Last Stop for Yearlings: Fasig-Tipton October Sale Starts Monday

LEXINGTON, KY – The Fasig-Tipton October Yearlings Sale, which has produced back-to-back record-setting renewals, returns Monday morning with the first of 1,605 catalogued yearlings scheduled to go through the ring at Newtown Paddocks at 10 a.m.

As shoppers made the rounds at the sales grounds on a brisk fall morning the Bluegrass Sunday, consignors were expecting to see some familiar trends during the upcoming four-session auction.

“It's going to be interesting to see where the level of quality is here,” said Legacy Bloodstock's Tommy Eastham. “I think [the market] is going to be really good for the horses that are perceived to be above that level and I think it's going to be more of the same for the horses that they perceive to be below that. I think it's going to be tougher on those horses.”

Despite the expected polarization of the market, consignors were pleased with the activity they were seeing around the sales barns.

“It's very refreshing to come into the parking lot early in the day and have it full up from all the way back here in the tents to the front fields,” said Stuart Morris. “I think the traffic, to me, seems to be on par. I'm not going to say it's extra, but it's definitely not weak. All of the faces that you usually see are here.”

For the second year in a row, the October sale set highwater marks for gross, average and median in 2022 with total of 1,100 yearling selling for $55,426,500, an average of $50,388 and a median of $25,000.

“Over the last couple of years, this has become a really strong sale,” said Hanzly Albina of Blake-Albina Thoroughbred Services. “It used to definitely be a lower-end horse and now there are 1600 horses here. I think there are people who are pointing horses here who need a little more time and they are more comfortable waiting to sell their horses here because they know there will be money here for them, versus having to put horses in sales they feel they aren't ready for.”

Albina said his 23-horse consignment at the October sale included yearlings who had RNA'd at previous sales, as well as horses pointed specifically to the last yearling sale of the year.

“We have horses in here that have big pedigrees that we wanted to give more time to and we were comfortable waiting until October,” he explained.

The consignment includes a colt by Curlin (hip 691) out of Kateri (Indian Charlie) and a filly by Tapit out of My Bellamy (Bellamy Road) (hip 948) who were both catalogued for the Keeneland September Yearling sale, while a colt by Into Mischief out of Indy Punch (Pulling Punches) (hip 651) will be making his first sales appearance.

“She was offered at Keeneland in Book, but I think she got overlooked,” Albina said of the Tapit filly. “The Curlin was offered in September and I think he needed more time, too, but the Into Mischief we waited on him to mature a little more.”

Eastham said the October sale is a natural place to sell yearlings.

“It's a nice sale to prep a horse for,” he said. “They naturally mature into it. You don't have to push them as much. They keep them outside longer and put a little less pressure on them.

I think you see some of these upper-end buyers that were really active in earlier sales start holding some cash for this sale. Because a lot of good horses come out of this sale.”

Morris agreed the October's impressive list of graduates has attracted buyers' attention, but he also thinks the auction is helped by its position as the final yearlings sale of the season.

“I think a lot of buyers come here because it's the last stop,” Morris said. “So as sellers, we are a little more cautious–what might be considered realistic–and buyers are a little aggressive because they have to fill orders. I think that helps this sale just because of the calendar time that it's the last stop of the year. There are 1,600 head here and a bunch of stakes horses come out of this sale every year, so if you have a big budget of $500,000 or $600,000, you can find horses here for that money. If you've got $50,000 or $10,000 or $5,000, you can find horses. So I think that creates a big buyer base.”

Eastham observed that buyers have been particularly hard on vet issues at the earlier yearling auctions this fall, but he is hopeful the last auction of the season might have them reevaluating that position.

“At Keeneland [the buyers] were strict on vetting,” he said. “A chip that would normally cost you 20% was costing you 70%. Hopefully they will be a little more forgiving on some small, minor vetting issues because we are getting to the end of the year and we can get those horses sold.”

The October sale will be held Monday through Thursday with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m.

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Daughter of Bolt d’Oro Tops Day 1 at OBS October Yearling Sale

Coming late in the proceedings, Hip 353, a daughter of Bolt d'Oro, realized the top price of $135,000 during the opening session of the OBS October Yearling Sale in Ocala Tuesday. Offered by agent Richard Kent's Kaizen Sales, the half-sister to recently stakes placed Yatta (Yoshida {Jpn}) is out of Final Reward (Arch), a half-sister to MSW Leadem in Ken (Sky Mesa), SW Prissy (Unbridled's Song) and GSP Hint of Roses (Tapit). The filly was purchased by de Meric Sales, who also led the session as its leading buyer.

An Apr. 9 foal, the Kentucky-bred filly is a great granddaughter of Kitten's First (Learn Fan), dam of champion turf horse and leading sire Kitten's Joy, Grade I winner Precious Kitten and SW Justenuffheart, most notably the dam of champion juvenile filly Dreaming of Anna.

Heading the colts Tuesday were a pair of yearlings who realized co-session leading $100,000 final bids. First through the ring was Hip 193, by Omaha Beach, and later in the session, Hip 279, who is by Gormley, also hit the six-figure mark. The top three yearlings of the session were by Spendthrift stallions.

Consigned by agent Stuart Morris, Hip 193, a Florida-bred son of Courageous Cajun (Treasure Beach {GB}), was secured by Brown Water Stables. The Feb. 22 foal's dam is a half-sister to Sws Cajun Delta Dawn (Kantharos) and Mom'z Laugh (Leroidesanimaux {Brz}). Selling later Tuesday, Hip 279 is out of 10-year-old Garnet (Smart Strike), a granddaughter of dual Grade I winner and millionaire Dream Supreme, who in turn is responsible for GI Hopeful scorer Majestic Warrior. Sold by Summerfield (Francis & Barbara Vanlangendonck, agent for Spendthrift Farm, the colt was purchased by Shepherd Equine Advisors, Agent for Larry Hirsch.

For the session, 175 horses sold for a total of $3,308,500. The average price was $18,906 while the median was $12,000. The buyback percentage was 41.5%. Leading all consignors during the first session, Beth Bayer sold 17 head for a total of $374,700, highlighted by Hip 157, a colt by Volatile who realized $75,000.

The sale continues Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. Hip 401 – 739 plus supplements 740 to 755 will be offered for sale. The sale will be streamed live via the OBS website as well as the TDN.

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Prelude to Breeding Season, Fasig-Tipton Winter Mixed Sale Opens Monday

LEXINGTON, KY – With just weeks to the opening of the 2023 breeding season, the Fasig-Tipton Winter Mixed Sale begins its two-day run Monday at Newtown Paddocks with an eclectic offering of broodmares, broodmare and racing prospects and short yearlings. The auction attracted 465 entries to its main catalogue and, with the addition of supplemental entries, now features 594 catalogued offerings. Bidding begins Monday at 10 a.m.

Jill Gordon and Jacob West's Highgate Sales consignment made its debut at last year's Winter Mixed Sale and made an immediate impact when selling the broodmare prospect Brilliant Cut (Speightstown) for a sale-topping $750,000 to Katsumi Yoshida.

Highgate returns for its second February sale with a consignment of 10 head.

“This sale got us off to a really good start last year,” Gordon said on a windswept Sunday morning in Lexington. “We are definitely glad to be back.”

Activity at the Highgate sales barn, and throughout Newtown Paddocks, has been steady over the lst two days, according to Gordon.

“The traffic has been steady throughout the barns,” Gordon said. “We haven't been overrun, but we have kept busy enough throughout the day today as well as yesterday. We hope to see some more activity for the remainder of the day today and into tomorrow.”

The consignment has a hard act to follow from its 2022 debut. In addition to the sale-topper, Highgate sported a perfect strike rate at Fasig-Tipton last February.

“We have a good group of horses,” Gordon said of the 2023 offerings. “We have got horses with current race form and some stakes-placed fillies. And some mares in foal to fashionable covering sires and a nice weanling from the first crop by Game Winner. So we are hopeful that we will have another good February sale. We were 10 for 10 last year and hopefully we can replicate that this year.”

Morris Back in Action

After missing the first two auctions of the new year while at home recovering from a stroke he suffered in December, Stuart Morris was back at the helm of his consignment at Fasig-Tipton Sunday. Morris will offer 17 horses over the next two days in Lexington, including the broodmare Brooke and Emory (Speightstown), a half-sister to promising sophomore and 'TDN Rising Star' Faustin (Curlin). The 6-year-old mare's Twirling Candy colt, foaled Feb. 3, will sell alongside his dam.

“I feel like the interest and the buyer base is very typical for this sale,” Morris said. “It's very strong, with a deep buying base from all levels. All of our babies and mares have been well-received, it appears. So I feel like this sale will be consistent and strong like it always is. It's always been an honest market here at Fasig in February. And I don't anticipate any slack coming. I've always felt like this market is very honest and fair and you get what your horse is worth and, if you get lucky, you get a little extra. But I've never brought a horse out here and thought I sold it short. I think that's going to carry on. All of the usual suspects are here and a few others that usually aren't are in the room. It certainly feels like, for us, here in this shedrow, that it will carry on like it's been at the previous sales in the last two years or so.”

Morris agreed the February sale's status as the last stop, not just ahead of the breeding season, but also before the yearling sales, helps build business.

“I think for young mares and maiden mares, it creates a fervor for them,” Morris said of the auction's place on the calendar. “If guys are trying to cover a season that they have to cover or if 'I need mares for a stallion I stand at my farm,' or 'I can buy one and not have to feed it for another three months' because we start breeding and foaling next month, instead of buying in November and having to feed it until it foals. For young mares and broodmares it creates extra demand because of the timing of it. It's the last stop to buy those.”

Morris continued, “It's also the last stop for yearlings. So if you have an order to fill for pinhooking or racing and you need to buy horses in that market, it's obviously our last chance to do it. So I think both sides of that market are bolstered somewhat by the timing of the sale.”

Despite not being able to travel to Florida for the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Winter Mixed Sale at the end of January, Morris's consignment sent out the auction's top-priced lot, a short yearling colt by Tapit who sold for $225,000.

Asked if it was hard to watch the result from afar, Morris said, “It was and it wasn't. I missed it because I missed seeing all of my friends and being in Ocala and being in the market. I just enjoy being at a horse sale. It was hard not to be there and celebrate with the longtime clients and friends who owned that horse. They've been supporters of me for my whole career–since I was 15 years old. So I missed it for that reason, the more personal aspect of it. Professionally, I never had any doubts that my staff would do a phenomenal job and those horses would be very well cared for and very well presented. So it was more on a personal level that I missed being there.”

Morris said he is still trying to take it a bit easy at his first sale back in action.

“It feels very good to be back,” he said. “I made a goal for myself with my kids on Dec. 28 to be here for this market. So to make that goal feels very rewarding. I am managing my energy level and my time out here. I still have to take care of myself–I am still going to physical therapy and doing all of that stuff, but it's very great being back out here and seeing all my friends and peers. Being back out at a horse sale and smelling horses and being back at it again is very nice.”

Paddy Campion Makes Consigning Debut

The Fasig-Tipton Winter Mixed Sale marks the debut of Paddy Campion's Dundrum Sales. The 25-year-old will offer three horses during Tuesday's second session of the February auction.

“I have been working for Paramount forever and ever, since I was a kid,” Campion said. “Some people approached me that wanted to sell their horses and I thought, why not do it myself. I am glad I did. It's been very fun so far.”

Campion was definitely born into the horse business. His parents, Lesley and Ted, operate Dundrum Farm in Versailles, while Lesley is the longtime accounts manager at Paramount Sales.

“The sales are my main thing,” Campion said. “I've always loved the sales. I've worked on farms. I've never worked racing, but I've always loved the sales. To have my own consignment is kind of special.”

Campion is pleased with how his three-horse consignment has been received so far at the sales grounds.

“I've been very happy,” he confirmed. “The yearling has been out a bunch of times. A bunch of people have come to see the two broodmares and everyone has been giving me pats on the back. We will see come the sale day. Hopefully it all comes together.”

Asked what he has learned from his parents that he will take into his consignor debut, Campion said, “I've pretty much learned everything from Lesley, my mom. She's a huge hustler and she is always trying to find little things about the broodmares. She tries to find sneaky little facts that people might not know and just mention them to people in the hope that people find them interesting and they stay on people's lists.”

And what nugget has he found for the three horses in his first consignment?

“Topanga Canyon (Lord Nelson) has nine sisters under 10 years of age and her mother is still having babies,” Campion said with a smile. “So the page is only going to get better.”

Looking ahead, Campion said, “The plan is probably to see how this sale goes and see if I can maybe round up some for October, I'm thinking.”

Campion looks to be remaining cool and composed ahead of the Winter Mixed sale.

“I don't feel too much pressure, it's kind of small at the moment, so it's ok,” he said. “Come sales day, we might be talking a different story.”

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Tapit Colt on Top at OBS Winter Mixed Sale

A colt by Tapit (hip 42) attracted the highest bid of $225,000 during Tuesday's open session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Winter Mixed and Horses of Racing Age Sale when New York conditioner Dave Cannizzo outlasted trainer Mark Casse for the short yearling, who was consigned by Stuart Morris.

“He's the only horse I bid on today,” Cannizzo said Tuesday afternoon. “He was a standout. It's what we came here to do and we did it. We got in a little dogfight with Mark Casse, but we won the battle. We were well within ourselves at the $225,000 and we didn't mind giving it.”

Cannizzo purchased the yearling's half-brother by Uncle Mo for $230,000 at last year's Keeneland September sale and came to Ocala specifically to add another member of the family.

“Obviously, Tapit brings a ton of interest to the table,” Cannizzo said of the yearling's appeal. “We purchased his now 2-year-old brother at Keeneland September and we really like him, so it pushed us in the right direction. He was a standout at the sale today. We knew we had to get him.”

Cannizzo said he purchased both brothers for the same client.

“[The yearling] will probably end up in the Saratoga sale or back at Keeneland September and we will go from there,” Cannizzo said. “I'm not sure about the other one–it's all up in the air. I bought them for a client who does some pinhooking and he races, too. We will see how it all unfolds and how it turns out.”

The yearling, who was bred by Aaron Sones, is out of Heat Street (Street Cry {Ire}), an unraced half-sister to multiple stakes winner Dash of Humor (Distorted Humor). The mare is also the dam of stakes-placed Miss Boom Boom (Run Away and Hide).

Tuesday's return to the sales ring was a quick turnaround for the colt, who was purchased for $70,000 at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale just over two months ago.

“He was purchased by a partnership of Ocala horsemen who purchased him to resell,” Morris said of the colt. “He was maybe in an awkward stage, maybe a bit immature in November, but he was heading in the right direction. He was a lovely colt who vetted well and looks like he'll make a nice racehorse.”

Morris said the market in Ocala–away from the pinhookers who were prevalent in Kentucky in November–may have helped produce the nifty profit Tuesday.

“I think he caught a good market with two end-users hooking up on him,” Morris said. “Mark Casse was the underbidder and he's always very aggressive down there buying horses for his racing program.”

During the consignor preferred session, 96 head sold for $2,601,700. The average was $27,101 and the median was $19,000.

At the close of business of last year's consignor preferred session, before the addition of post-sale transactions, 99 horses sold for a gross of $3,074,300. The average was $21,499 and the median was $10,000.

Hip 42 was one of two six-figure offerings during the consignor preferred section of Tuesday's sale. A colt from the first crop of Gunnevera (hip 29), consigned by Danielle Loya's Silver Oaks Farm, was purchased for $100,000 by Machmer Hall.

Riptide Rock (Point of Entry) (hip 342), part of a group of 11 supplemented horses owned by Stronach Stables and consigned by Richard Kent's Kaizen Sales, brought the highest price during the horses of racing age section of Tuesday's sale when bringing a final bid of $72,000 from Ocala horseman Randy Miles.

A 5-year-old gelding, Riptide Rock was second in the 2021 Queen's Plate and GIII Ontario Derby. He was seventh in the Nov. 6 GII Autumn S. in his most recent trip to the post for trainer Sid Attard.

The OBS Winter Mixed sale continues with an open session which begins Wednesday at noon.

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