Gulfstream sale looks to build on productive reputation

Since moving to Gulfstream Park for its 2015 edition, Fasig-Tipton’s boutique Florida sale of 2-year-olds in training has improved its figures each year, including posting the second-highest average price in its history last year. And why not? Each renewal seems to produce racetrack standouts.

Just over two months after changing hands at the first edition of the sale held at Gulfstream, Nyquist made the first start in an unbeaten juvenile campaign that culminated with a victory in the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and a divisional Eclipse Award. He went on to take the following year’s Kentucky Derby. Other graduates of the sale since its move to Gulfstream have included Grade 1 winners Audible (2017), Dream Tree (2017), and Mor Spirit (2015). Just last year, the sale produced multiple Grade 1 winner Bellafina, along with Grade 2 winners Instagrand and Maximus Mischief.

Those looking for similar standouts – the “Saturday horse,” as industry members colloquially phrase it – have a group of strong pedigrees and physicals to shop from at this year’s edition. Fasig-Tipton has assembled a catalog of 188 horses for the Gulfstream sale, set for Wednesday afternoon in the track’s walking ring. Juveniles will have the opportunity to strut their stuff for potential buyers during an under-tack preview show on Gulfstream’s main and turf tracks on Monday.

“I’m like a kid in a candy store with regards to the quality of the catalog that we’ve got for the Gulfstream sale,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning said. “It will be a really, really strong catalog, both in terms of pedigree and physical quality.

“We’ve had a track record at Gulfstream of selling Saturday horses, and I promise you, there’s a bunch in the catalog this year.”

America’s perennial leading racetrack and commercial sires are represented in this select catalog. There are three juveniles on offer by Tapit, all out of Grade 1 winners or producers, and one by the internationally popular War Front. Leading juvenile sire Into Mischief, represented by the co-sale-topping Instagrand last year, has 12 in the catalog, while Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, who keys a strong group of freshman sires, has 10 from his first crop. Following early outs, there are also two juveniles for sale by American Pharoah’s sire, Pioneerof the Nile, who died unexpectedly on March 18 at age 13.

The catalog includes half-siblings to two-time Breeders’ Cup winner Stephanie’s Kitten, Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Tapizar, and classic-placed Grade 1 winner Ice Box. Current sale entries also include half- or full siblings to Grade 1 winners American Gal, Bullsbay, I’m a Chatterbox, It Tiz Well, Morning Line, Salutos Amigos, Time and Motion, and Verrazano, and foals out of Grade 1 winners Diplomat Lady, Malibu Mint, Sassy Image, Seattle Smooth, and Winter Memories.

Last year’s Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale finished with 59 horses sold for revenues of $22,995,000, down 9 percent from the prior year, when 74 horses changed hands for $25,155,000. One of the main factors for the lower gross was the buyback rate, which finished at 35 percent in the highly selective market, compared with an unusually low 15 percent in 2017.

Last year’s average price finished at $389,746, jumping 15 percent from $339,392 in 2017, while the median increased 9 percent to $295,000 from $270,000. Those figures were the highest in the category since Fasig-Tipton moved this March sale to Gulfstream, and trailed only the sale’s all-time high average of $403,812 set in 2006 (the year The Green Monkey brought a record $16 million when the sale was held at Calder) and the high-point median of $295,000 set in 2013.

Last year’s sale was topped by a $1.2 million Medaglia d’Oro filly and a $1.2 million Into Mischief colt, who became Instagrand.