By Jessica Martini
The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2023 sales season concludes with the December Mixed Sale which begins Tuesday morning at 11 a.m. at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium. The one-session auction opens with an offering of 156 catalogued broodmares and broodmare prospects, weanlings and yearlings, and continues with 60 catalogued horses of racing age.
“Every time I turn around, there are more people coming in,” Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sales Director Paget Bennett said from the sales grounds Monday. “So that's a good thing. There is a good product here, good Maryland-breds and good New York-breds, so something for everyone. It's a small catalogue, but we hope that a lot of the people who have come and supported us in the past and have shopped this sale and always found useful horses are here again.”
The racehorse section produced the four six-figure offerings of last year's December Mixed sale with the $260,000 sale topper Radical Right (First Samurai) heading west to be graded-stakes placed early in 2023.
This year's racing age offerings will likely appeal to a wide swath of buyers, according to Bennett.
“Some of the horses here are turf horses, so perhaps these are horses that people can pick up and take them south for the winter and keep going with them,” she said. “There will be some that probably find new spots that will run regionally here, but there were quite a few last year who came out of this sale and went right to Gulfstream. Or they can go to Turfway. I've already seen a few steeplechase trainers walking the grounds. There are horses that could fit their criteria and they can get them ready to start over jumps in the spring. This is the perfect time to pick up these kinds of horses to make into jumpers.”
The December mixed sale closes out another strong year of auctions in Timonium, led by the flagship Midlantic May Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training.
“There are a lot of runners that come out of this marketplace,” Bennett said. “It's a source for good horses, whether they are going on to a 2-year-old sale or to end-users. We hold our own.”
The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic June Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training made its debut in Timonium in 2023 and it's an auction that Bennett hopes will mature into its spot on the calendar going forward.
“The June sale is very much needed for horses who, for whatever reason, need more time,” Bennett said. “We are hoping people will support us and bring horses back to the June sale. We understand it is hard to come up the road twice, but I think there is good reason to come back for the June sale. There is such a demand for horses in this racing region up here–Presque Isle, Penn National, Parx, Delaware, Colonial. There are so many places that have racing and people need horse to fill their stables to send strings to different spots. I think the June sale would be a perfect source for folks. I think consignors need to keep that in mind and think about that as an option when it comes time to marketing their 2-year-olds.”
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