Fasig-Tipton Midlantic set to sell 500 yearlings

Next week’s Fasig-Tipton Midlantic fall yearling sale kicks off the final month of what has been a strong North American yearling sales season.

There are 500 horses cataloged for the Midlantic sale, set for Monday and Tuesday at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium.

“We are very encouraged by the strength of this year’s catalog,” Midlantic director of sales Paget Bennett said in a press release. “Sire power has ticked up once again this year, with a healthy mix of leading national sires as well as regional sires. Several of the nation’s current leading first-crop 2-year-old sires are especially well represented, which adds additional interest to the catalog.”

This year’s major-market yearling auctions have not only posted gains from the COVID-hampered 2020 season, they have posted figures on par or above their 2019 editions. Most recently, the bellwether Keeneland September yearling sale finished with record average, median, and buyback figures, buoyed by strong middle and lower markets.

The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale is followed by the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s October yearling sale on Oct. 12-13, and the season finale, the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall sale from Oct. 25-28.

Aunt Pearl selling in November

Aunt Pearl, winner of last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, has been retired and will be offered for sale at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall selected mixed sale on Nov. 9, adding to a growing roster of star power for that auction.

Aunt Pearl won all three of her starts in 2020, including the Grade 2 Jessamine. She made one start this year, finishing fifth in the Grade 2 Edgewood Stakes in April.

Aunt Pearl will be consigned as agent by Elite Sales, which also will offer Grade 1 winners Dayoutoftheoffice, Duopoly and Etoile that evening. She is owned by Michael Dubb, Madaket Stables, Peter Deutsch, Michael Kisber, and The Elkstone Group.

Other standouts already confirmed for the Fasig-Tipton November sale include Preakness Stakes winner and Eclipse Award champion Swiss Skydiver (to be consigned by Runnymede Farm) and 2020 Kentucky Oaks winner and Breeders’ Cup Distaff candidate Shedaresthedevil (Hunter Valley Farm). The complete catalog will be released in October.

Ohio sale has 93 cataloged

The Ohio Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners mixed sale will be held Oct. 15 at the Delaware County Fairgrounds north of Columbus.

The catalog, with 93 horses, is made up mainly of young horses, with 51 Ohio-bred yearlings, 16 juveniles, and 11 weanlings cataloged. Young graduates of the sale will be eligible for a new addition to the Ohio stakes calendar, the $50,000 OTBO Sales Graduate Stakes set for March 5 at Mahoning Valley. The race will be open to all Ohio-bred or -accredited 3-year-olds who passed through any OTBO sale from 2019 onward.

Highlights of the catalog include Storm of Nineteen, a 2-year-old Get Stormy filly who is a half-sister to Ohio-bred horse of the year Altissimo, a 10-time stakes winner who also is graded placed. Also cataloged is Wild Ox, a 2-year-old Oxbow colt who is half-brother to millionaire and state champion sprinter Rivers Run Deep, a 14-time stakes winner.

“The quality of this year’s Ohio-bred yearlings is well above what we’ve seen in recent years . . . which shows the commitment of Ohio’s breeders to breed better and better racehorses,” Ohio-based bloodstock agent Tony Fischbach said in a press release.