Earlier this week I had a chance to spend a day at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Selected Yearlings Sale. The two day sale is held every August at the Humphrey S. Finley Sales Pavilion in Saratoga Springs, New York. The sale featured yearlings (one year old horses) that will begin their racing careers as 2 year old’s in 2017. This year’s sale cataloged 252 yearlings with impeccable bloodlines. As a “Selected” Sale, Fasig-Tipton decides if a particular yearling will be allowed in the sale. This ensures the sale has exclusivity as yearlings in the sale have almost flawless physical confirmation.
My day began visiting the barn areas where the 252 yearlings were being shown by their consignors. Consignors are companies that represent the yearlings on behalf of their breeders. This particular sale had 48 consignors representing yearlings born in Canada, Florida, Illinois, Ireland, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. Of the 252 yearlings, 201 were born in Kentucky which supports Kentucky being the “horse capital of the world”.
Throughout each day of the two day sale, prospective buyers and their advisors or trainers made their rounds to inspect the yearlings. Inspections include going over the physical attributes of the horses as well as watching them walk in a straight line back and forth on a bridle path. In addition, prospective buyers will review x-rays of each horse that are held in a central repository as well as have their veterinarians scope the horse. Scoping involves inserting a tubular scope down the horse’s throat to assess its airway.
The auction aspect of the sale takes place over the course of the two evenings of the sale. Approximately half of the 252 yearlings are sold each evening. Horses are led one by one from their stalls on the grounds into the sale ring. Before the bidding begins the auctioneer shares a brief description of each horse and its pedigree. As I walked the grounds during the day it was clear which yearlings were drawing the most attention. Some yearlings were asked by prospective buyers to walk down the bridle path more than 100 times over the course of the sale. In addition, veterinarians were being asked to scope the preferred horses with some regularity. Inspection activity during the day was reflected in the evening by the sale price of the yearlings.
Of the 252 yearlings in the sale, 156 sold for a total of $45.6 million. The 96 yearlings that didn’t sell either didn’t meet a predetermined price the consigner established or they were removed from the sale at the last moment for various reasons. The two highest prices this year were $1.45 million for a filly and $1.25 million for a colt. The filly was shown 280 times to prospective buyers! The trend in recent years for partnerships like ours (Woodford Racing) to buy the more expensive yearlings continued. It allows buyers to bid higher than they can on their own and spread their risk.
This year’s sale was a who’s who of owners and trainers. Bob Baffert the trainer of 2015 Triple Crown Winner American Pharoah was there as were leading trainers Todd Pletcher and Chad Brown, the trainer of our horses (Woodford Racing). Chef Bobby Flay and other celebrities were present which made for a colorful evening.
If you didn’t find what you were looking for at this week’s Fasig-Tipton Yearling Sale you will have another chance in September at Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky. Over 10 days more than 4,000 yearlings will be sold making Keeneland September the largest yearling sale in the world!