Market Strength
By Bill Oppenheim
Though there are two more days of Tattersalls’ December Sale today and tomorrow, and Arqana’s four-day December sale is on deck next week, the trends for the 2013 Thoroughbred auction market have been pretty firmly established. From the Keeneland September Sale (gross up 28%) through last week’s Tattersalls’ December Foal Sale (gross up 30%–see the Weekly Sales Ticker), the theme has been quite consistent: up 30%. Well, up until this week. The first two days of this week’s December Mare Sale are up 51% in gross, and 42% in average. Not only is this all really good news because sellers suddenly have more money than they’ve had the last five years, it’s even better news because it wasn’t really expected.