Strong market expected to continue into mixed sales

The Thoroughbred sales calendar turns like a water wheel, with the energy from one season often spilling into the next. A strong 2-year-old market earlier this year was one of the factors credited in fueling a record-setting yearling sale season this summer and fall. Off that, a solid marketplace is expected for the dawning North American mixed sale season, which begins with the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall selected mixed sale on Nov. 9, and the Keeneland November breeding stock sale on Nov. 10-19.

“All of our marketplaces are interrelated,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. said. “Our 2-year-old sales were good, which helped the yearling marketplace, which should help the weanling marketplace. The Dow Jones is at a high. . . . Most people have a high level of confidence in the economy and in racing, because the purse structures are good. All the economic indicators” are strong.

With the majority of this year’s yearling sales posting record or near-record figures, weanling-to-yearling pinhookers may be flush from success, and emboldened to re-stock for 2022.

“A lot of the pinhookers made good profits this year,” Keeneland vice president of sales Tony Lacy said. “They sold their yearlings very well. Because of that, you see an enthusiasm to reinvest.

Following a strong yearling season, however, those pinhookers may have to compete against a strong core of end users, those intending to race and eventually breed their young purchases. An elevated yearling market could push some of those buyers into the weanling marketplace, seeking to find potential talent at a better value. Competition at the top end of the market could push some traditional weanling buyers deeper into the sale catalog to fill their orders, creating middle-market strength.

That competition, in turn, could spark the broodmare market, pushing those looking for young horses to seek them out before they’re even born, creating competition in another segment of the marketplace.

“When people start getting a little pushed out of the weanling market, they go and start buying young mares in foal to stallions whose foals they would have liked to have bought,” Lacy said. “I think you’ll find that this will invigorate the mare market. It may even help invigorate the crop number as we go forward. Locally, you saw that 2 percent increase [in mares reported bred to Kentucky stallions, year-to-year, by The Jockey Club] . . . which is a great trend coming out of the pandemic. There was enthusiasm for purchasing young mares last year, with exciting futures.”

Mark Taylor, of perennial leading consignor Taylor Made Farm, also expressed hope that ongoing factors in the industry, both positive and negative, could push owners to invest in more broodmares this upcoming season.

“The positive numbers across all yearling sales have definitely been a much-needed help for breeders,” Taylor said. “It’s still a tough game. The foal crop continues to tick lower as many breeders are consolidating, with added focus on more quality and less quantity. Hopefully, these positive sales will trigger reinvestment into mares across all sectors. That’s a big question mark. Breeding for the commercial market becomes less predictable each year as veterinary scrutiny increases. Purses are great, and I hope that some breeders may actually look to breed more to race.”

As opposed to buying a yearling that may be broken a matter of weeks after sale with an eye to racing the following year, those buying a broodmare, whether intending to sell or race the resulting foal, make a longer-term investment on a number of counts, beginning with the veterinary expenses of delivering a healthy foal. The resulting foal then must be raised and either targeted to sale or race months or years later. The mare must be gotten back in foal with an eye toward either making her commercially appealing, or with her resulting foal feeding back into a larger racing and breeding program.

Thus, a strong broodmare market often represents optimism for the long-term health of the bloodstock industry – and that could be an even more welcome sign than the strong marketplaces for young horses in recent months.

“It’s pretty obvious to everyone there’s a lot of optimism,” Lacy said. “September was an incredible sale – not only the excitement that people had, but a renewed vigor and enthusiasm for what we’re doing, what the industry is doing. And the economy is working in our favor. . . . We’re finding that the enthusiasm for November is equally high.”

Other major-market mixed sales following the prominent November auctions in Kentucky are the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic December mixed and horses of racing age sale on Dec. 7 in Maryland; the Keeneland January horses of all ages sale from Jan. 10-13; the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s winter mixed and horses of racing age sale on Jan. 25-26; and the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky winter mixed sale in early February.