LEXINGTON, KY – The Fasig-Tipton July Sale of Selected Yearlings will open the yearling sales season Tuesday in Lexington, with bidding slated to begin at Newtown Paddocks at 10 a.m. The 370 catalogued offerings kick off with a selection of 109 yearlings by first-crop sires.
Activity at the sales barns was brisk throughout the weekend and continued to be strong on a cloudless, sunny morning in Lexington Monday.
“We are into day three of showing,” said Kerry Cauthen outside of his Four Star Sales consignment barn. “The first two days were very strong. Early on Saturday, we were covered with all-lookers and yesterday it started to separate into, 'OK, these are the ones we like,' and still we had nothing but dead steady, all-day long, great traffic.”
Shoppers at the barns Monday included the major 2-year-old pinhookers–Paul Sharp, Eddie Woods, Dave Scanlon, Ciaran Dunne, Tom McCrocklin, Steve Venosa and Raul Reyes were seen making the rounds–interspersed with a mixture of end-users and agents such as trainer Ken McPeek–perenially very active at the summer auction–Steve Young, Marette Farrell, and Tom McGreevy.
“It's always been seen as a pinhookers sales, but we have had a lot of end-users–Kenny McPeek just came through here, Marette Farrell just came through here–so there are plenty of end users,” said Carrie Brogden of Machmer Hall Sales.
The Fasig-Tipton July sale has developed a strong roster of graduates, with the likes of Grade I winners Chocolate Gelato (Pratical Joke) and Faiza (Girvin) gracing this year's cover. Both of those 2021 graduates rewarded their buyers when selling for nifty profits at the 2-year-old sales last year before finding top-level success on the racetrack. The 2022 July sale also produced the $2.2-million son of Good Magic who topped this year's OBS April sale.
“This is a sale of physicals,” Brogden said. “People have been complaining about the pedigrees, but this is supposed to be a sale of physicals. We just try to bring the type that the more you look at them, the more you like them.”
Consignors are expecting to see familiar trends in the marketplace as the yearling sales season opens.
“I think we are going to continue to see the general trend that we've seen the last couple of years,” said Conrad Bandoroff of Denali Stud. “The top-quality offerings are going to bring as much or more, as they always do. Whether there is going to be any correction in the middle market, my crystal ball is not that good, but all I can say is we are showing these yearlings a lot. The feel and the appetite for horses seems good.”
Cauthen has similar expectations.
“As always, it will depend on the individuals that they are looking at,” he said. “I think for the good individuals, it will be a very good marketplace.”
Last year's July sale, topped by a $600,000 son of Curlin, saw 189 yearlings gross $21,763,500 for an average of $115,151 and a median of $90,000. It was the auction's co-highest median, second highest average, and its highest gross since 2008.
The yearling market only seemed to get hotter from there. But while bidding was fierce throughout the yearlings sales last summer and fall, consignors at the 2-year-old sales this spring found they were selling in what seemed to be a more cautious marketplace.
“When you talk about softness in the 2-year-old market, I think there are a whole lot of different variables that go into that–were they able to buy the same quality of product that they had in the past,” Cauthen said. “I think [a weaker 2-year-old market] is, of course, always a concern, but honestly I think, based on traffic, based on attitude, I think there is quite a bit of buyers' interest at this point.”
Brogden seemed to be thinking along the same lines when she reflected on the yearling market from a year ago and the resulting juvenile market this spring.
“My personal opinion as to why the 2-year-old sales were not as strong is because the yearling sales last year were insane,” Brogden said. “I felt like a lot of the 2-year-old consignors had to compromise or overpay for what they bought. In our own consignment, I felt like 2-year-old consignors, especially in the later books in [Keeneland] September, were buying horses that really weren't the type of physicals or vetting I would have thought that a 2-year-old consignor would take a risk on. But you have to have numbers. Just because the market is strong doesn't mean you don't need product. So people were buying.”
Brogden said she would encourage buyers to be ready to be quick out of the gates as the July sale opens Tuesday.
“Last year, I felt like as we rolled on through the sales that the yearling market got stronger and stronger,” she said. “I've tried to say to people for years, look hard and spend in July. People come to the July sale and say there are 4,000 more selling in the later sales. And I say, 'Yeah, but by the time you guys get to Book 3 September, you're going to be begging me to have horses that have these physicals that we are selling in the July sale.”
Despite any downturn in the 2-year-old market, pinhookers are always going to need yearlings this time of year, Bandoroff agreed.
“The nature of our business is, regardless of whether we had a good year or a bad year, we have to go back and reload and restock our inventory,” Bandoroff said. “The buyers may be being more careful, but when they see that horse that fits the mold of what they are looking for, I still think they are going to be trying to buy them.”
Looking out over a bevy of shoppers, Joe Seitz of Brookdale Sales said the yearling market was strong enough to survive a slight correction.
“A lot of those people [pinhookers] that you just mentioned are here, so that's a good sign,” Seitz said. “If people are being a little more conservative, that's OK. I still think it will be healthy. It's been really strong for a couple of years now, so even if it were to level a little bit, I think we will be fine.”
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