Fasig-Tipton Kentucky selected horses of racing age sale goes it alone

The Fasig-Tipton Kentucky selected horses of racing age sale has been held in conjunction with the auction company’s July yearling sale since its inception in 2013 – but this year, it must stand on its own.

With a postponed juvenile auction season still ongoing due to the coronavirus pandemic, the July yearling sale was scrapped, with some of that catalog to be absorbed into Fasig’s selected yearling showcase in September. The horses of racing age sale will still proceed as scheduled, with its usual strong catalog featuring several stakes-seasoned runners.

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The catalog for the auction, set for Monday at Fasig-Tipton’s Newtown Paddocks facility in Lexington, Ky., sat at 182 hips as of Saturday night. That could change, as Fasig was continuing to accept supplemental that day, and the plans for actively racing horses can be fluid, leading to withdrawals. The sale provides a major-market venue to acquire active horses who can be immediately pointed to summer and fall targets. Indeed, the sale is positioned just before the start of the major summer race meetings at Del Mar and Saratoga, and Del Mar will offer an additional $2,000 with its Ship and Win program for horses purchased at this auction who start at the 2020 meet.

“This year, the July horses of racing age sale takes on added importance,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. said. “As racing resumes, it is of the utmost importance that buyers and sellers have this established venue to conduct business. This sale has a tremendous track record with its sale graduates. This year’s catalog features a number of quality entries that will fit a variety of racing programs from coast to coast.”

Two of the most accomplished entrants in the catalog are the older graded stakes winners True Valour and Sombeyay. True Valour, a Group 3 winner in Ireland, came to the U.S. in 2018 and won the Grade 2 City of Hope Mile and Grade 3 Thunder Road Stakes in California last year. Now 6, True Valour has made five starts this year, with his best finish a third in the Thunder Road.

The 4-year-old Sombeyay, an intact son of leading sire Into Mischief, won the Grade 3 Sanford Stakes as a juvenile, and was Grade 2 placed on turf last year. In four outings this year, Sombeyay owns a win in the Grade 3 Canadian Turf and a runner-up effort in the Grade 3 Appleton Stakes, both at Gulfstream.

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The catalog also includes several 3-year-olds with current form, including the likes of Toledo. The son of leading sire Into Mischief colt was third in the Grade 3 Holy Bull at Gulfstream this year behind eventual Belmont Stakes winner Tiz the Law and Ete Indian. Impeccable Style is the recent runner-up in the Grade 3 Indiana Oaks, and Queen of God is a multiple stakes winner, highlighted by a victory in the Bourbonette Oaks. Liam's Pride, among the most recent supplemental entries, notched his first career stakes win in the Gold Fever at Belmont on Friday.

Older horses in the catalog also include graded stakes winners Forty Under, Journeyman, and The Black Album; Grade 3-placed stakes winner He Hate Me; stakes winners Avalina and Bodecream; and stakes-placed Air Force Jet, Behind the Couch, Complicit, Something Super, and Song River.

Although the majority of the catalog is made up of 3-year-olds and older, a handful of 2-year-olds, most of whom have already started, were entered in a season in which the juvenile sale calendar was turned upside down. The group is led by County Final, second in the Grade 3 Bashford Manor at Churchill Downs.

Fasig-Tipton is implementing measures against the spread of coronavirus, including requiring cloth face coverings and reducing seating in the sale pavilion below 33 percent of capacity. Fasig-Tipton’s online bidding platform, which the company debuted at its Midlantic 2-year-old sale last month, will be available.

Last year’s auction, led by $510,000 Jalen Journey, finished with 95 horses sold for gross receipts of $6,548,500, an average price of $68,932, and a median of $45,000, all declines from the 2018 figures. The buyback rate was 30 percent.