Something strange happened Saturday in Fayette County in the heart of the Bluegrass. A winter which has been characterized by frigid temperatures for periods at a time and frequent snowfall gave way to sunny skies and temperatures that were manageable for a change.
The timing of the climatological change, however brief, could not be better, at least for officials at Fasig-Tipton, where a total of 616 horses are catalogued for the auction house's February Mixed Sale, with an opening session commencing this afternoon at 3 p.m. at the Newtown Paddocks.
Two years ago, the February sale played host to a high-quality draft of horses from the Eugene Melnyk dispersal, and the results were booming. Seven horses attracted bids in excess of $500,000, of which five emanated from the dispersal. The single-session sale was topped by Live Oak Plantation's bid of $900,000 for GISW Pool Land (Silver Deputy). The February sale was extended to two days last year, and, as is the nature of the beast with mixed sales, there were no comparable horses to that of 2013, and the results were steadier and less explosive. The sales-topper was the Yonaguska mare Hidden Expression, who fetched $360,000 from Gainesway. Boyd Browning Jr., president and CEO of Fasig-Tipton is looking forward to the events of the next couple of days with guarded optimism.
“I feel very good and optimistic that we'll continue to have a fair marketplace,” he commented. “There was good activity on the sales grounds [Saturday]. I think [the weather] put a little bounce in everyone's step, both humans and horses.
He added, “It's an interesting catalog, there's a lot of options in there, nice horses at all levels and I would expect to have very good commerce and a legitimate marketplace. I would hope we'd have similar results as last year. It's very difficult to compare mixed sales, because there's no selection process. We take the horses that are entered. I wish I could say we've done a bunch of analysis, but we haven't and we don't. I think you'll see a very similar marketplace that we saw in 2014 and the composition of horses is more like it was last year.”
Browning, as always, takes a realistic approach to selling horses.
“We live in a world economy that's generally optimistic,” he explained. “I don't think there's unbridled enthusiasm and we might be sailing right now with 'slightly favorable winds.' I think people feel pretty good, but we also live in a world where buyers remember that it wasn't that long ago that there was real fear, so people are very realistic. All in all, it's a very rational marketplace. It's good, it's not spectacular, but it's a sustainable market right now.”
Perennial leading consignor Taylor Made has a typically strong and diverse draft of horses, and one of the catalogue's strongest offerings in terms of racetrack performance, comes courtesy of hip 112, the 5-year-old mare Gamay Noir (Harlan's Holiday). Claimed by Chasing Tail Stables and trainer Marty Wolfson for $100,000 a little more than a year ago, the bay returned a crisp $100 bill to her backers when upsetting the GIII Rampart S. on the Florida Derby undercard last March and two starts later added the GIII Obeah S. at Delaware Park. She is unraced since a decent fourth behind Fasig-Tipton November graduate Belle Gallantey (After Market) in the GI Delaware H. last July and is catalogued as a racing or broodmare prospect.
For additional information, full catalogue and outs, visit www.fasigtipton.com.
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