Boyd Browning on the Summer Yearling Sales and the Freshman Sire Class of ’18

[Wandering Eyes]

   Editor’s note: On July 10, the Fasig-Tipton July Sale of Selected Yearlings kicks off this year’s yearling marketplace in Lexington. There is cause for enthusiasm about this year’s first-crop sire ranks; the 2017 first-crop weanling sires are led by no other than American Pharoah, who looks to keep the current Triple Crown buzz going through the summer. (TDN Sales Statistics.) He is joined in the top 10 by a trio from Lane’s End Farm (Honor Code, Liam’s Map and Tonalist) and others spread over Kentucky, from WinStar to Hill ‘n’ Dale to Claiborne to Airdrie to Three Chimneys. This is the first in a series of multimedia features Lucas Marquardt is producing for the TDN in the leadup to Fasig July.

LM: In a nutshell, what does this freshman sire class look like?

BB: I think, without question, it’s one of the deepest and most exciting groups of freshman sires that have entered into the marketplace in probably a couple of decades. You’ve got tremendous quality at the top end, obviously highlighted by a stallion like American Pharoah–shameless plug, Fasig-Tipton graduate American Pharoah, Triple Crown winner–which is particularly exciting coming on the heels of this past weekend.

Clearly there’s been an immense amount of interest and popularity with American Pharoah. But it’s certainly not a one-horse group. I mean, it is a tremendously talented group of freshman sires that will be offered this year. I think we’ll look up 10 years from now and say that there were several successful stallions and several very important stallions that emerged from this crop of freshman sires.

LM: It is a catalog very heavy in freshman sires, which it always is. When you put together the catalog, what is the mindset on including a lot of young sires. Why so many of these yearlings, and why did these sires ended up in the catalog?

BB: For over 30 years, there has been a close association and affiliation with the July Sale at Fasig-Tipton, and new sires, or freshman sires. For many, many years we had a special showcase called The New Sire Showcase, which featured the yearlings by the first- and second-crop sires. There’s always a tremendous amount of interest and enthusiasm to see what’s new. People remember these great racehorses and they’re really anxious and excited to see their yearlings. The success that we’ve had on the racetrack by the performance of the progeny of the young stallions in recent years sure helps also. So the market certainly is always excited to see the future stars.

I think there’s always some intrigue by most astute observers and participants in the bloodstock market to say who is gonna be the next great sire. There’s a little bit of an intellectual aspect to that to say, “I really believe that this horse has the potential to become a tremendous stallion.” And you kind of want to get in on the ground floor and say, “I was there in the early days.”

And they’re good-looking. That’s the one thing that I think that we always say from our perspective is at the July sale, we’re not just trying to find ordinary horses by freshman sires; we’re trying to find good-looking yearlings. And I think it’s probably exciting if you’re standing with one of these young horses that may not be an extremely high stud fee, but if you’ve got six, eight, 10 of them by your stallion, that means the market is likely to be receptive to the type of physical that horse is throwing. And we sure crave physical horses in the July sale.

LM: This has been a sale that’s always been popular with two-year-old consignors. Are you expecting those horses to be the kind of types that are good, early developing, 2-year-old new prospects?

BB: One of the things that we’re looking for for the July sale is precocious-type individuals, that look like they’re going to run early. Those also happen to be very good candidates for two-year-old-in-training sales. And I think there’s always been a little fascination and a little desire from the pinhookers to search and buy the first-crop sires. There’s not a trainer in the world who has had a bad one yet, or a bloodstock agent that has bought a bad one yet. So I think there’s always a little attraction for those horses which you haven’t had a bad experience with.

Clearly, we are trying to find mature, precocious individuals. We might be willing to forgive a little bit on the pedigree in certain instances as long as the physical is there. I think a lot of times you might see people who will try to breed to a less-expensive stallion if they’ve got a really good-looking mare who might not have produced anything yet or might not be having a great run herself. But if she produces a good-looking individual, you’re probably more tempted to go to a younger, unproven stallion that’ll throw a commercially desirable physical yearling.

LM: The July Sale is exciting because it kicks off the yearling-sale season. How do you think the market is playing at the moment?

BB: I think there’s always a great sense of anticipation for the July sale. The catalog this year is larger. It’s just short of 350 horses, compared to about 300 last year. We find the quality is at least as strong if not stronger this year, both in terms of physicals and pedigrees. So I think that there’s a great deal of enthusiasm and optimism from our perspective. The two-year-old sales this year have established that the market is similar. I don’t think any of us have any dramatic expectations for a different marketplace in 2018 than we had in 2017 for the yearling sales. There’s still going to be some polarization, without any question. But hopefully, from our perspective, particularly with our early sales with July and Saratoga and the New York-bred sale, these horses have been through the selection process, so hopefully we’ve done a good job of identifying the types of physicals that are going to be attractive and appealing to a broad cross-section of buyers. And I think traditionally we’ve done that, so we’re excited to get July 10th here and kick off the yearling marketplace.

LM: It must be exciting that these are all sires–as you would expect at the top level of the market–that you’d expect to get classic-type horses. Are you seeing that reflected in the physicals that you’ve seen on the ground?

BB: We’re excited about some of the freshman stallions from which we will see significant representation at Saratoga this year. It’s a stellar group, period, end of discussion, both in terms of their performance on the racetrack, their pedigrees, and the types of individuals that they’re producing. So we’ll certainly have a significant uptick. I don’t know what percentage of the catalog is going to be represented by freshman sires, but there will be extensive representation across the board from a number of exciting stallion prospects at Saratoga in 2018.

I don’t think there’s any question that another recent Triple Crown winner creates excitement and interest in our industry, both internally and externally. I think everyone is energized and excited to see another spectacular horse like Justify appear on the scene. And that’s what our buyers are looking for: another great horse. Can I be the one that picks out the next Justify, or the next American Pharoah, or the next great horse? And clearly, in the marketplace that we’re living in, those horses have significant and substantial value. From an economic standpoint, that drives the dream from the upper end of the marketplace, to think that you have a horse that can accomplish those types of things, and the value that those horses create is dramatic.

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