Lone Star sale offers 85 juveniles Monday

The sale of 2-year-olds in training Monday at Lone Star Park will have a new administrator after Fasig-Tipton left the Texas market following last year’s sale, but the mechanics of the auction will be much the same. The breeze show Saturday will again be held at the Dallas-area track, and the auction itself will be in the pavilion right inside the stable gate at Lone Star.

Tim Boyce, the longtime sales director for Fasig-Tipton Texas, will serve in the same role for the new sale that the Texas Thoroughbred Association is putting on in conjunction with Lone Star. There are 85 juveniles cataloged compared with 117 last year. The Kentucky-based Fasig-Tipton had kept offices in Texas since 1997.

“We’re excited about the sale,” Boyce said. “You won’t see much difference. I think you’ll find the amount of quality horses hasn’t changed at all. I think we have the same amount of quality horses by quality stallions. The bottom-side pedigrees are as strong as we’ve ever had. We just don’t have the numbers we used to.”

Saturday’s under-tack show begins at 11 a.m. Central. The auction on Monday starts at noon. Last year, a horses-of-racing-age section followed the 2-year-olds, but this year, there were no such horses consigned. The 2-year-olds will all be stabled in a single barn behind the sales pavilion in a departure from the past, said Boyce, as Lone Star’s stable area is filling up with the track set to open its meet April 7.

“This is the closest we’ve ever been to the meet,” said Boyce.

The catalog includes offspring of Afleet Alex, Awesome Again, Bluegrass Cat, Caleb’s Posse, Haynesville, Henny Hughes, Scat Daddy, The Factor, and Valid Expectations, as well as horses by freshman sires Gemologist, Redding Collier, and Tapizar.

Horses who pass through the ring become eligible for the Texas Thoroughbred Futurity, or the former TTA Sales Futurity. A pair of $100,000 divisions will be run this summer at Lone Star.

“There are some horses that are eligible for three or four sales futurities,” Boyce said, noting that some qualify for races in Louisiana. “That’s quite a bonus when you buy them.”

The group of consignors includes Asmussen Horse Center, Benchmark Training Center, Fairytail Farm, Inside Move, and Twin Oaks Training Center.

Boyce said Walt Robertson will serve as auctioneer, while the announcer will be Dave Appleton.

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