The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-olds in training sale is already unique in the U.S. as the only major-market sale offering an under-tack show on a dirt racetrack. The show looks even more unique this year, as Fasig-Tipton made a change by moving to officially untimed works. There are 619 juveniles cataloged for the sale Monday and Tuesday at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium. Although established stallions are well-represented – Not This Time, Into Mischief, and Gun Runner, currently the nation’s top three general sires by earnings, all have multiple offspring cataloged – a good deal of focus figures to be on the freshman sire class, which has already made an impact on the track and in the sales ring. Life Is Good, who had multiple seven-figure yearlings last year, is already the sire of Kentucky Juvenile winner Waggley. Unbeaten Horse of the Year Flightline’s first crop has been well-received, highlighted by a blockbuster $10.5 million colt who set a company record at last month’s Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s spring sale of 2-year-olds in training. Freshman sires Corniche, Cyberknife, Drain the Clock, Epicenter, and Jackie’s Warrior have sired seven-figure 2-year-olds this season. It remains to be seen how buyers will evaluate horses at this sale and how far they are willing to stretch in the bidding following a different format for the under-tack preview show, which took place without officially timed works on May 12 and 13. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. A furlong is the traditional distance for preview shows, and times quicker than 10 seconds typically garner plenty of attention and big price tags. Sub-10-second times are rare on the Timonium track, however. Since 2012, only three horses have officially worked in under 10 seconds, including multiple Grade 1-placed Hejazi, who sold for a sale-record $3.55 million in 2022. The May 2025 Fasig Midlantic sale became an unexpected case study for an altered format after the breeze show was beleaguered by poor weather and controversy. Heavy rain pushed the start of the show back a day, and the opening session on a sloppy, sealed track was uneventful. However, a bit more than halfway through the second session on a still-wet track, a filly suffered catastrophic forelimb injuries entering the turn past the wire of her furlong breeze. Another heavy burst of rain almost immediately moved into the area, scuttling the rest of the day’s works. Fasig consolidated the rest of the show to that Sunday, when conditions would be better, and announced that the session would be presented, officially, as a gallop show. At the end of the turbulent week, the Midlantic sale finished powerfully, with record average and median figures. The average sale price was $135,560, spiking 42 percent from the prior record of $95,425 established in 2024. The median was $60,000, up 20 percent from the previous mark of $50,000 set in 2021 and matched in 2023 and 2024. The record sale was led by four seven-figure horses, three of whom breezed prior to the format switch and one of whom galloped in the final session. One of them, a $1.05 million colt now named Boyd, won both starts last year, including the Ed Brown, and is one of several stakes performers to come out of the final gallop session. Ground Support, purchased for $80,000, won the Grade 2 Miss Grillo and was third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. A Fine Chardonnay, an $85,000 purchase, is a multiple stakes winner who took the Grade 2 Beaumont to open her season. “What we have seen is that the quality coming out of Timonium is translating directly to the racetrack,” Fasig-Tipton executive vice president Bayne Welker said in a release. “Several horses that were sold or offered off untimed gallops and breezes have developed into graded stakes winners and graded performers.” Corona de Oro, most recently third in the Grade 3 Lexington, returned to Maryland to start in Saturday’s Preakness Stakes after being purchased for $160,000 following his gallop at the Midlantic sale last year. Trainer Dallas Stewart said the colt’s physical appearance would have made an impression no matter what he did on the track. “He just galloped. I thought he galloped beautifully,” Stewart said. “I liked his physicality, I liked the way he looked, I liked the horse. When you like them, you like them, and we got a decent price.” :: Subscribe to the DRF Post Time Email Newsletter: Get the news you need to play today's races!  Last summer, Fasig-Tipton announced that it would proceed with an officially untimed under-tack show for this Midlantic sale, although to label it a gallop-only show would eliminate some detail of the actual proceedings. While Fasig-Tipton did not time works or publish times, there were no restrictions on how consignors chose to present their horses, and there was no restriction on private clocking on the grounds. There were updated crop restrictions from the company for this year’s sale. Unless there was a safety issue, riders were not permitted to remove their hands from the reins to strike a horse at any point before a breeze, during a breeze, or while galloping out. A tap on the shoulder while both hands remained on the reins to keep the horse focused was permitted. Watching the two-day under-tack show – during which cones, or “dogs,” were up on the inner lanes of a dry Timonium dirt track – it was obvious that consignors took a variety of approaches. Some horses clearly turned in breezes in order to be privately clocked, picking up speed around the far turn to come to the pole in full stride and traveling strongly through the lane with riders low against their necks. Other horses were in open-gallop mode, with riders high in the irons not actively urging much and allowing horses to stride out at their own pace. Even if a horse galloped during this under-tack preview, that does not mean they never breezed. Many of these horses may have breezed and been clocked for potential buyers at their respective consignors’ bases. Some horses also come to the Midlantic sale after breezing at this season’s earlier 2-year-old auctions. A Highly Motivated filly consigned by Omar Ramirez Bloodstock worked in 10 seconds flat on the synthetic track at the OBS spring show last month, then failed to meet her reserve at $325,000. Since then, the filly, who appeared to be held to a two-minute lick in her gallop this week, has gotten a big catalog update, as half-brother Crude Velocity won the Grade 2 Pat Day Mile on May 2. Overall, Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. was pleased with the new-look under-tack show. “Obviously, with a new format this year with the untimed workouts, there’s always some apprehension and some concern with change,” Browning told assembled media on May 13. “But [we’re] very pleased with how it went from start to finish. The consignors seemed very, very, very pleased with the overall consistency of the racetrack both days. The weather cooperated. “So right now, [we] just couldn’t be any happier with how the under-tack show went. [We’re] looking forward to lots of activity and lots of buyers on the grounds over the next few days and [are] very optimistic about the sale.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.