Fasig-Tipton July Sale Tuesday

The yearling sale season gets underway Tuesday morning in Lexington with the Fasig-Tipton July Sale of Selected Yearlings and the first of 347 catalogued yearlings is scheduled to go through the sales ring at the Newtown Paddocks at 10 a.m.

“I'm expecting a good sale,” said consignor Mark Taylor of Taylor Made Sales. “I don't think it's going to be one of those environments where people check their brains at the valet stand and overpay for things. I think as long as sellers are realistic and try to put fair reserves, I think it's going to be a good sale because what we have been seeing the past few years is that conformation is very important and at these select sales, you get a higher degree of horses that are really screened before they get in here and I think that is kind of resonating with the buyers.”

The sale follows on the heels of a spring of juvenile auctions punctuated by a strong upper market, but tepid results in the middle to low markets. Those mixed results may temper juvenile pinhookers looking to restock for the winter.

“The July sale is heavily patronized by the pinhooking market,” explained Gainesway's Michael Hernon. “And, while parts of that market were very good, selling effectively in the 2-year-old market, you have to have a combination of a good physical horse, a good breeze, a good gallop-out and the ever-important clean vet report. I think you'll see a gravitation into the higher-level yearling for that pinhook opportunity and any horses who don't have the physical or the appeal in the pedigree and the vet report are just not going to appeal to the pinhookers on the front end because they'd be perceived to be poor candidates to pinhook. It's just a reflection of the polarization of the market.”

But the July market may be stabilized by end-users who are shopping for racing prospects, according to Paramount Sales' Pat Costello.

“I did a little study for myself on last year's July sale and the actual amount of pinhookers who bought out of July last year was surprisingly less than I thought it would be,” Costello said. “There were a lot of end-users, a lot of racing people, who bought horses out of the July sale last year. The 2-year-old sales were not good, but I think there will be more end-users at this sale. [The juvenile market] will definitely have an effect on the sale, but not as much as I was thinking. I am hoping for an ok sale. I am realistic. I am not expecting gangbusters, but I am expecting a decent market.”

Consignors all seemed to agree the perceived quality lots will continue to attract plenty of attention at the July sale.

“Things go up and things go down, but good horses sell and good consignors, as far as the 2-year-old consignors, keep coming back–they have to restock,” said Bluewater Sales' Meg Levy.

While Hernon summed it up succinctly.

“If you've got the goods, you'll get the money,” he said.

Last year's July sale was topped by a daughter of leading sire Tapit, who was consigned by Gainesway and sold for $500,000 to bloodstock agent Steve Young. In all, 205 yearlings sold for $20,005,000 in 2015, for an average of $97,585 and a median of $77,000.