By Alan Carasso
A relentless stretch of heat and humidity gave way to at least slightly cooler and less sultry conditions Monday morning as the under-tack preview took place for Tuesday's Fasig-Tipton Midlantic June Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium.
From an original catalogue of 80 juveniles, some 65 horses were set to go under the hammer beginning at 2 p.m. ET Tuesday afternoon. While the numbers may not be quite as robust as officials at the auction house might prefer–the inaugural June Sale in 2023 attracted a catalogue of 99 horses–there remains confidence that the diversity will appeal to a wide array of horsepeople.
“That's kind of my go-to line is that this location always gets something for everybody,” said Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Director of Sales Paget Bennett. “We even have a couple of Indiana-breds, so with Pennsylvania-bred and -sired and Maryland Million, the New York-breds never go out of favor, so it's truly a sale where there is definitely something for everybody.”
It was one of those regionally bred juveniles that emerged front and center during Monday's breeze-ups, as hip 4, a New Jersey-bred colt by freshman sire of the moment Vekoma (Candy Ride {Arg}), was one of two horses to go :10 flat for an eighth of a mile over the conventional dirt surface at Timonium.
“The expectations were very high for this guy coming into the sale,” said Marcus Ryan, who consigns hip 4 with his wife Crystal through their Mason Springs agency. “He's a seriously, seriously fast horse, he really did it effortlessly galloping out. He had the second-fastest gallop-out on the day. He came back home, walked around the shedrow about 10 times and he had cooled out. He's a very fit horse.”
Bred by Gregory Kilka, the co-breeder of recent New Jersey-bred GI Woody Stephens Stakes winner Book'em Danno (Bucchero), hip 4 hails from the family of seven-time Grade I winner Sharp Cat and her Group 1-winning half-brother Royal Anthem. Purchased for $77,000 as a short-yearling at the 2023 Fasig-Tipton February Sale, the Vekoma colt changed hands for $60,000 at the Fasig-Tipton July Sale. He was most recently bought back on a bid of $55,000 at the OBS April Sale.
“He was slightly immature at that time and it was a great thing that they pulled him back,” Ryan said. “They believed in him. He came up from Tradewinds down there and they've always believed in him a lot. He's a May horse and put on a load of weight.”
With two new winners on Sunday, Vekoma sits atop the freshman sire table with eight individual winners.
Sharing the furlong bullet was hip 61, a James Layden-consigned filly by Country House–Bud's Little Edge (Valid Expectations) (video). Three horses bred in New York stopped the clock in :21.4 for a quarter-mile Monday morning: Tiz the Law filly (hip 16); hip 56, a gelding by Central Banker; and hip 58, a gelding by Solomini. Each of the three is consigned by Wes Carter, the first on behalf of Lemon Creek Farm and the others for Crossed Sabres Farm.
“As the under-tack show proved today, we have some very nice, useful horses in the barn area here, we just wish we had more of them,” Bennett admitted. “We just have to do the best with what we have and we have some lovely horses here, so hopefully people find something that works out for them and goes on to be a star.”
Last year's first-of-its-kind June Sale saw four horses sell for six-figure pricetags, topped by a Kantharos filly that was knocked down to Steve Young, agent, for a salestopping $500,000. Overall, 57 horses sold for $2.509 million, an average of $44,018 and median of $27,000. There were 22 reported buybacks.
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