Search for future stars continues at Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale

The Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Park sale of 2-year-olds in training, which will test the upper reaches of the nation’s marketplace, is set to host its breeze show Monday, giving juveniles a chance to strut their stuff on the dirt and turf courses. They’ll then step, wide-eyed, into the paddock, transformed into a sale ring, on Wednesday afternoon.

The hope of buyers, of course, is to uncover a horse like Nyquist, perennially cited as one of the greatest Gulfstream sale graduates. After being purchased for $400,000 in 2015, he was that year’s Eclipse Award champion juvenile, returned to Gulfstream to win the Florida Derby, and subsequently captured the Kentucky Derby.

“We have hosted this sale at Gulfstream for just seven years, and in that short time, the quality of graduates produced is remarkable,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. said, noting that Gulfstream graduates have won more than a dozen Grade 1 races.

The Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale has continued to produce noteworthy graduates in recent years who have keyed strong results for the boutique auction. Cezanne sold for a sale-topping $3.65 million in 2019, helping to fuel a record average price of $493,475. Cezanne won the Grade 3 Kona Gold last year, and won the Grade 2 San Carlos in his most recent outing.

The Gulfstream sale was canceled in the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, but returned in strong fashion in 2021, with 67 horses – including three seven-figure lots – selling for gross receipts of $25,360,000, resulting in an average price of $378,507 and a median of $300,000. The average was the third-highest since Fasig-Tipton’s Florida sale moved to Gulfstream in 2015.

All three seven-figure lots from the 2021 sale have made it to the races, with creditable efforts. Nyquist was responsible for the sale-topper in $2.6 million Bletchley Park, second on debut Jan. 22 at Santa Anita; he was flattered when the winner, Happy Jack, ran third in the Grade 2 San Felipe, setting himself up for a tilt at the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby. Bletchley Park is entered for his second start this Sunday at Santa Anita.

Taiba, who sold for $1.7 million, was an exciting 7 1/2-length debut winner March 5 at Santa Anita. Rounding out the trio, $1.3 million Palm Island was a green fifth on debut Feb. 5 at Gulfstream after ducking into the gap at the start.

The 103 juveniles cataloged, prior to outs, for Wednesday’s sale sport strong pedigrees, having been selected based on those attributes and on their physical conformation by Fasig-Tipton’s inspection team.

“The Gulfstream sale annually offers a concentration of quality that is unmatched by any 2-year-old sale,” Browning said. “Buyers that arrive in South Florida for this year’s sale will once again be presented with quality individuals by the sport’s most prominent and promising sires.”

Two noteworthy colts are making their second trip through a Fasig-Tipton auction ring after they were buybacks at last August’s elite Saratoga yearling sale. Prince of Truth, a colt by three-time reigning leading sire Into Mischief and out of Eclipse Award champion female sprinter La Verdad, was a $675,000 buyback in Saratoga.

Meanwhile, a colt from the first crop of Triple Crown winner Justify and out of Grade 1 winner Appealing Zophie, dam of Belmont Stakes winner Tapwrit and graded stakes winner Ride a Comet, was a $290,000 buyback. Both are consigned by Ciaran Dunne’s Wavertree Stables, as agent.

The other standout offerings in the catalog include a Medaglia d’Oro colt who is a half-brother to Constitution, a multiple Grade 1 winner at Gulfstream who has gone on to become a young classic sire; juveniles out of Grade 1 winners Ask the Moon and River’s Prayer; and half-siblings to Grade 1 winners Paola Queen and Tiz Miz Sue.