Lane's End skips August sale

The Farish family's Lane's End operation will bypass the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling auction this year, Bill Farish confirmed Tuesday.

The Lane's End consignment will point for the Keeneland September yearling auction instead of the August sale.

"For years we've been selling our yearlings in September," Farish said. "We look at it every year on a year-to-year basis, and when we looked at our crop this year, we thought we had a better lineup for September rather than dividing the consignment up."

Farish said it wasn't certain yet how many yearlings the farm would offer at the September auction.

Lane's End is a major seller at top-level yearling auctions and last year was the season's second-leading consignor of yearlings overall, with 204 lots reported sold for gross receipts of $37,959,900. Taylor Made led all consignors last year with 524 yearlings sold for $44,469,900.

At the 2003 Saratoga auction, the Lane's End consignment featured the auction's highest-priced filly, a $1.1 million Storm Cat-Jewel Princess filly purchased by Eugene Melnyk.

Farish said the extra month of growth and preparation that the Keeneland September sale provides was an important factor in Lane's End's decision to skip the Aug. 10-12 Saratoga auction.