Fasig July Yearling Sale Tuesday

[Wandering Eyes]

The Fasig-Tipton July Selected Yearlings Sale will begin Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. at the Newtown Paddocks in Lexington. The one-day auction has attracted a catalogue of 349 head. Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning expects demand to be high–but realistic–as the yearling sales season opens.

“I don’t think there is any reason to expect any dramatic change or shift in the yearling marketplace,” Browning said. “I think the market will be healthy. I think there will continue to be selectivity, but the demand will be strong.”

The yearling sales follow on from a solid series of juvenile sales this past spring and Browning expects pinhookers will be ready to restock when the July sale gets underway Tuesday morning.

“We are dealing with fairly mature and stable markets right now, whether its 2-year-olds, broodmares or yearlings,” he said. “The 2-year-old market, sure you’d wish that there were more across-the-board buyers, but we’re living in a world of selectivity. We’ve seen that trend in recent years and we’ll see it again in 2018. But overall the 2-year-old market was healthy-it wasn’t crazy-but it was healthy and I think we will see similar levels of participation from pinhookers in the yearling marketplace this year.”

This year’s sophomore class of July graduates includes GII San Vicente S. and GIII Lazaro Barrera S. winner Kanthaka (Jimmy Creed), GIII Robert B. Lewis S. winner Lombo (Graydar), and G3 UAE Oaks winner Rayya (Tiz Wonderful).

Browning, who said, “July is an athlete sale, plain and simple,” expects buyers to be happy with the offerings at this year’s auction.

“The pre-sale interest has been very strong this year, stronger than last year,” Browning said. “And I’m optimistic about the group of yearlings that we’re going to have on display. It was a good group, physically, when we inspected them on the farm and I think we will have a very solid sale.”

During last year’s July sale, 172 yearlings sold for a gross of $16,107,000 and an average of $93,645. Larry Best’s OXO Equine purchased the highest-priced offering at the 2017 sale, going to $1 million for a daughter of Medaglia d’Oro. The filly was the first July yearling to sell for seven figures since 2006 and was the sale’s co-record priced filly.

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