$560,000 Candy Ride colt tops record-setting Fasig-Tipton October yearling sale

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A $560,000 Candy Ride colt topped the final session to push the Fasig-Tipton October yearling sale across the finish line on Thursday night with record gross and average figures.

Fasig-Tipton reported 1,007 horses sold during the four-day sale, which wraps up the formal yearling sale season in North America, for gross revenues of $38,138,900. Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning termed it an "outstanding week."

Last year's sale grossed $34,260,100 from 963 horses sold during four days.

The average price at this year’s sale finished at a record $37,874, and a gain of 6 percent from $35,576 last year.

The median finished at $13,000 compared to $15,000 last year, a drop of 13 percent. The buyback rate finished at 25 percent, compared to last year's 23 percent.

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"It was a very encouraging sale, a very good way to end the yearling season," said Browning, who had noted throughout the week that he expected and saw a similar marketplace from 2018 in many regards.

"I was pleasantly surprised on the average," Browning said. "The gross, it is the biggest catalog we've ever had. ... So we had hoped the gross would be able to increase. But to sustain the average in an overall marketplace this year that was similar to last year.

“I think, realistically, if Vegas would have made the line, they would have said, you hope like heck you can get close to last year's results. To exceed those is a pleasant surprise, and I think it's another indication of the growth and maturity of this sale."

Solid activity at the top of the market helped to fuel the gains in gross and average. The $560,000 Candy Ride colt who topped the fourth session as well as the entire sale was the only horse to break the half-million price ceiling, eclipsing the $500,000 paid for the 2018 sale topper, a Street Sense colt. However, while another two horses sold for prices between $400,000 and $500,000 last year, five horses went between $400,000 and $500,000 this year.

Carlo Vaccarezza landed the Candy Ride colt, from the consignment of Eaton Sales, as agent.

The colt is out of the winning Empire Maker mare Vanquished, whose five winners from seven starters are led by Grade 2 winner Takeover Target and stakes winner Ladies' Privilege. Vanquished is a half-sister to multiple Grade 1-winning millionaire Critical Eye.

The second highest-priced horse at the sale was a $410,000 colt by young classic sire Uncle Mo who topped Wednesday's session, selling to bloodstock agent Mike Ryan. The colt was consigned by Indian Creek, as agent.

The colt is the second foal out of the unraced Stormy Atlantic mare Picardia, a half-sister to Grade 1 winners Lear's Princess and Pretty City Dancer. Their dam, Pretty City, is a half-sister to Grade 1-winning millionaire My Big Boy and stakes winner and producer Forever Command.

Both of the top two lots had been entered in earlier sales and then scratched - Vanquished's colt from the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale in August, and Picardia's colt from last month's Keeneland September yearling sale. Their success at the upper end of the market at the October sale showcases the sale's importance as a target destination for later-developing horses, including some who may have been scratched from earlier-season sales due to typical young-horse growing pains, or to allow them more time to develop.

"I think sellers now know there's a legitimate marketplace here to bring a quality animal, and if you have a situation where the additional time or a change of circumstance or a change in environment or whatever factor will improve the marketability of that horse, they have the confidence to do that," Browning said. "This is a tough game we play, and sometimes a horse might get a little sick, come up with a cough, it might have a minor X-ray blemish that was unexpected. There's all sorts of factors and circumstances that lead to horses moving from one sale to another sale. And a lot of horses, frankly, benefit from the additional time. You see horses blossom."

Following those two atop the leaderboard came a quartet of $400,000 yearlings: A colt by Ghostzapper and out of Grade 3 winner Winding Way, purchased by trainer Ken McPeek, as agent; a colt by leading sire Into Mischief and from the female family of outstanding broodmare Gold Beauty, purchased by bloodstock agent Jacob West; a filly from the first crop of champion sprinter Runhappy and a half-sister to stakes winner Queen Caroline, purchased by Speedway Stables; and a Medaglia d'Oro filly who is a half-sister to Grade 2 winner Appealing Tale, purchased by DJ Stable.