Street Sense Colt on Top as October Sale Concludes

LEXINGTON, KY – The Fasig-Tipton October Fall Yearlings Sale concluded its four-day run Thursday in Lexington with a strong session which featured the auction's top two highest-priced offerings.

Through four sessions, Fasig-Tipton sold 963 yearlings for a total of $34,260,100–down slightly from last year's record gross of $35,812,900 for 981 head sold. The average was $35,576–down 2.5% from last year's record-setting mark of $36,507–while the median rose 25% to $15,000. The cumulative buy-back rate was 22.7%.

“It was a very solid four days of sales,” said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning, Jr. “The numbers are remarkably similar to last year. It's always encouraging to see the median improve–it improved 25%–and the average and buy-back rate were virtually the same. I thought it was a very fair marketplace from beginning to end. I think it's pretty remarkable that, after as good a year as the yearling sales have had this year, you still sell 1,000 and basically generate $35 million back into the system is very positive.

Thirty five yearlings sold for $200,000 or over in 2017, while 23 reached that mark in 2018.

Bloodstock agent Donato Lanni purchased the top-priced yearling of the sale, going to $500,000 to secure a colt by Street Sense (hip 1281) from the Eaton Sales consignment.

Lanni said the October sale has become a must-attend event.

“People kind of dismiss this sale, but I think it's becoming an important sale,” Lanni said. “There were 1500 horses catalogued and there was a lot of sire power and a lot of good physicals. It's becoming a better and better sale every year. And you just never know where a good horse will show up.”

Reiley McDonald of Eaton Sales agreed the auction continues to exceed expectations as it solidifies its position as the last yearling sale on the calendar.

“With all of the October sales, it feels like there can't be enough people there to pick up 1400 horses, but every year it seems to fill in,” he said. “There were people in every price range. It's the end-of-the-year sale, so it's time to fish or cut bait with your horses. So it's a very real market because of that.”

Street Sense Colt Jumps to Top at October

Bloodstock agent Donato Lanni, acting on behalf of an undisclosed client, made the highest bid of the four-day Fasig-Tipton October sale when going to $500,000 for a son of Street Sense Thursday in Lexington.

“I thought he was a beautiful horse–a big, two-turn looking horse,” Lanni said of hip 1281. “Obviously other people felt the same, he wasn't a secret. But we try to buy those kind and hope we get lucky. Bobby [Baffert] will get him and we'll hope it works out.”

Bred by Forging Oaks and consigned by Eaton Sales, the dark bay colt is out of Shimmer (Pulpit) and is a half-brother to graded stakes placed Sister Moon (Dixie Union).

Jim Peyton's Forging Oaks purchased Shimmer, in foal to Union Rags, for $140,000 at the 2013 Keeneland November sale. The colt she was carrying at that auction sold for $310,000 at the 2015 Keeneland September sale and for $400,000 at the following year's Fasig-Tipton Florida sale. Another Union Rags colt out of the mare sold for $285,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale. The 16-year-old mare produced a colt by Into Mischief this year and was bred back to Overanalyze.

Of the decision to send the March foal through the ring in October, Eaton's Reiley McDonald said, “He was so big and we were trying to get him to look as good as he could possibly look. He had a little bit of enthesitis in a knee and we thought he is so good that, if we got him perfect, instead of 90% there, it would pay off. And it did.”

McDonald said he had no problem pointing a yearling specifically at the season's last yearling sale.

“For a good horse who is clean, which he was, it's a very good alternative market,” he said. “It's actually not an alternative market anymore. It's a very good year-end sale if you have a late developer.”

McPeek Partnership for Tapit Colt

Trainer Ken McPeek went to $430,000 to acquire a son of Tapit on behalf of a partnership Thursday at Fasig-Tipton. Zayat Stables was underbidder on the yearling, who sold as hip 1171 and was bred and consigned by Gainesway.

McPeek did his bidding upstairs in the pavilion, alongside Three Chimneys Farm's Goncalo Torrealba and the Kentucky nursery will partner on the colt, along with Paul Fireman's Fern Circle Stables, Peter Callahan, and Scott Leeds of Walking L Thoroughbreds.

“They all went quarters,” McPeek said of the partners, while pointing out that Callahan had previously owned the yearling's dam Receivership (End Sweep). Receivership is the dam of 2014 GI Forego S. and GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. winner Palace (City Zip), who was bred by Callahan.

Of the yearling, McPeek said, “He was a great mover with plenty of body. The mare is proven. You win a Grade I with this colt and he's going to be standing stud and hopefully one day at Three Chimneys.”

Receivership was in foal to City Zip when she was purchased by Gainesway for $400,000 at the 2014 Fasig-Tipton November sale. That resulting filly sold for $700,000 at the 2017 OBS March Sale. Her Tapit colt sold for $160,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton October sale. Receivership produced a filly by Medaglia d'Oro this year and she was bred back to Karakontie (Jpn).

“He was a nice horse with a lot of pedigree and we just thought he would stand out here,” Gainesway's Michael Hernon said of the yearling. “He sold well over his reserve.”

Of the colt's placement in the October sale, Hernon added, “When you have a yearling like him by a top stallion and a half to a very good racehorse and potentially a promising stallion, I think there is money here for that kind of horse.”

McPeek admitted he was prepared to go higher for the yearling.

“I thought [the price] would be more,” he said. “I actually think it's value. We were underbidders on a couple this past September and this colt looked like he checked all those boxes.”

The Tapit colt was McPeek's ninth purchase at the October sale. The conditioner also paid $190,000 to acquire a colt by Cairo Prince (hip 969) during Wednesday's third session of the auction.

“I thought the two colts who were standouts were the Cairo Prince we bought yesterday and this colt today,” McPeek said. “I thought they were the standouts of the auction, on physicals and on sire power, they both checked all the boxes.”

McPeek ended the sale having purchased 10 yearlings for a total of $897,000, an average of $89,700 and a median of $45,000.

“We've got extremes,” he said. “We have this [Tapit] colt and then we have some other horses that we've bought that have been at the bottom end–I have some clients that like playing with those types, too. We're just coming in looking for physicals and we sort through them. I actually thought it was relatively easy to buy some of them. There is opportunity here every year. Over the years, I've bought a whole list of graded stakes winners at this auction. I always enjoy it.”

Engelhart Strikes Late for Carpe Diem Filly

Trainer Jeremiah Englehart, shut out on the sale-topping Street Sense colt earlier in the session, struck late Thursday to secure a filly from the first crop of Grade I winner Carpe Diem for $290,000. Englehart was bidding on behalf of clients Johns Martin and Bill Rucker and signed the ticket as Ruckur Racing Stable while standing alongside Webb Carroll Training Center's Travis Durr out back of the sales pavilion.

“I liked her overall presence,” Englehart said after signing the ticket on hip 1488. “She had a nice strong hip to her and a nice shoulder angle. She looked like a nice filly from a nice family. I called my clients on her a couple of days ago and we've been kind of waiting for her. So we're glad we ended up getting her.”

The bay filly is out of stakes winner True Kiss (Is It True) and is a half-sister to graded stakes placed One True Kiss (Warrior's Reward) and Tiz Kissable (Tiz Wonderful). Bred by Charles Muth and Patrick Murphy, the yearling RNA'd for $170,000 at this summer's Fasig-Tipton July Yearling Sale. She was consigned Thursday by Paramount Sales.

Muth purchased True Kiss as a 4-year-old for $70,000 at the 2006 Keeneland November sale. The mare produced a colt by Runhappy this year and was bred back to Carpe Diem.

Englehart said he went bid-to-bid with Donato Lanni on the sale-topping colt Thursday.

“I got a little bit of a kick in the gut when Donato bought the Street Sense for $500,000,” he admitted. “I think it was just he and I from $85,000 all the way to $500,000. But it was actually a really good sale. I was really happy with the horses that Travis Durr, myself and Greg and Karen Dodd [of Southern Chase Farm] picked out. I thought we had a really nice sale.”

Engelhart said he thought the October sale offered something for every buyer, making it an attractive place to shop.

“This sale gets stronger and stronger every year,” he said. “There was a really nice group of really nice horses here that people will go very high on. And there is a good mix for everybody. It's a good seller's market and it's a good buyer's market. This is one of the sales that you can get any type of horse here. It's not as long as some other sales, it's just long enough to find a good mix of horses.”