Fasig-Tipton racing-age sale will go it alone this year

The Fasig-Tipton Kentucky selected horses of racing age sale has been held in conjunction with the auction company’s July yearling sale since its inception in 2013 – but this year, it must stand on its own.

With a postponed juvenile auction season still ongoing due to the coronavirus pandemic, the July yearling sale was scrapped, with some of that catalog to be absorbed into Fasig-Tipton’s selected yearling showcase in September. The horses of racing age sale will still proceed as scheduled, with its usual strong catalog featuring several stakes-seasoned runners.

The catalog for the auction, set for Monday at Fasig-Tipton’s Newtown Paddocks facility in Lexington, Ky., sat at 176 horses as of Thursday. That could change, as Fasig-Tipton was continuing to accept supplemental entries, and the plans for actively racing horses can be fluid, leading to withdrawals. The sale provides a majormarket venue to acquire active horses who can be immediately pointed to summer and fall targets. Indeed, the sale is positioned just before the start of the major summer race meetings at Del Mar and Saratoga, and Del Mar will offer an additional $2,000 with its Ship and Win program for horses purchased at this auction who start at the 2020 meet.

“This year, the July horses of racing age sale takes on added importance,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. said. “As racing resumes, it is of the utmost importance that buyers and sellers have this established venue to conduct business. This sale has a tremendous track record with its sale graduates. This year’s catalog features a number of quality entries that will fit a variety of racing programs from coast to coast.”

Two of the most accomplished entrants in the catalog are the older graded stakes winners True Valour and Sombeyay. True Valour, a Group 3 winner in Ireland, came to the United States in 2018 and won the Grade 2 City of Hope Mile and Grade 3 Thunder Road Stakes in California last year. Now 6, True Valour has made five starts this year, with his best finish a third in the Thunder Road.

The 4-year-old Sombeyay, an intact son of leading sire Into Mischief, won the Grade 3 Sanford Stakes as a juvenile, and was Grade 2 placed on turf last year. In four outings this year, Sombeyay owns a win in the Grade 3 Canadian Turf and a runner-up effort in the Grade 3 Appleton Stakes, both at Gulfstream.

The catalog also includes several 3-year-olds with current form, led by South Bend. A stakes winner as a juvenile, South Bend has placed in four stakes, including a second in the Grade 3 Ohio Derby on June 27, beaten three-quarters of a length. Toledo, an Into Mischief colt, was third in the Grade 3 Holy Bull at Gulfstream this year behind eventual Belmont Stakes winner Tiz the Law and Ete Indian. Impeccable Style is the recent runnerup in the Grade 3 Indiana Oaks, and Queen of God is a multiple stakes winner, highlighted by a victory in the Bourbonette Oaks.

Older horses in the catalog also include graded stakes winners Forty Under and Journeyman; Grade 1-placed Identity Politics; Grade 3-placed stakes winner He Hate Me; graded stakes-placed Kiss the Girl; stakes winners Avalina and Bodecream; and stakesplaced Air Force Jet, Behind the Couch, Complicit, Finalist, Shanghai Rain, Something Super, and Song River.

Although the majority of the catalog is made up of 3-yearolds and older, a handful of 2-year-olds, most of whom have already started, were entered in a season in which the juvenile sale calendar was turned upside down. The group is led by County Final, second in the Grade 3 Bashford Manor at Churchill Downs.

Fasig-Tipton is implementing measures against the spread of virus, including requiring cloth face coverings and reducing seating in the sale pavilion below 33 percent of capacity. Fasig-Tipton’s online bidding platform, which the company debuted at its Midlantic 2-yearold sale last month, will be available.

Last year’s auction, led by $510,000 Jalen Journey, finished with 95 horses sold for gross receipts of $6,548,500, an average price of $68,932, and a median of $45,000, all declines from the 2018 figures. The buyback rate was 30 percent.