Rain didn’t dampened enthusiasm Monday on the sales grounds in advance of Tuesday’s Fasig-Tipton Saratoga fall mixed sale. Fasig Tipton Photo.
By Alec DiConza and Tom Law
With all the major yearling markets in the books, the North American auction scene shifts to the autumn breeding stock market and leads off Tuesday with the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga fall mixed sale in Saratoga Springs, New York.
The sale starts at noon ET, two hours later than originally scheduled after inclement weather Monday in Saratoga Springs, New York, forced the delay.
“The weather conditions here in Saratoga have made it difficult for buyers to get their looking done in a timely manner,” said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning Jr. “A two-hour delay to the sale’s start will ensure that buyers and veterinarians can complete their pre-sale work properly.”
Fasig-Tipton cataloged 315 horses for the Saratoga fall mixed sale, including 240 weanlings by leading national and New York-based sires. Nearly all of the weanlings cataloged are New York-breds. Fifty of the horses cataloged were scratched through midday Monday.
“We have another full catalog for Saratoga fall this year, which is the industry’s primary source of New York breeding stock,” Browning said. “The New York-bred program is as vibrant as ever, evidenced by the strength of our recent New York-bred yearling sale this summer. With $65 million distributed annually in purse money, incentives, and awards for New York-breds, there has never been a better time to invest in the program.”
Buyers and their representatives braved the elements on the sales grounds Tuesday, inspecting potential purchases and leaving consignors with a general sense of optimism despite the obstacles.
“It makes it challenging to look, but it’s supposed to clear out in the morning,” Vinery Sale’s Derek McKenzie said. “They pushed the sale back to noon, so that should give them time. There’s not that many here to get through, so they should be able to do it.”
Vinery features the largest consignment with more than 80 horses still cataloged after scratches. Vinery sold the sale’s top-priced horse last year, a weanling colt by Good Magic that commanded a final bid of $230,000.
“This is always a good sale, I think it will be again,” said Vinery’s Derek McKenzie. “The high-priced yearlings (from the summer) should help carry the weanlings.”
The 2023 Saratoga fall mixed sale saw 157 horses sell for a total of $4,597,200, an average price of $29,282 and median of $20,000. Those numbers were on par with 2022, when 142 horses sold for $4,599,700, an average price of $32,392 and median of $20,000.
“It’s turned into a very good, strong sale,” said Saratoga Glen Farm’s Dan Baraclough. “We’ve had horses in the top five the last couple years. There’s plenty of buyers here for the right kind of horse. It’s a very strong market for New York-breds that can go on to the August sale next year.”
The Saratoga fall mixed sale also offers buyers the opportunities to shop weanlings by first-crop sires.
“They seem to really gravitate to those sires because even though they’re unproven, they don’t have a lot of negatives against them, either,” Baraclough said. “You have fans of certain first-year sires and very few people will not like a first-year sire, so first-year sires are always kind of a safe haven for breeders and for buyers because there’s not a lot of positive race results, but there’s no negative race results either from their progeny. It’s just kind of a very safe spot to buy, to breed, to sell. We tend to bring a lot of first-year sired horses here to the sale and usually sell them well.”
Other New York-based consignors share Baraclough’s optimism heading into Tuesday.
“We’re very optimistic,” said Lily Kobielski of The New Hill Farm. “The yearling folks had a great year so hopefully they have a little change in their pocket to reinvest in babies. The weather has been horrible, but I’m pleasantly surprised with how many people have shown up. (Tuesday) morning will be busy and I’m glad they pushed the sale back a little bit.”
“The market has been pretty strong for the New York-breds and with the purse parity and everything that’s going to happen for us in the future,” said Chris Bernhard of Hidden Lake Farm. “I expect the sale to be strong. Obviously, the weather is not helping us right now, but they’re going to push the sale back a couple hours tomorrow to give people more opportunity to see more of the horses.”
“I think it’s very much going to be a very good, strong baby market,” said Sequel New York’s Becky Thomas. “It feels really good. There’s a lot of people here even though the weather’s been really, really crummy.”
The catalog for the Saratoga fall mixed sale may be viewed here. Online bidding and phone bidding services will be available.
