Fasig-Tipton California sale offers barometer of West Coast market

The Fasig-Tipton California fall yearling sale – the only yearling sale in Southern California this year – will be held at Fairplex in Pomona, Calif., on Thursday. A total of 285 yearlings have been cataloged.

The sale will offer a barometer of the West Coast yearling market in a year in which racing has been disrupted by a series of equine fatalities at Santa Anita in the winter and spring and ongoing concern about horse inventory on the circuit.

Thursday’s sale, which begins at noon, is the second auction of the year conducted in California by Kentucky-based Fasig-Tipton. The company held a 2-year-olds in-training sale at Santa Anita in early June.

Fasig-Tipton took over the juvenile and yearling sales in Southern California this year after Barretts Sales ceased operation at the end of 2018.

Last year, there were two yearling sales in Southern California – an August select sale at Del Mar and an October sale that included some horses of racing age. At the August sale, 42 yearling sold for an average of $62,667 and a median of $50,000. There were 38 yearlings listed as not sold and six withdrawn.

At the October sale, 121 horses sold for an average of $10,200 and a median of $5,000. There were 104 horses listed as not sold and 25 withdrawn.

The most expensive horse of the August sale was Body Heat, a colt by Unusual Heat who was purchased by Samantha Siegel for $250,000. Body Heat has yet to race.

Square Deal, purchased for $230,000 at the 2018 August sale, won the $100,702 I’m Smokin Stakes for California-breds at Del Mar on Aug. 30 for owners Arnold Zetcher and Qatar Racing and trainer Simon Callaghan. Square Deal finished first in the $100,351 Graduation Stakes on Aug. 2, but was disqualified and placed third for causing interference in the stretch.

Square Deal is out of North Freeway, who is represented in Thursday’s sale with an Into Mischief colt consigned by breeder Tom Bachman. North Freeway is the dam of the two-time stakes winner Take the One O One, who won the 2018 Snow Chief Stakes for statebreds on turf at Santa Anita for Siegel. Take the One O One, who has earned $341,526, has not raced this year.

Bachman has an 11-horse consignment at Thursday’s sale. The yearlings are scheduled to begin arriving at Fairplex as early as Monday morning. Inspections are scheduled to begin in earnest on Tuesday and continuing through Thursday morning.

Thursday’s sale does not have a select component. It is expected to draw buyers from throughout the West.

“I’ve seen a decent number of horses on the farm this summer and some pretty good-looking horses,” said Mike Machowsky, a former trainer and Fasig-Tipton’s California representative. “We put together a catalog with an open sale that has something for anybody – for buyers and sellers.”