$600,000 Vekoma colt tops Fasig-Tipton’s July sale of selected yearlings
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LEXINGTON, Ky. – A $600,000 Vekoma colt led the way as the traditional North American yearling sale season blasted out of the gate on Tuesday with a record-setting edition of Fasig-Tipton’s July sale of selected yearlings.
Fasig-Tipton reported 147 yearlings sold on Tuesday at its Newtown Paddocks headquarters in Lexington for gross receipts of $17,096,000 at this first of five yearling sales the company will host between July and October. At last year's single-session July sale, 159 horses sold, including two private sales, for a gross of $16,968,000.
Tuesday's average price was $116,299, not only up 9 percent from $106,717 last year but edging out the prior record of $115,954 established in 2007. The median was $95,000, establishing a record and surpassing by 6 percent last year's $90,000, which had tied the previous high-water mark.
The buyback rate was 23 percent, improved from 28 percent before private sales last year.
Consignors had expressed optimism for the yearling marketplace following a 2-year-old sale season in which several breeze-up sales set records, leaving pinhookers flush to restock for 2027. Indeed, a number of major pinhookers and stables such as de Meric Sales, Hartley/DeRenzo Thoroughbreds, Highlander, Jesse Hoppel, Tom McCrocklin, and Scanlon Training and Sales signed sale tickets.
"End users" who intend to race their stock were also active, with buyers including racing stables such as C2 Racing, Eclipse Thoroughbreds, St. Elias, and Starlight Racing, and trainers including Kenny McPeek and Wesley Ward.
"One of the perceptions of this sale has been that it's a, quote unquote, pinhookers' sale," Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. said. "And we certainly value and want participation from the pinhookers, because the type of horses that we sell are the type of athletes that are most likely to sell well at a 2-year-old in training sale. They're mature individuals.
"We very, very, very highly value athleticism in a horse, the way it walks, its movement, the kind of things people are looking for when they go to a 2-year-old sale. But we've also worked really, really hard to say hey, there's a lot of good racehorses that come out of this sale that appeal to end users as well. So we're really trying to attract a broad spectrum of buyers, and I think we had a really good balance of that today."
In fact, the top lot went to an end user, as Kristian Villante of Legion Bloodstock signed for the sale-topping Vekoma colt for a group of Legion's partners he said was still developing as they shopped. The chestnut colt, an April foal, was consigned by his breeder, Shawhan Place, and Villante said his physical stood out.
"I think he could have stood up in the Saratoga sale, not just July," Villante said, referring to Fasig-Tipton's elite selected sale next month. "He's a big, forward-looking colt. Just had a really good presence about him, handled himself really well all week. We love the sire, but he was just a physical standout for us."
Indeed, yearlings selected for the July sale are traditionally chosen more for their physical conformation than for their pedigree. At this season opener, horses who are more mature at this stage than their classmates stand out.
However, the Vekoma colt's pedigree stood out as well. By a successful young sire, he is the second foal out of the winning Uncle Mo mare Passionate Dream. She is a half-sister to Grade 3 winner Paradise Lake, from the family of the great Hall of Fame racemare Zenyatta, as well as Grade 1 winner Balance and other graded stakes winners.
"He kind of didn't really fit the typical July profile," Villante said. "A lot of them are standout physicals that are forward, the kind of horses you go to 2-year-old sales with. But in his case, he kind of seemed like the kind you'd find in Saratoga or something like that, where he had the physical and the pedigree that are second to none. . . . It really just kind of made sense all around for him."
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Villante said the colt will go to Travis Durr's training center in South Carolina for his early education before eventually going to trainer Whit Beckman at the track.
Vekoma, who stands at Spendthrift Farm and who was 2024's leading freshman sire, was represented by two of the top three prices at the sale overall. Following the $600,000 Vekoma colt on the leaderboard were a $450,000 Girvin filly and then a $300,000 Vekoma filly, both purchased by McCrocklin.
The top price for a first-crop stallion was a $300,000 Taiba colt, who finished as the fourth-highest price of the sale when purchased by Phil Hager in the name of Taproot Bloodstock for an undisclosed buyer he described as an end user. Grade 1 winner Taiba, by Gun Runner, also stands at Spendthrift.
This colt, who was consigned by Taylor Made Sales as agent for breeder Don Alberto, is out of the Tiznow mare Dayfa, dam of two winners, including one by Gun Runner. She is out of stakes winner and producer Dance Quietly, who is from the immediate family of Horse of the Year honorees Saint Liam and Gun Runner.
"Just a big, two-turn-dirt-looking horse, which is what this owner really liked," Hager said. "And I liked the pedigree, too. He's inbred to Gun Runner's family"
For hip-by-hip results from the July yearling sale, click here.
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