Article originally written on Monday, July 9th by Ron Mitchell of Bloodhorse.com.
Buoyed by well-bred fillies with recent stakes accomplishments and a strong supporting cast, the Fasig-Tipton Summer Selected Horses of Racing Age Sale July 9 showed a continuing demand in the marketplace for ready-made racehorses.
The one-day auction saw 100 of the 119 horses through the ring sell for $9,318,000, for an average price of $93,180 and a $50,000 median. Breeze Easy took home the top seller, the $700,000 stakes-winning, grade 2-placed Tapit filly My Miss Tapit from the ELiTE consignment.
My Miss Tapit (Hip 485) goes for $700,000 to Breeze Easy.
During last year’s auction, 84 horses of 99 offered were sold for gross receipts of $8.083 million, an average price of $96,226, and a $56,000 median.
“I thought horses sold very, very fairly, and I think overall consignors and buyers were both happy with the level of commerce that took place,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. said. “We had a very interesting catalog—lots of horses that had lots of appeal domestically and a few internationally.”
Browning said the sale, first held in 2013, fills a niche by providing a venue for buyers and sellers to move and acquire racing stock.
“We are very pleased with the progression of the horses of racing age sale and think there are opportunities for growth and momentum,” he said. “I hope next year we have another uptick in quality and continue to produce impressive results.
“You don’t always bat 1,000 but we perceived a need and I think it fills an important role in the marketplace,” the executive said. “It creates liquidity and I think it also creates some real racing opportunities on the buyers side of things to improve.”
Bradley Weisbord, who along with Liz Crow emerged as leading consignors for the second consecutive year through their ELiTE operation, said the sale was “very strong” with horses bringing 30-40% more than their appraised values.
“The horse business right now is a fun place to be, and we’re not naïve enough to think it’s going to last forever,” he said. “Right now the economy appears strong and the horse business is strong.”
Weisbord credited trainers Todd Pletcher and Chad Brown and their respective clients for providing ELiTE with a strong group to sell as ELiTE sold 13 of 17 offered for $2.53 million, and an average of $194,615 and a $165,000 median.
“They (clients) bought nice-pedigreed, good-looking yearlings, and they were rewarded with formful horses that outsold themselves,” said Weisbord, who along with Crow manages a large group of racehorses for most of those owners on a daily basis.
The horses of racing age sale preceded The July Sale, Fasig-Tipton Kentucky’s selected summer yearling sale that begins at 10 a.m. July 10.
