Fasig-Tipton to offer online bidding on all auctions

Fasig-Tipton is expanding its opportunities for buyers to bid on horses remotely, announcing that it will offer online bidding at all its live auctions.

The online bidding platform will be available for Fasig-Tipton's next scheduled auction, the Midlantic 2-year-olds in training sale, set for June 29 and 30 in Timonium, Md. That sale was postponed from its original May slot on the calendar due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has upended the juvenile sale season in North America as health officials issued guidelines against gatherings of people and travel.

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In the wake of the pandemic, global auction houses have begun to explore different options for conducting their sales. Earlier this month in Australia, Inglis conducted its flagship Easter yearling sale solely with online and telephone bidding. The sale recorded solid results as it was keenly watched by the global bloodstock community, with a $1.8 million Snitzel colt becoming the highest-priced horse ever sold in an online auction.

"The addition of online bidding to our live auctions is a service we are pleased to offer," Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning said in a release. "At no other time has this service been more crucial or needed. As we all work to conduct business in the current COVID-19 environment of adjusted social norms, online bidding ensures the best possible marketplace for our buyers and sellers in 2020. Looking beyond 2020, we envision this service being an integral component of all future auctions."

Fasig-Tipton also said that it would expand its traditional phone bidding program. All major auction houses offer this service.

Fasig-Tipton also said that it will launch an online-only auction platform in the future. The platform will complement the company's live auction lineup, offering buyers and sellers additional transaction opportunities that fall outside of the traditional live auction calendar.

"In the world that we live in, companies need to be flexible and willing to adapt," Browning said. "Fasig-Tipton will always seek to be innovative and ready to adjust our sales models to best serve the marketplace."