Steady trade bolsters start of Winter Mixed Sale with demand expected to jump

Though the majority of hips perceived as the "high-quality" offerings are scheduled for day two of the Fasig-Tipton Winter Mixed Sale, Monday's opening session ended with steady action that is expected to rise the following day, with much interest directed at Tuesday's supplemental catalog.

Fasig-Tipton reported 180 horses from 253 offered sold on Monday for gross receipts of $3,369,200. The number sold was up from the 146 that went through the ring during the 2019 opening session, but the day's aggregate a year ago was 28 per cent higher at $4,677,200.

Monday's average and median prices of $18,718 and $8,000, respectively were also down from day one last year, when the average was $32,036 and the median was $18,000. This year's RNA rate was 28.9 per cent, compared with the 29.5 per cent buy-back rate in 2019.

View Fasig-Tipton results here

Eight hips brought six figures, which is five less than the same session a year ago. Within the $50,000-$99,000 price point, there were 10 horses sold this year over 15 sold in the same range last year.

"Today was fine. Clearly, if you looked at the catalogue and were on the grounds, you kind of analysed tomorrow as a much stronger day in terms of the quality of offerings. I thought today was about as expected," said Boyd Browning Jr, president and CEO of Fasig-Tipton.

"For the pages that you turned down in your catalogue before the sale and you said, 'There's probably going to be good interest in this one,' there was good interest in that one. And for the horses that you were scratching your head and said, 'might be a struggle, won't be easy,' it wasn't easy. It's just a reflection of the reality of the marketplace.

"Plenty of folks on the grounds were looking at horses and bidding on horses. There's some horses that we offer that have limited commercial value and that's reflected in the results for those horses. That's the unfortunate reality of the business, that there's not as much demand on the lower end that any of us would hope for, but there's still tremendous demand on the perceived quality offerings."

The session topper Monday was Over Emphasize, a multiple graded stakes-placed filly consigned by St George Sales, agent. Andre Lynch went to $150,000 to purchase the four-year-old daughter of Overanalyze.

Over Emphasize was bred in Kentucky by John Penn out of the Holy Bull mare Star In The Corner and is a half sister to stakes winner Allanah. She was trained by Michael McCarthy for Mel and Jean Annuzzi and earned $109,745, placing third in the San Clemente and Honeymoon Stakes in Southern California.

Lynch said the filly will embark on her second career as a broodmare.

"I bought her for myself at the moment. She's a lovely mare trained by Michael McCarthy," he said. "We've run against her and Maxim Rate a couple times. I don't know who I'm going to breed her to yet, maybe Justify."

"She had a lot of interest," said consignor Archie St George. "People were looking to buy a filly with a proven race record to breed to a higher-end stallion I'm sure."

St George said if you brought the right horse to the sale, buyers were on it, but that the sale was seemed polarised during the opening session.

"If you have people on it, it's solid and it's good," he said. "Tomorrow will be the teller because there's some good horses in the supplement, so tomorrow we'll know more."

The highest-priced short yearling Monday was a Connect colt consigned by Bluewater Sales, agent. Bred in Kentucky by Nancy Mazzoni, the colt is out of the Posse mare She Be Keene, a half sister to champion and Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner She Be Wild. The colt was purchased by Blue Sky Stable on a final bid of $140,000.

"I just thought he was a real well-balanced Saratoga-type individual and that's probably the game plan, to take him up to Saratoga and see how we do," said Blue Sky Stable's Brian Graves. "We don't have to wait too long. That's the second horse by Connect I've bought and probably the fourth horse I've bid on by him, so I guess I like what he's doing."

Taylor Made Sales Agency, which only sent six offerings through the ring Monday, is expected to send 25 through on Tuesday. Fourteen of those on offer from the consignment will be part of the supplemental catalogue.

"The ones we've put through have brought about what I've thought with the exception of one filly that brought significantly more," said Taylor Made's Mark Taylor.

"It's about what I expected. The weaker end of the market is very, very difficult. Anything with some semblance of quality you're probably going to get more than what you thought."

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