A Space for Digital Two-Year-Old Sales? Consignors Weigh In

[Wandering Eyes]

When Cary Frommer was first approached by Fasig-Tipton about the concept of a digital 2-year-old in training sale, she was immediately sold. Frommer isn't necessarily known for showcasing the sharpest drills at the breeze-up sales, so when the veteran consignor learned that the horses in the sale would be presented to buyers with a gallop video rather than a timed breeze, she saw this as an opportunity to let her trainees show off their true potential.

“I love the idea that you don't have to ship the horses and train for two weeks over a track they're not familiar with,” Frommer said. “Plus, there's the idea that we as consignors have some control over what the potential purchaser sees in that we don't have to work fast to get attention. Buyers have to be horsemen about it by looking at the horses and their movement. There are a lot of really good consignors out there who can make horses go very fast. I'm not one of them, so it doesn't suit me to be pitted up against fast times.”

At this month's Fasig-Tipton February Digital Sale, which opened for bidding on Thursday, Frommer has five horses entered in the 2-year-old in training portion of the auction. Along with a Tonalist filly and colts by Frosted, Great Notion and Silver State, Frommer's consignment will feature a filly by Munnings out of multiple stakes winner Midnight Disguise (Midnight Lute).

“This filly is the whole picture,” said Frommer. “She's scopey and classy, does her job and could go on at any time. She could be anything. I've picked the five that I have in here because I think they all, if they did well, would help the digital platform because any one of them could be a really nice horse.”

Frommer's strong showing in this inaugural sale must indicate that she has faith in the concept?

“I don't know if faith is what you would call it, but I do have hope,” she noted. “I think ultimately it will be a real move forward in the sales. I understand the side of the coin the buyers are on too. Buying something off a video is hard to do, but I think that's when the relationship you have with the consigner comes into play.”

Consignor Randy Miles explained how he believes that one of the keys to a successful digital 2-year-old sales arena will be giving the buyer as much information as possible. For the pair of colts that Miles has entered in this month's sale, that means offering not only the traditional vet reports and a gallop video to potential bidders, but also jogging videos and videos taken over several days of training, plus videos of the horse walking before and after a breeze.

“I think trying to be as transparent as possible is really going to give the buyers much more confidence in what we're presenting,” he said. “[For the two he has entered] we decided to breeze them, but breeze them in say 13 seconds instead of 10. We wanted to show the buyers enough of the horse's movement, stride length and the way he carries himself, but keep it to a minimum. So we came up with going an eighth of a mile with another eighth or quarter-mile gallop out, just enough to show the buyers and make them comfortable.”

Miles's two-horse consignment features a Not This Time colt named Clockin In who is out of GI Ogden Phipps Handicap victress and $1.1 million earner Tiz Miz Sue (Tiznow). The mare has two stakes horses on her produce record.

“He's a big, strapping, dark bay colt that we have come to really respect,” noted Miles. “He was shipped to us in October by the breeder and he has had no setbacks in his training. We think he has quite a bit of potential later on.”

Both the Not This Time colt and a Dialed In colt selling as Hip 43 were sent to Miles with the goal of eventually going on to race for their breeders, but this digital sale opportunity gave owners the ability to easily present their homebreds to the market.

“It was something that appealed to us because we didn't have to be so demanding on the horse to get them ready for a 2-year-old sale in March or April,” explained Miles.

“I do not believe the digital sales will ever be a threat to the way we are currently conducting our normal 2-year-old sales with the breezes and the showing, but I do think this appeals to both sellers and buyers. I think it's a wonderful idea. It's something that is needed. Some people have an appetite for the [traditional] 2-year-old sales and then some people may not have an appetite for the speed that we ask for in our 2-year-old sales, so this appeals to a lot of different people.”

Tristan de Meric shares the same belief as Miles that digital sales will not replace 'brick and mortar' 2-year-old sales, but he said that digital sales could be a good fit for horses that end up needing more time to develop and would get overlooked at a traditional breeze-up sale.

Yaupon colt out of Frosty Margarita | Katie Petrunyak

de Meric said another likely case for a digital sale juvenile might be a horse that a breeder intends on racing themselves, but would like to present the horse to the market without sending them through the rigorous 2-year-old sales prep process. Like the two colts Miles has entered in the February Sale, the 2-year-old that de Meric will offer fits that bill. The son of Yaupon out of multiple stakes winner Frosty Margarita (Frost Giant) is a homebred for Chip Acierno's Gabrielle Farm.

“[Fasig-Tipton's] Peter Penny took us to lunch to tell us about this idea and before he finished his sentence explaining what the sale was about, this horse popped into my mind,” recalled de Meric. “His breeder had thrown out that he might be interested in putting him in a sale, but he's also happy to go on and race. We've had him at the farm since October of his weanling year and he's been a beautiful horse from day one. I've always liked him. We wanted to make sure we brought a horse that could grab people's attention for this format as an experimental trial run.”

He continued, “We've had several people come out and look at him already, just from us talking to people and the Fasig-Tipton team doing a great job of promoting these horses and making sure the right people are paying attention. I think for horses like the one we have entered, being a homebred of a client that is open to racing, it might be a little more appealing to some breeders instead of putting them into a 2-year-old sale, so I think there's a spot for this. There may be some kinks that need to be ironed out, but people want to buy early and keep going with the horse, so I think it could definitely be a small wave of the future.”

Fasig-Tipton's February Digital Sale will feature a total of 13 two-year-olds in training, in addition to horses of racing age, breeding stock and a stallion season to Street Sense, and the sale will conclude Tuesday, Feb. 25.

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