Fasig-Tipton November Sale Sunday

In the afterglow of Lexington’s first-ever Breeders’ Cup weekend, the Fasig-Tipton November Sale gets underway Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. and features a sparkling catalogue of 200 weanlings, racing, broodmare and stallion prospects.

“We’ve got a great group of horses assembled for the sale and at the end of the day, that’s the only ingredient that really matters,” commented Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning, Jr. “To have a great sale in the world we live in–we’re dealing with professionals–you’ve got to have great horses and we’ve got a spectacular collections of horses that will be on the grounds.”

For the second year, Fasig-Tipton will start the sale offering 73 weanlings in the catalogue. Near the end of the catalogue are five racing and or stallion prospects, including Grade I winner Jack Milton (War Front), graded stakes winners Frac Daddy (Scat Daddy) and I Spent It (Super Saver) and Grade I placed Red Vine (Candy Ride {Arg}), third in Friday’s GI Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.

“We begin with a tremendous group of weanlings, followed by a wonderful selection of fillies and mares coming off the racetrack and in-foal mares,” Browning said. “Lots of great families and pedigrees and lots of great racehorses, tremendous covering sires and I think you have a little bit of additional interest this year with some stallion prospects that are really top-drawer and some colts coming off the racetrack that certainly should attract widespread interest. It’s a tremendous catalogue, we couldn’t be any more pleased and we are enthusiastic about the sale.”

The November sale received several timely updates during Breeders’ Cup weekend, as Ivanavinalot (West Acre), the dam of GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Songbird (Medaglia d’Oro), is scheduled to sell, as is GI Breeders’ Cup F/M Turf winner Stephanie’s Kitten (Kitten’s Joy), who RNA’d for $3.95 million at last year’s November sale, and GI Breeders’ Cup F/M Sprint runner-up La Verdad (Yes It’s True). The dams of Breeders’ Cup third-place finishers Nemoralia (More Than Ready) and Red Vine were late additions to the catalogue.

A week of festivities culminating in a weekend of high-class racing at the Breeders’ Cup could translate into added excitement at the November sale, according to consignor John Sikura.

“I think any time you have a place where breeders, buyers, sellers and everybody congregates, I think it is great for business,” Sikura said. “You’ll have people who maybe normally don’t patronize the November sale and they might look at a racemare or a weanling through an agent or by themselves, see a pedigree that they might have an interest in, and buy that horse.”

Sikura, whose Fasig November consignment includes Ivanavinalot, noted “There is going to be a winner in every race, so there is going to be somebody in a great mood after every race. And I think we are a business that is definitely impacted by emotions. When things are going good and you’re going good and your horse just won, you are on top of the world and you think, ‘Let’s buy more, let’s move our program forward.’”