F-T Santa Anita sale opens new chapter for California auction market

ARCADIA, Calif. – The rapidly changing auction market in California begins anew on Wednesday when Kentucky-based Fasig-Tipton conducts a 2-year-old in-training sale at Santa Anita.

The sale replaces events held since 1990 by Barretts Sales, which ceased operation last year. In 2018, Barretts held one 2-year-olds in-training sale, at Del Mar in early April.

The Fasig-Tipton Santa Anita sale is being conducted later in the year than 2-year-old auctions in California in recent decades. For years, Barretts typically held a select sale in March followed by an open sale in May. The two sales were merged last year.

A later sale date this year allows consignors to include some horses offered at auctions earlier this year, or prospects that were not ready for auctions in late winter or early spring.

“June is a good setting,” said Mike Machowsky, the former trainer who is Fasig-Tipton’s California representative.

“A lot of guys have had time to be patient with their horses and let the horses develop and mature.”

The sale will be held in the track’s walking ring. Horses are being stabled in temporary facilities in a parking lot adjacent to the racetrack.

“It’s been interesting watching the trainers that are here walking around,” Machowsky said. “We’re on site and that gives the buyers plenty of time to develop a feel for what they like.”

There are 169 horses cataloged for Wednesday’s sale, which begins at 1 p.m., but withdrawals are likely to bring the number of horses that go through the ring closer to 135.

A workout session is scheduled for 10 a.m. on the Santa Anita main track on Monday, allowing for prospects to be exercised and inspected by buyers.

The catalog is similar in size to the Barretts 2-year-olds in-training sale in April 2018, in which 169 horses were cataloged and 75 sold for an average of $86,413. There were 40 horses listed as not sold and 54 withdrawn.

Typical of a 2-year-olds in-training sale, Wednesday’s sale includes several horses purchased for significant sums at yearling sales last year or 2-year-old in-training sales in the spring, notably a Curlin colt (Hip No. 41) listed as sold for $330,000 to Scott and Evan Dilworth at Keeneland last September, and a colt by Into Mischief (Hip. No. 75) listed as sold for $350,000 in a post-sale transaction to HND Bloodstock at the Ocala Breeders’ Sale of 2-year-olds in-training in April.

Wednesday’s sale, which includes 62 California-breds in the catalog, will be conducted during a season in which Santa Anita has enacted tougher medication rules following a series of equine fatalities since late December and in a climate in which whip use is being heavily scrutinized.

Fasig-Tipton issued a memo in late May reminding consignors that sale prospects may be administered only one non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication within 48 hours of Monday’s workouts in concert with rules for racehorses at Santa Anita.

Riders will be permitted to carry whips during workouts but largely for safety purposes. Riders will be able to tap horses on the shoulders, but cannot strike a horse on its hindquarters. Riders who violate the rule will be fined $500 for a first offense and $1,500 for a second offense, at which time the rider will not be allowed to work additional horses, the memo said.