Texas sale builds on momentum

The Texas Thoroughbred Association 2-year-olds in training sale has established a healthy momentum since it was reintroduced in 2016, and the upcoming edition is ready to build on that.

The auction is Tuesday in the Texas Thoroughbred Sale Pavilion at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, beginning at noon Central. The presale under-tack show is Sunday starting at 11 a.m.

“Last year, we had such a great uptick in all the indices, with the average soaring,” TTA sales director Tim Boyce said. “I was here with Fasig-Tipton for almost 20 years, and we never had an average that high. That was a lot of fun last year. To duplicate that surge, we’ll hope to just hold the gains we had last year.”

The catalog has 123 entries, the biggest of the TTA sale’s three editions and 18 percent larger than the 104 juveniles in 2017. The auction features an online catalog that allows consignors to post photos of the offerings, as well as videos of the horses in various stages of training.

“I’m happy to say a lot of the ones I was hoping would be good are, in fact, good individuals,” Boyce said. “The ones that have a pretty good pedigree are turning out to be nice individuals.”

Sale graduates will be eligible for the $100,000 TTA Sales Futurity. The five-furlong races, one division each for males and females, will be in July at Lone Star Park.

Lane Richardson, of consignor Richardson Bloodstock, said the Futurity can help influence the types of horses he sends to the auction, as well as what kind of buyers he will target.

“They’re looking for horses that they can turn around and run early in their 2-year-old year,” he said. “Usually, the horses going in there can do that. They’re fit enough to go and run the five-furlong races as maidens when Lone Star opens, so buyers can get a fast return on their investment.”

Last year’s TTA juvenile sale closed with 70 horses sold for revenues of $1,873,900, up an impressive 91 percent from the inaugural sale in 2016, when 53 horses brought $981,300. The average sale price rose 45 percent to $26,770 from $18,515, and the median jumped 33 percent to $16,000 from $12,000.

The sale-topper was a Tale of the Cat colt who was sold to Carrol Castille for $120,000. He is out of the winning Kris S. mare Divine Lady, from the family of Grade 1 winners Bandini and Hail Atlantis, as well as prominent sire Stormy Atlantic. Later named More than fishin, the colt is unplaced in one start for owner Whispering Oaks Farm and trainer Steven Flint.

Notable graduates from last year’s sale include stakes winners Sydney Freeman, Burdo Talking, Galactica, and Janae, as well as stakesplaced Another Level, Caroline the Great, Toledo Pache, I Want a Picture, Acharnement, Ms Classic West, Silver Luke Silver, Rosie O’Prado, and Little Prowless.