, (this sale) has been good," Davis said. "I've gotten everything sold pretty much where I thought they'd be. This one (Hip 294), (brought) quite a bit in excess of what I thought he was going to bring."

Marshall Silverman was the sale's leading consignor with 33 selling for a total $815,600. Silverman sold a filly by Will Take Charge , Hip 173, to Madison River Thoroughbreds for $150,000 and a Shanghai Bobby  colt, Hip 437, to Charles Zachney for $135,000 to top his sales.