Fasig-Tipton carries momentum into December mixed sale

The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic December mixed sale will look to continue its momentum from last year’s strong sale and close the auction company’s 2018 calendar with a bang. The single-session sale, the last of 12 conducted by Fasig-Tipton in its various jurisdictions this year, is Tuesday at the Maryland State Fair Grounds in Timonium.

The December mixed sale had 232 entries in its original catalog, then added 63 supplemental entries in late December. The bulk of those are active runners who will be offered at the end of the session in a horses-of-racing-age supplement, an addition to the format that proved successful last year, producing the sale topper and helping to drive the overall figures.

“We are especially pleased to have cataloged more than 50 racehorses in our horses-of-racing-age supplement,” Fasig-Tipton’s Midlantic director of sales Paget Bennett said.

“Last year’s inaugural HORA supplement was a resounding success, and as a result top racing stables are supporting it again this year. Any stable looking to replenish its racing stock ahead of the new year should take a hard look at this supplement.”

Stakes performers from various jurisdictions are cataloged in this year’s supplement, including Free N Clear, a stakes winner in the New York Stallion Stakes series; Ohio-bred Forewarned, winner of this past summer’s Cleveland Gold Cup, and fellow statebred Birdacious, who is stakes-placed; English stakes-placed Atlantic Sun; Canadian stakes-placed Queen’s Fate; and Eighty Six Mets, who is locally stakes-placed at Laurel.

Last year’s Midlantic December sale was led by the multiple stakes-placed New York-bred Carradine, purchased for $105,000 by trainer Linda Rice, as agent. He is an allowance winner this year, taking 3 of 11 starts. Led by Carradine, a total of 221 horses changed hands at the December sale for revenues of $2,448,200, a 170 percent increase in gross sales from the previous edition, which had 141 horses sold for $906,400. The average sale price soared 72 percent to $11,078 from $6,428, and the median spiked 43 percent, to $5,000 from $3,500. The buyback rate was also improved, finishing at 21 percent compared to 30 percent.

This week’s sale will also mark the Fasig-Tipton debut for Jesse Ullery as part of the announcing team. Ullery recently joined Fasig-Tipton as an account executive involved in the recruitment of buyers and sellers, as well as announcer. Ullery came to Fasig-Tipton from Keeneland, where he also served as a pedigree announcer, sales associate, and paddock analyst during the race meets. Ullery has also worked in auctions at the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society and Heritage Place, was director of racing at Fair Meadows and Will Rogers Downs in Oklahoma, and served as the track announcer at Fair Meadows, Will Rogers, and Blue Ribbon Downs.