435 cataloged to Fasig-Tipton Midlantic fall yearling sale

The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic fall yearling sale, which has produced its share of high-profile graduates in recent years, is set for Monday and Tuesday at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium.

The auction has 435 yearlings cataloged, including supplemental entries announced on Friday. The Monday session will begin at 4 p.m. Eastern, and offer Hips 1 through 150. The Tuesday session, offering the remainder of the horses, begins at 10 a.m.

“There is strong sire power among the supplemental entries,” Midlantic director of sales Paget Bennett said in a release.

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Prominent recent graduates of the Midlantic yearling sale include Grade 1 winners Cathryn Sophia and Henley's Joy. Cathryn Sophia sold for $30,000 to Cash Is King Stable's Charles Zacney at the 2014 renewal; she went on to win five stakes, highlighted by the 2016 Kentucky Oaks. Henley's Joy was a $20,000 purchase by Wendy Hendriks before being pinhooked to Bloom Racing as a juvenile. The colt was a multiple stakes winner last year, and this summer won the Grade 1 Belmont Derby. That same 2017 edition of the Midlantic yearling sale also included Call Paul, sold for $20,000 to Grassroots Training and Sales, which pinhooked him to Mike Dubb for $210,000 at the following spring's Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-olds in training sale. The colt is a multiple graded stakes winner.

Last year's Midlantic yearlings sale was topped by a $210,000 filly by leading sire Into Mischief, sold to Three Diamonds Farm. Now named Kiss the Girl, she finished second in the Grade 3 Schuylerville Stakes this summer at Saratoga.

With Kiss the Girl leading the way, the 2018 edition of the auction finished with 338 yearlings sold for $7,318,700 - a drop in gross from 312 sold for $7,855,100 in 2017 despite more horses changing hands. The average price, $21,653, represented a 14 percent drop from $25,177 the previous year. However, the buyback rate was significantly improved, at 22 percent compared to 29 percent in 2017, and the median rose 7 percent, to $15,000 from $14,000.

The Midlantic fall yearlings auction includes Kentucky sire power - including one filly by Into Mischief, a perennial leading juvenile sire and the nation's leading general sire. However, it also provides an opportunity for regionally based stallions, especially young ones, to stand out. There are eight yearlings in the catalog by Bourbon Courage, a stakes-producing freshman sire and Maryland's leader in that category.

Mosler, a stakes-winning son of War Front now standing in Maryland, is well represented with 22 first-crop yearlings in the catalog. Other regional first-crop sires in the catalog include Uncle Lino (Pennsylvania) with 13 yearlings, Peace and Justice (Pennsylvania) with four, and Barbados (Maryland) with three.