The last chance to buy a mare at public auction in Lexington ahead of the 2016 breeding season has come and gone. Fasig-Tipton concluded its two-day Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale on Feb. 9 with declines in economic indicators and fewer horses cataloged compared with last year’s auction.
A total of 341 horses sold for $8,260,600, a 21.8 percent drop in receipts compared with last year’s $10,560,700 total for 406 horses. This year’s average price was $24,225, a 6.9 percent decrease from 2015, and the median declined 20.8 percent to $9,500. After a slow start during Monday’s opening session, which saw drops across the board, Tuesday’s sales recovered somewhat, demonstrating increases in average and median.
The percentage of horses not meeting their reserves also increased year-over-year, from 17.6 percent to 22 percent.
Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning reiterated the trend that has held true in recent years — high quality horses sell easily; horses found wanting in pedigree, resume or physical makeup struggle.
The Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale included horses of all ages, including broodmares, broodmare prospects and just-turned yearlings. A handful of broodmares with early due dates went through the ring with their 2016 foals already at their sides. Since a buyer is purchasing a mare’s foal (whether born or unborn) in addition to the mare with their bid, foals are required to appear in the auction ring during the sale of their dam. Sale consignors are careful to blanket foals if needed and to provide them their own handler to help them navigate the sale ring (handlers may carry especially young foals). Generally, both mare and foal handle the experience without any apparent distress.
Browning attributed the difference in the two days’ sessions year to year to the construction of the sales catalog. Organizers at major auction houses order the cataloged horses by their registered names or their dam’s names. They pick a letter at random to start the catalog and the horses are numbered alphabetically from there. Sales with select sessions will have horses alphabetized within quality groups, but the winter mixed auction was open with no select session, so the quality of horses was fairly random.
“The horses were twice as good [on Tuesday],” said Browning. “It’s a matter of, in a mixed sale and an open sale like this, they fall where they might.”
One pattern Browning identified was a preference among buyers for mares carrying foals of the recently deceased sire Scat Daddy. Maggie d’Oro, a daughter of Medaglia d’Oro, brought $210,000 from Green Lantern Sales for consignor Select Sales. Funfair, a daughter of More Than Ready, brought the second-highest price of the day at $350,000 for consignor Darby Dan Farm, courtesy of buyer Olin Gentry. Both mares are carrying Scat Daddy foals. Scat Daddy collapsed suddenly at the end of 2015 and died at Coolmore Stud near Lexington. The 11-year-old was just a few years into his stud career but had already sired grade 1 winners No Nay Never, Lady of Shamrock, Nickname and others. The death of any promising young sire leaves breeders and analysts wondering what could have been and may also have the effect of increasing the value of their remaining progeny.
“Losing Scat Daddy was a real loss to the North American breeding industry,” said Browning. “He was a stallion who provided great versatility on dirt and grass, appealed to Americans and Europeans, and was a stallion who was coming into his own. That was a real significant and painful loss, considering his youth and the potential that he had.”
The breeding sheds in central Kentucky will officially open next week, from here the national auction calendar moves toward 2-year-olds in training through the spring, followed by horses of racing age and yearlings in the summer and fall. The next central Kentucky public auction of Thoroughbreds will be the July Sale, held July 12 at Fasig-Tipton.