This year’s Fasig-Tipton’s October Yearlings Sale was bigger than ever, but that didn’t slow down trade. The auction house catalogued 1,598 horses this year and sold 1,007 for an average price of $37,874—a new record. Gross sales were $38,138,900, up 11 percent. The median of $13,000 was down slightly, while the percentage of horses attaining their reserve remained relatively steady.
Fasig-Tipton Photos
Hip 62, 2019 Fasig-Tipton October Sale
Among the top prices was a familiar name for many in the Lexington area. Tied for the third highest price of the sale was a filly consigned by Woods Edge Farm’s Peter O’Callaghan by Runhappy out of Queens Plaza. She raised $400,000 from buyer Speedway Stables.
Runhappy came from relative obscurity four years ago when he rattled off six wins in a row, including the Grade 1 King’s Bishop, G3 Phoenix and G1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint. The Breeders’ Cup win, which came on the undercard of American Pharoah’s Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland, was the first Breeders’ Cup for his connections.
Owner James McIngvale purchased the bay colt for $200,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale in 2013. For McIngvale, Runhappy’s success was the perfect advertisement for his racing philosophy. McIngvale, who is better known as the owner of Gallery Furniture in Houston, first got involved in racing ownership in the early 2000s. At some point, his concerns about legal and illegal drugs in horse racing became a major part of his stable management. In 2015, McIngvale joined the Water Hay Oats Alliance, publicly declaring his opposition to the use of furosemide, a legal race-day medication.
Furosemide use has been a hot topic in the racing world for many years now. The drug is intended to prevent exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH), a phenomenon where intense exercise can case blood vessels in the lungs to burst, causing bleeding in the airway. In extreme cases, EIPH can hamper a horse’s athletic performance by restricting breathing. In more minor cases, bleeding may be so mild that it’s difficult to detect in diagnostic tests. Furosemide has been shown in many studies to be effective at controlling EIPH, but it produces its effects primarily through temporary dehydration, which opponents worry could cause discomfort to horses in the last few hours before a race. Some have also voiced concerns that it could act as a masking agent for other drugs, but this has not been proven in a peer-reviewed study.
The majority of horses racing in this country receive furosemide several hours before their race, and this is noted in programs and racing charts.
Members of the Water Hay Oats Alliance, which includes owners, trainers, breeders and retired jockeys, believe furosemide should be prohibited on race day. (It’s currently the only medication permitted to be given on race day in most states.) Those in the anti-furosemide camp worry about the optics of giving horses a breathing medication on race day. Those who advocate its use believe that not giving the drug to horses who need it would be withholding a necessary treatment, and would therefore border on abuse. Some have also expressed a concern that certain horses do get performance-enhancing benefits from furosemide and they may struggle to compete without it.
For McIngvale and others who think like him, showing that a horse can run at the highest levels of the sport unencumbered despite being without furosemide was a huge win. Runhappy was given the Eclipse Award for Champion Sprinter in 2015, and his “drug-free” status has been a central part of McIngvale’s promotion of the horse as a sire.
“The horse with the best talent should win, not the horse with the best pharmacy,” McIngvale said in October 2015, when he announced his opposition to medications. “The 21st Century is all about being 'organic, transparent, genuine, authentic and real.' Let's apply these words to horse racing in the United States and take our game into the 21st Century.”
Runhappy has been at stud for three seasons now, which means his first crop of foals are yearlings of 2019. McIngvale has made sure the horse’s name is everywhere—on race sponsorships, race meet sponsorships, charity events—for much of that time, making sure the horse remains on the minds of breeders as they consider where to send their mares.
So far, the sales market has given the “drug-free” stallion a warm reception. The average price for his yearlings so far in 2019 is $223,758, while last year’s weanlings averaged $148,667 – both a vast improvement on his $25,000 stud fee. It’s hard to say though how many buyers are seeking out his offspring because of his clean image, and how many just think his sons and daughters are well-built. The next two years will prove crucial as his first two crops of runners hit the track. It remains to be seen how many of them will end up with owners and trainers who also stick to McIngvale’s medication-free philosophy.
The next public Thoroughbred auction in Central Kentucky will be the Fasig-Tipton’s November Sale, which will take place Nov. 5.