Fasig-Tipton July horses of racing age sale includes 15 2-year-olds

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Bloodstock and sales professional Ramiro Restrepo, instrumental in selecting Kentucky Derby winner Mage for his ownership partnership as a 2-year-old in training, described breeze-up sales as “the horse version of the NFL combine.”

The under-tack preview shows at juvenile sales provide an opportunity for prospective buyers to view a more finished product than buying the same horse as a weanling or yearling – and those pre-sale breezes count. At three of this year’s five major-market 2-year-old sales in Florida and Maryland, the sale-topping juvenile held a bullet work.

But if 2-year-olds in training sales are similar to a combine, where teams can watch prospective players work out, then this week’s Fasig-Tipton July horses of racing age sale is trading season and allows teams to swap players. A catalog of 243 hips, including supplemental entries through Thursday, is slated for Monday afternoon’s sale at the company’s Newtown Paddocks in Lexington, Ky. Accounting for outs as of Thursday, 15 juveniles are set to go through the ring. All have raced, and seven are winners.

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With a strong market for young stock seen at the breeze-up season that ended in June, and this sale well positioned before the lucrative summer meets at Saratoga and Del Mar, those juveniles could prove a big attraction at this edition of Fasig July. This horses of racing age sale was founded in 2013 as a companion to the company’s July yearling sale, and over the past decade has become a can’t-miss event requiring its own day on the calendar. Graduates of the sale in recent years include millionaire Grade 1 winners Atone and Stilleto Boy, and millionaire multiple graded stakes winners Cross Border and Fearless.

Juveniles in this year’s catalog include Laugh Now, a two-length winner in his second career start on May 15 in Indiana, and since back on the work tab in Kentucky. He is from the first crop of Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and champion Vino Rosso, a son of breakout sire-of-sires Curlin. Vino Rosso is the first member of his freshman class to sire a stakes winner.

Laugh Now is one of five winning juveniles consigned by John Ennis, who purchased the five for a total of $110,500 on behalf of himself and/or clients as yearlings. The others are Gewurztraminer, Intermittent Fast, Let’s Go Mark, and Woodcourt.

Beyond Oscar, from the second crop of Oscar Performance, finished second on debut. She has strong residual value beyond her budding racing career, as she is out of Broodmare of the Year Beyond the Waves, dam of Horse of the Year Bricks and Mortar and two other stakes winners.

Winning New York-breds Astonesthrowaway and Twisted Filigree, along with fellow statebred Bossy Jeans, have a boost from the positioning of this sale. Last month, the New York Racing Association announced a new series of purse increases for New York-breds competing in open company at Saratoga.

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Rounding out the 2-year-old offerings are placed runners Blast Furnace, Hi’iaka, Ore Mine, and You’re Kitten Me, along with Magical Monarch and Moretastic.

Last year’s July all-ages sale, led by $500,000 Kuchar, finished with 129 lots sold for $10,814,000, resulting in an average of $83,829 and median of $58,000, all gains from 2021. The figures will not be truly comparable this year; the 2021 and 2022 editions also included breeding stock selections, and last year’s offerings in that regard were jazzed up by the $150,000 sale of a lifetime breeding right to breakout young sire Girvin.

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