F-T July Yearling Sale Tuesday

The Fasig-Tipton July Selected Yearlings Sale, the first yearling sale of the season, will be held Tuesday in Lexington, with bidding slated to begin at Newtown Paddocks at 10 a.m.

“I think there is great interest and enthusiasm as we head into the yearling sales,” said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning, Jr. “We saw an overall strong marketplace throughout the 2-year-old sales. The general economy continues to be pretty strong. There seems to be good interest and good momentum on the racing front. So I am optimistic. I don't think we're going to have any dramatic explosions in the marketplace or any sensational uptick. But I think it will be very healthy and I think it will be very strong. Buyers will be enthusiastic, but they won't bid with reckless abandon and they will be selective on what they decide to bid on.”

A total of 300 yearlings have been catalogued for the one-session auction.

“This year's July catalogue is very consistent with recent years,” Browning said. “The July sale is known for mature, precocious athletic yearlings and I think that's what buyers are going to find when they get to the sales ground this year.”

The 2017 July catalogue is slightly smaller than its 2016 edition, which featured 347 catalogued yearlings.

“We don't go into any of our sales with a pre-determined target number,” Browning said. “[The smaller catalogue] is probably a combination of factors. We could have been a little tougher in our selection criteria because we're always trying to work some horses out of the bottom segment of the marketplace. Consignors could have been more discriminating in what they decided to sell in July. The increase in popularity of our October sale could also be a factor. It's not a dramatic change and I don't think there is a meaningful trend you can draw from it.”

The July sale at one time offered a section dedicated specifically to yearlings by first-season sires and, while no longer its own section, the auction still has a reputation for drawing a strong bench of new sires.

Twenty one stallions are represented by their first crop of yearlings at this year's sale. Included in the group are champions Will Take Charge (Unbridled's Song) and Uncaptured (Lion Heart), Breeders' Cup winners Mucho Macho Man (Macho Uno) and Goldencents (Into Mischief) and Grade I winners Cross Traffic (Unbridled's Song), Drill (Lawyer Ron), Itsmyluckyday (Lawyer Ron), Magician (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), Noble Mission (GB) (Galileo {Ire}), Shakin It Up (Midnight Lute), Strong Mandate (Tiznow), and Verrazano (More Than Ready).

“I think it's a good group of first-season sires,” Browning said. “I think there are some very strong racehorses and, particularly with this group, I think we've seen some first-season sires who were not only good racehorses, but who also have really quality pedigrees with real depth.”

Browning Jr. continued, “So I think they will be very well-received in the marketplace. And it certainly doesn't hurt with the young sires that the last two Kentucky Derby winners were by first-crop sires.”

In 2016, 183 yearlings grossed $15,756,500. The average of $86,101 fell 11.8% from 2015, while the $60,000 median was down 22.1%.

A colt by Curlin brought the sale's highest price last year, selling for $475,000 to Harley/DeRenzo Thoroughbreds. Returned to the sales ring at Timonium this May, the colt resold for $1.5 million. In addition, to that recent headline-making pinhooking success, the July sale has also produced graduates like last year's GI Del Mar Futurity winner Klimt (Quality Road) and GI Cigar Mile winner Connect (Curlin).

“I think success always helps, whether it's success on the racetrack or success in the resell arena,” Browning said. “So the Curlin colt is certainly something that folks noticed, just like they know that horses like Klimt and Connect came out of this sale. Success always helps.”

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING…

“I'm optimistic about the yearling sales. I think that we've been through a few years of increasing polarization. It seems like every stop on the sales calendar just gets more and more polarized, where there is a very, very narrow bulls eye and if you hit it, then you do great, but if you don't, there is a long way to fall. And if you have one of the lower horses, there is just nobody. It's very hard to even find a home for the horse. What I've seen at the 2-year-old sales and talking to pinhookers that were down there, I think that there was more of a middle market at the 2-year-old sales, it was still polarized, but it was a little better. And I'm thinking it's because the stockmarket is doing so well and the economy seems to be jump started a little bit, and I just think a lot of people around the country that are businesspeople kind of got out of the business after the Great Recession. People who used to come to the yearling sales and maybe buy three or four every year, they weren't the biggest names on the results sheet, but they were people who would buy three or four in the $50-100,000 and that was their deal. There were a lot of those people who disappeared over the last six or seven years. And I've gotten a few phone calls from people I hadn't heard from in a long time saying, I'm thinking of maybe coming down there and shopping, I'll be looking for you. It's very anecdotal evidence, but my gut feeling is that we could have a little better year than we had last year.”

Mark Taylor, Taylor Made Sales

“It's been really, really busy at the barns. We've been swamped–which is great. Last year, people took a wait and see approach to the July Sale. When everyone is waiting and seeing, that means there are going to be a lot of bargains. And you can see, Pete Bradley, Quincy Adams and Cary Frommer, who were really strong buying in July last year, they cleaned house. Because by the time they got to September, everyone that was waiting was competing for the same horses.”

Carrie Brogden, Select Sales