Fasig-Tipton Photos
A rare all-white Thoroughbred sired by Get Stormy, seen here with owner Denise Purvis and daughter Madison, was the talk of the October Fasig-Tipton yearling sale.
The yearling sales season concluded on Oct. 26 on a high note as Fasig-Tipton wrapped its October Sale with record gross receipts and average price.
A total of 981 horses sold for $35,812,900 (up 39 percent from last year’s gross receipts), making for an average price of $36,507 (up 10 percent over last year). The median fell 17 percent from last year to $12,000. Those figures included 51 horses sold privately after running through the ring without meeting their reserve prices.
Overall, 22.5 percent of horses offered for sale did not meet their reserve — an improvement over 25 percent last year.
Courtesy Fasig-Tipton
Boyd Browning
Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning told media after the session he believes the improved figures were not the result of buyers’ agents filling their orders later in the year, but rather an expression of better quality among the sires of the yearlings on offer. Horses by Medaglia d’Oro, Curlin, and Into Mischief (all of whom are rated 11th or better on the national rankings of sires by progeny earnings) dominated the sale’s top prices.
“There was a significant shift in buyer confidence in this sale, and that shift in confidence is the result of an improved quality of product being presented by consignors and owners to this sale,” said Browning.
The October sale is timed late enough in the calendar year to allow slower-growing or smaller yearlings to mature more than what they could for the select sales in August or early September, giving buyers a more favorable impression of their physique. It doesn’t typically see million-dollar sires like Tapit or War Front, but there was still significant buying power at the upper end of the October market, with more than 100 yearlings going or $100,000 or more.
Although the October Sale is typically more mid-range in its prices than Fasig’s August selected yearling sale, its strong finish likely bodes well for the upcoming winter sales, which are dominated by broodmares and breeding prospects. Browning noted that the 2-year-old sales conducted in Florida at the start of the calendar year were also strong, and that momentum carried through to the yearlings.
Courtesy Fasig-Tipton
Hip 736, out of Broadway Gold, was the most expensive horse of the sale at $700,000.
The most expensive horse in the sale was a $700,000 colt by Medaglia D’Oro out of Seeking the Gold daughter Broadway Gold. The colt, a full brother to graded stakes horse Golden Lad, was consigned by Baccari Bloodstock of Lexington and purchased by top trainer Mark Casse, who bases at Churchill Downs for part of the year.
The most popular horse with the media however, was certainly a $21,000 yearling by Get Stormy, who is one of few truly white Thoroughbreds. Although many light-colored horses may appear to be white, most are technically gray, as indicated by dark gray skin around their eyes and muzzles; many also have gray in their manes and tails. Truly white horses are also distinct from albinos, which are missing pigmentation in their skin. It’s thought that white horses are not the simple result of a single recessive gene, but carry one or more of about 20 different genetic mutations that can result in a purely white coat, or one that is mottled with another color, like brown. Only a handful of Thoroughbreds have ever been registered with The Jockey Club as white, and some of those have predominantly white coats that are mottled. The yearling at this year’s sale didn’t have a speck of colored hair or dirt on his coat. Only eight white Thoroughbreds have come to public auction since 2002, according to the Daily Racing Form’s Joe Nevills.
Courtesy Fasig-Tipton
Hip 31
With the conclusion of the October Sale, Fasig-Tipton will turn its attention to the breeding stock sales season. The company launches its one-day November Sale at 4 p.m. Nov. 6, and on the following day, Keeneland begins its November Breeding Stock Sale, which runs through Nov. 18. Racing fans will likely have the chance to spot Breeders’ Cup runners at both sales, and fans of the great race filly Songbird can watch her go through the ring at Fasig-Tipton’s November auction.
Natalie Voss is an Eclipse Award-winning writer and features editor for the Paulick Report, an independent horse racing news and business publication. Voss is a five-time nominee for the Stanley Bergstein Writing Award for investigative reporting. Her coverage of the equine industry has appeared in Business Lexington, the Chronicle of the Horse, The Horse magazine, The Blood-Horse, and Acreage Life, among others