Freshman sire Laoban continues run in Fasig-Tipton Midlantic December mixed and horses of racing age sale

A $150,000 colt by breakout young sire Laoban was the highest-priced weanling and highest-priced New York-bred at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic December mixed and horses of racing age sale on Tuesday.

Laoban, who debuted at stud at Sequel Stallions in New York, is second on the freshman earnings list behind Nyquist, despite having the fewest starters of any stallion in the top five and being the only one standing outside of Kentucky.

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He is the sire of Grade 1 winner Simply Ravishing, Grade 2 winner Keepmeinmind, and multiple New York-bred stakes winner Laobanonaprayer, who gave Laoban a boost heading into this week’s sale. Laobanonaprayer won a division of the New York Stallion Series Stakes on Sunday at Aqueduct, leading home another Laoban filly, Jill’s a Hot Mess. Off his freshman-season success, Laoban will move to the competitive Kentucky market for 2021, standing at WinStar Farm.

“Gorgeous colt, and the stallion has made it on all the backs of these New York mares,” Carrie Brogden of buyer Machmer Hall tweeted of the $150,000 colt. “He was as exceptionally good looking, as is his father.”

The Laoban colt led a sizable number of New York-bred offerings at the Midlantic mixed sale. Fasig-Tipton had been scheduled to conduct a fall mixed sale in October in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. However, owing to New York State’s ongoing travel restrictions to combat the spread of COVID-19, that auction was canceled. Some of the horses intended for that auction were absorbed into the Midlantic sale.

Fly On Angel, winner of Grade 3 Charles Town Oaks in August, sold for $195,000 to Cypress Creek LLC, to lead the sale overall.

The sale posted declines compared to a strong 2019 renewal.

Fasig-Tipton reported that 182 horses were sold in Tuesday’s auction at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium for gross receipts of $2,345,600. Last year’s sale, which was led by a sale-record $450,000 horse, had 249 horses change hands for $4,383,700.

The average price was $12,888, dipping 27 percent from $17,605 in 2019, but comparing favorably to $9,508 in 2018. The median price was $5,000, down 38 percent from $8,000 last year, but even with the 2018 figure.

The buyback rate in a selective marketplace that has become even more so because of the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic was 23 percent, compared to 19 percent in 2019.