Fasig-Tipton Midlantic yearling sale looks to keep the ball rolling

The Mid-Atlantic bloodstock and sales industry has been on the rise in recent years, as evidenced by Fasig-Tipton’s strong results at its regional sales. The auction company’s Midlantic fall yearling sale looks to ride a wave of momentum from its standout graduates with an expanded catalog Monday and Tuesday at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium, Md.

Recent graduates of the Midlantic yearling sale include Eclipse Award champion Stellar Wind, who sold for $86,000 at this sale in 2013, and Kentucky Oaks winner Cathryn Sophia, sold for $30,000 in 2014. Other notable graded stakes winners emerging from the auction include Army Mule, unbeaten winner of this year’s Grade 1 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct, who sold for $35,000 in 2015; Long On Value, winner of the Grade 1 Highlander Stakes at Woodbine in his most recent outing, who sold for $3,000 in 2012; and the juvenile Call Paul, winner of the Grade 2 Saratoga Special, who fetched $20,000 last year.

This year’s sale cataloged an initial 445 entries, and Fasig-Tipton announced in late September that 55 supplemental entries had been accepted. The Monday session of the sale, which comprises Hips 1 through 150, will begin at 4 p.m. Eastern. Tuesday’s session will begin at 10 a.m. and run through the rest of the catalog.

“There is good sire power and quality in the supplemental catalog,” Midlantic director of sales Paget Bennett said.

Great Notion, Maryland’s leading sire, has a pair of yearlings cataloged, including a full brother to his multiple stakes winner Great Soul. Friesan Fire, the sire of Army Mule and second on Maryland’s general sires list, has six yearlings set to sell.

Last year’s Midlantic fall yearlings sale, which was held over two days for the first time since 2011, finished with 312 horses sold for revenues of $7,855,100, led by a $300,000 Cairo Prince colt, compared to the 2016 single-session sale when 268 horses brought $6,436,600. That resulted in an average sale price of $25,177, a gain of 5 percent from 2016, and a median of $14,000, a spike of 40 percent. The buyback rate finished at 29 percent, marking a significant increase from 2016’s final rate of 17 percent.

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