Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale looks to build on market momentum

Off an encouraging start to the 2-year-old sales season, the boutique Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream selected sale returns Wednesday afternoon, hoping to continue that market momentum.

Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream was among the cancellations at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. This year’s sale, which had cataloged 186 entries through March 24, will be held in the Gulfstream Park walking ring. A pre-sale under-tack show will be held Monday morning.

“We are excited to be returning to Gulfstream Park in March to conduct the nation’s premier 2-year-olds in training sale,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning said. “The Gulfstream sale annually provides an unrivaled concentration of quality, and this year’s catalog is loaded.”

Fasig-Tipton’s Florida juvenile sale moved to Gulfstream in 2015 and immediately got a star graduate in Nyquist. The colt, purchased by Dennis O’Neill for $400,000 at that auction, went on to be the 2015 Eclipse Award champion juvenile and to win the 2016 Kentucky Derby. The Fasig-Tipton auction has improved its figures each year since.

“In a short period of time, Gulfstream grads have won 13 different Grade 1 races, including the Kentucky Derby, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, Met Mile, and the Florida Derby twice,” Browning said. “If you want to play at the top of the game, this sale – and its dirt racetrack – will get you there.”

This year’s sale will be hard-pressed to keep improving its figures off its most recent powerhouse renewal, particularly in a marketplace that has vastly changed since that edition. The 2019 sale was led by the most expensive 2-year-old sold in North America that season, a $3.65 million Curlin colt named Cezanne purchased by the Coolmore group. The sale finished with a 24 percent gain in gross receipts compared to the 2018 edition, and also recorded record average and median figures. The average price finished at $493,475, soaring 28 percent compared to the year prior and, remarkably, besting Fasig-Tipton Florida’s prior record mark of $403,812 set in 2006, when The Green Monkey brought a staggering $16 million in an edition of the sale held at Calder.

Still, this year’s auction gets a strong lead-in from the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s March sale earlier in the month. The season opener’s two-day cumulative average price was $117,377, spiking 27 percent from 2020; the median jumped 25 percent, to $62,500. The buyback rate was an outstanding 16 percent, compared to 39 percent last year as the coronavirus crisis unfolded. An already selective marketplace has become even more so in the past year, and a buyback figure less than 20 percent is outstanding.

The Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale may finish with a higher buyback rate than OBS March – the sale represents the upper segment of the market, where selectivity is highest, and sellers at that level also may be more willing to retain horses. Still, the expectation is for solid average and median figures, which could boost the season’s overall numbers.

The Gulfstream sale will showcase a solid group of freshman sires who have already made a statement in the marketplace. Multiple Grade 1 winner Practical Joke, by leading sire Into Mischief, was represented by the OBS March sale-topper, a $750,000 filly. Before outs, he has 13 juveniles cataloged at Gulfstream.

Horse of the Year Gun Runner and fellow Eclipse Award champion Arrogate – both winners of the Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream – led their class by average price at the 2020 yearling sales. Gun Runner’s group at Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream includes a half-brother to Grade 1 winner Finley’sluckycharm. The late Arrogate is represented by a filly out of champion She Be Wild and a half-brother to Grade 1 winner Denman’s Call, among others.

Other catalog highlights include a Curlin filly who is a half-sister to Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming and to Grade 1 winner and stakes producer Hot Dixie Chick. The catalog also includes juveniles out of Grade 1 winners Callback, Gomo, Life At Ten, and Tiz Miz Sue, and full or half-siblings to Grade 1 winners Birdatthewire, Dream Tree, Jackie’s Warrior, Sweet Loretta, and Vasilika.