Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, who sold five years ago at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale, is represented by 15 yearlings from his first crop at the boutique auction this summer.
Joe McMahon has seen it all at the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred preferred yearling sale. Actually, 30 years ago he practically had to oversee it all. That's because McMahon, patriarch of McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., was the founder of the sale, and because of his vision, the sale has grown into one of the strongest yearling sales in the country.
Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale horses to watch
The inspiration provided by Justify and the opportunity provided by American Pharoah could help bring a rising tide to the Thoroughbred yearling market.
The yearling market – like all bloodstock markets the past decade – has been humming along at a steady clip, rising from the depths of the 2008 Great Recession and showing no signs of slowing down.
Even without Triple Crown winner American Pharoah in the mix, this year's class of first-crop yearling sires is among the strongest in recent memory.
Fasig-Tipton and Santa Anita will conduct a new 2-year-olds in training sale at Santa Anita next June in an attempt to secure a late position on the juvenile auction calendar. The sale is tentatively scheduled for June 5.
The rapidly changing Thoroughbred auction market in California will include two sales at Santa Anita in 2019 – an auction of 2-year-olds in training in June and a yearling sale in September.
Barretts has moved its paddock sale of horses of racing age at Del Mar, scheduled for July 25, to run with its yearling sale at Fairplex Park in Pomona, Calif., on Oct. 16.
The Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July yearling sale, being the first major sale of the year, had its challenges early. Through the first 1 1/2 hours there were almost as many horses reported sold as reported not sold. But by the time the sale ended eight hours after it began, the nervous market settled in quite well and prices were strong, and especially strong the last half of the sale.
