Fasig-Tipton Midlantic June sale shows declines from 2023 inaugural

A colt by promising freshman sire Vekoma sold for $150,000 to lead the second edition of the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic June sale of 2-year-olds in training on Tuesday at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium.

Fasig-Tipton reported 48 horses sold in the single-session sale, including post-ring transactions, for gross receipts of $1,418,500. The average price was $29,552 and the median was $22,500. The buyback rate finished at 19 percent.

With fewer horses sold, partially due to some scratches, and only one six-figure horse sold compared to four, most of the figures were declines from 2023’s inaugural edition of this sale, which seeks to build on Fasig-Tipton’s successful May sale in the region. Last year’s sale traded 59 horses, including private sales, for gross receipts of $2,541,000, an average price of $43,068 and median of $26,000, and a buyback rate of 25 percent.

“I think it’s always difficult when you launch a new initiative to change people’s habits,” Fasig-Tipton president and CEO Boyd Browning Jr. said prior to the sale. “We’re all creatures of habit. Changing behavior does take some time.”

:: Subscribe to the DRF Post Time Email Newsletter: Get the news you need to play today's races!

The sale-topping Vekoma colt, a New Jersey-bred, was purchased by Gracie Bloodstock, as agent, from the consignment of Mason Springs, as agent. This was the third time the colt has changed hands at public auction after also selling as a weanling and a yearling. The May foal was, most recently prior to Tuesday, a $60,000 Fasig-Tipton October yearling purchase by bloodstock agent Chad Schumer.

He was entered in the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s spring sale of 2-year-olds in training in April, but failed to meet his reserve with a high bid of $55,000. With two more months of training under his belt, and the dirt track at Timonium to breeze on, he found his ideal marketplace at the June sale. The colt worked a furlong in 10 seconds flat at Monday’s under-tack preview show, tied for the fastest time. He proceeded to more than double his yearling purchase price.

Vekoma, a graded stakes winner around two turns at ages 2 and 3 before winning a pair of Grade 1 handicaps, the Carter and Metropolitan, at age 4, currently leads the freshman sire class with eight individual winners. This colt is the second foal out of the Pioneerof the Nile mare Elusively, whose first foal is a winner. The mare, a half-sister to stakes winner Colonel Sharp, is a granddaughter of seven-time Grade 1 winner Sharp Cat. Multiple Grade/Group 1 winner Royal Anthem also appears on the catalog page.

For hip-by-hip results, click here.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.