After launching their digital platform last week, Fasig-Tipton has added an April Digital Selected Sale set for Apr.21-26. Nominations will close Apr. 14, although the company will still accept approved selected nominations after that date.
“We were very pleased with the debut of our digital platform earlier this week,” said Leif Aaron, Fasig-Tipton's Director of Digital Sales. “We received positive feedback from both buyers and sellers about both the platform and quality of offerings.  They conveyed to us their desire to see more Fasig Digital auctions in the near term, which was highly encouraging. We also received a number of helpful suggestions on how to improve the platform, adjustments that will be implemented for this upcoming April auction.”
Fasig-Tipton's March Digital Selected Sale concluded this past Tuesday with 10 offerings sold for a gross of $856,000, an average price of $85,600 and a median price of $55,000. The sale was topped by a stallion share in European champion Almansor (Fr), which sold for $250,000 to Riviera Equine SARL/Haras d'Etreham.
Aaron took some time to talk to the TDN about what went right and what they learned from their March 22 Selected Digital Auction.
“Overall, the first sale was a success,” he said. “We had users from all over the globe looking at the horses online. We had a substantial number of registered bidders who were serious buyers. They were looking at every level and type of horse. It was interesting to me that the most affordable horse on the site had the most bids, which shows me that there is a real hunger for ready-to-run racehorses as well as other segments of the market.”
The short timeframe to assemble the catalogue proved to be the biggest obstacle, he said. “I think the timing of the sale was always going to be the biggest hurdle for Fasig-Tipton to overcome. We announced we were having our first sale Feb. 28, and we had a little over one week to gather the catalogue. The quality of the catalogue that was put together showed the strength of the Fasig-Tipton team as a whole. We had a marketing campaign that made everyone aware what was happening and we were able to facilitate a really healthy digital auction for our sellers and our buyers. To me, it showed a real desire for owners to be able to buy and sell when the time was right. As Kiki Courtelis of Town and Country Farm said about the digital auction, `The best time to sell is when someone wants to buy.'”
And what did they learn, he was asked?
“We had a lot of input from buyers, sellers, consignors and veterinarians,” Aaron replied. “We are currently making those changes to cater to the entirety of our core customer base. Digital.fasigtipton.com is a place for them and we have to make sure that they are comfortable on our platform. The longer this goes on, the more comfortable people will be with it. I look in the TDN today and see that a major stud farm in Australia, Arrowfield is having a broodmare reduction on a digital platform in Australia. There is no reason that sort of thing can't be done here. As I said when we released the platform, this is the place for people with ideas and I want to encourage that entrepreneurial spirit. We are going to stick to our plan of recruiting quality horses that all segments of the market will want.”
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