Fasig-Tipton Kentucky winter mixed sale seeks strong end to season

The show has gone on during this mixed sale season in Kentucky, even as the state grapples with an eventful winter. The Fasig-Tipton Kentucky winter mixed sale is not immune, but is set to bring the curtain down on a strong season.

The Fasig-Tipton sale, held at the company’s Newtown Paddocks headquarters in Lexington, Ky., is now set to be held Tuesday and Wednesday, pushed back one day from its original Monday start date. Lexington was under an ice storm warning Thursday into Friday, and temperatures were not expected to rise above freezing through Saturday. A similar scenario unfolded last month, when the Keeneland January horses of all ages sale across town was pushed back one day after a record snowfall in Lexington late the prior week made transporting and inspecting horses dangerous.

“In the interests of safety, we have decided to push the sale back by one day,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. said. “This will ensure that horses and sale participants will have ample time to arrive on the sales grounds and begin inspections when conditions are safe to do so.”

The Fasig-Tipton February sale could provide a strong close to what has been an encouraging mixed sale season since opening in November – with median prices and buyback rates, both key indicators of market health, improved at most sales. With breeding sheds in North America set to open this month, the sale marks the final chance to acquire broodmares for the season, which creates a sense of urgency in what has already been a competitive marketplace.

The sale also is the final chance for pinhookers to acquire short yearlings to develop and prepare for the summer and fall yearling sales. A recent example of a success in this regard is classic-placed Grade 1 winner Hot Rod Charlie, who graces this edition’s catalog cover. The colt was a $17,000 purchase at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton February sale before successfully being pinhooked for $110,000 to Dennis O’Neill at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall yearling sale a little less than nine months later.

The weanlings and short yearlings by 2017 Horse of the Year Gun Runner, last year’s record-setting freshman sire and overall leading juvenile sire, have been in high demand throughout this mixed season. A Gun Runner colt was the highest-priced yearling at the Keeneland January sale, at $375,000, and a yearling filly by the stallion was the overall topper at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s winter mixed sale, at $275,000.

Overall, Gun Runner averaged $204,500 from 16 weanlings sold from this crop last fall and is averaging $213,333 from six yearlings sold since the turn of the calendar. This crop, his third, was conceived on an advertised stud fee of $70,000 in 2020 at Three Chimneys Farm. Gun Runner is booked full at a fee of $125,000 for the upcoming season.

Following early outs, there is just one Gun Runner yearling expected to go through the ring at the Fasig-Tipton February sale, which has 606 hips in the catalog, including supplements. The filly is from the family of graded/group stakes winners Classy Glass, Good Student, and Studentessa.

The 3-year-old Shotgun Hottie, from Gun Runner’s first crop, is on offer as a racing or broodmare prospect. The filly, a winner last year as a juvenile, is from the family of Grade 1 winners Sky Diva, Pure Clan, and Finley’sluckycharm. (Shotgun Hottie was entered in Sunday's $100,000 Ruthless Stakes at Aqueduct.) There also are five broodmares in the catalog in foal to Gun Runner.

As Gun Runner’s reputation continues to rise – the stallion recorded his seventh career stakes winner on Jan. 30 – the stock of the young racing or broodmare prospect Brilliant Cut continues to rise, and she, too, is one of the highlights of this catalog. The 4-year-old daughter of Speightstown, Grade 2-placed early in 2021, was second in the Grade 1 La Brea Stakes on Dec. 26 in her most recent outing before being supplemented to Fasig-Tipton.

Brilliant Cut is a half-sister to stakes winner Lemieux, and their dam is a half to Grade 1 winner Diamondrella and Grade 1-placed stakes winner Bonnie Blue Flag, both prominent producers. The catalog page has recorded major updates recently, as Bonnie Blue Flag is the granddam of Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Life Is Good, who ran away from the field to win the Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 29.

The 2021 edition of the Fasig-Tipton February sale grossed $12,506,700 from 425 horses sold, led by the $510,000 broodmare Beloveda. The average price was $29,428, and the median was $10,000, gains of 11 percent and 18 percent, respectively, from their 2020 levels. The buyback rate was 19 percent, improved from 25 percent.