Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July sale goes beyond yearlings

In one way, the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July sale this week represents a return to normalcy. But in another way, things continue to change at this auction.

This year’s sale, on July 12-13 at Fasig-Tipton’s Newtown Paddocks facility in Lexington, offers one-stop shopping. The sale begins July 12 with the nearly decade-old horses of racing age session, and will also add a breeding stock session. July 13 marks the return of the July yearling sale, traditionally the kickoff to the North American marketplace. That portion of the sale was scuttled by the coronavirus pandemic last year.

The focus of many will be on the yearling session, for which 348 horses were cataloged. Hopes are high for a strong marketplace, building on the success of this season’s 2-year-old sales, which rebounded from the pandemic with record figures in some cases.

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“I think it’s very encouraging to see the strength and interest in the 2-year-old sales,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. said. “It’s a healthy market. There’s probably some built-up demand as a result of reduced activity because of the pandemic.

“I think we’re all thankful to be getting back into the regular sequence of sales. It’s great to have multiple opportunities [for consignors] to sell their horses.”

The July sale focuses on yearlings who have physically developed early to stand out in their class at this stage, as opposed to the horses who will target sales in August, September, and October. That development may play a larger role than pedigree at this stage of the marketplace.

“In July, it’s all about conformation,” said Mark Taylor, vice president of sales and marketing for Taylor Made Sales Agency. “You get some horses there with some sire power, with some pedigree, but you have to have a well-conformed horse, you have to have an athletic horse. Fasig-Tipton does a good job of putting that catalog together, and they put an emphasis on it.”

On the topic of sire power, the Fasig-Tipton July sale offers an early look at a wide swath of this season’s first-crop yearling sires, led by 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify. He is represented by a single yearling in this catalog, a filly out of Grade 1 winner Emma’s Encore. Justify’s nine weanlings sold last year averaged $421,738, with one member of his crop sold earlier this year as a “short” yearling going for $150,000.

Another early commercial standout in this class has been Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and Pegasus World Cup winner City of Light, with a high-water weanling price of $600,000 last year leading him to an average of $216,000 for 12 sold. His eight short yearlings of 2021 averaged $153,188.

Other standouts in this first-crop class are Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and Eclipse Award champion Accelerate; Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner and classic-placed Eclipse champion Good Magic; Eclipse champion West Coast; Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming; Preakness Stakes winner Cloud Computing; Belmont Stakes winner Tapwrit; and globe-trotting Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Mendelssohn. Also represented in the Fasig-Tipton July catalog, accounting for early outs through Thursday, were Grade 1 winners Army Mule, Bee Jersey, Bolt d’Oro, Collected, Free Drop Billy, Funtastic, Girvin, Mo Town, Mor Spirit, Ransom the Moon, and Sharp Azteca, and graded stakes winners Awesome Slew, Bucchero, Good Samaritan, and McCraken.

“I think the first-crop yearling sires are really, really deep,” said Zach Madden, a partner in Buckland Sales Agency. “There’s a lot of horses making a favorable impression. You’ve got the obvious in Justify and City of Light, and those obviously did really well at the weanling sales and short yearling sales. But from top to bottom, I feel like it’s a really strong group.”

The horses of racing age session, established in 2013 as an addition to the yearling sale and soon growing enough to require its own date, has continued to draw a strong catalog. The session had 173 entries through Thursday morning as Fasig-Tipton continued to review supplements.

This catalog is marked by several runners showing strong recent form, such as Stiletto Boy, winner of the Iowa Derby on July 2, and Iowa Distaff winner Josie. The catalog also includes Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile winner Fearless, who has since been second in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap and third in the Grade 3 Pimlico Special; the promising juvenile Vodka N Water, second in both the Kentucky Juvenile and Grade 3 Bashford Manor; and Cave Hill, winner of the Rushaway Stakes in March.

Attachment Rate, who started in the 2020 Kentucky Derby, is a Grade 3-placed allowance winner this year. There are consistent runners with recent form in the catalog, such as Raintree Starlet, who has won 4 of 5 outings this year; Canadian Ginter, with three straight allowance wins; and Candy Flower, a last-out allowance winner who hasn’t missed the board this year. Front Run the Fed and Moon Swag are graded stakes-placed this year, while the catalog also holds last-out allowance winners Assertive Style, Cibolian, Hozier, and Myopic and recent maiden winners Bottle Rocket Man, Burrow, Devils Sky, Love in the Air, and Sax.

The breeding stock section of the sale, which will precede the horses of racing age, had a solid catalog of 53 horses as of Thursday morning, showing growth from the initial dispersal group of 18 mares, many with foals at heel, that sparked the session. The breeding stock component was conceived after a partnership supporting young California stallion Far From Over opted to swiftly disperse its holdings, rather than waiting for the traditional November breeding stock sales. With the addition of that dispersal, Fasig-Tipton opened its entries to additional broodmares and broodmare prospects, taking the opportunity to test if there will be a viable Kentucky summer marketplace for broodmares in future years.

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“The horses of racing age have been a complement to the yearling sale,” Browning said. “They work together. We’ve attracted a lot of buyers. A lot of folks come to buy those horses of racing age who might have bought yearlings, a lot of yearling buyers bought horses of racing age. We’ve got the mixed sale component this year. It kind of came about initially as a group of dispersal horses. We’ve had a lot of interest from sellers with other horses as well. I think we live in a world now where people are looking for activity. . . . We think it just creates more interest, more enthusiasm, more activity.”

Highlights among the broodmares include Grade 3 winner Medea, dam of stakes-placed Sunny Dale; Grade 3-placed stakes winner Namaste’s Wish, dam of stakes-placed Light the Night; Im Classic Quality, dam of Grade 3 winner Toowindytohaulrox; Southern Classic, dam of Grade 1-placed Finnick the Fierce; Cathy’s Cornbread, dam of stakes winner Breaking Bread and stakes-placed Crimson Zip; and Fashionably Cool, dam of stakes-placed Sudden Shift.