F-T October closes yearling season

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The 2021 North American yearling sales season was widely expected to rebound from the coronavirushampered figures of 2020, when travel and gathering restrictions caused by the pandemic shuffled the annual sales calendar and economic uncertainty led to reduced figures at most sales.

However, almost no one could have predicted how strongly the marketplace has rebounded this season. Beginning in July, the nation’s major-market yearling sales have not only all posted improved figures from 2020, but many have posted record or historically strong figures.

All good things must end, and the curtain comes down on this yearling sales season this week as Fasig-Tipton hosts the season finale with its Kentucky fall yearlings sale. There are 1,586 horses cataloged for the sale, which runs Monday through Thursday at the company’s Newtown Paddocks headquarters in Lexington.

“We hope to see a continuation of the strength of the market that we’ve seen starting in July through the most recent sales this week,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. said.

The buying bench this season has been competitive, and with that competition, and the strength of the marketplace, several buyers may have yet to fill their orders for the season. With that ongoing demand to fill out rosters, and a limited supply of the season’s yearlings remaining at this sale, competition could again be fierce.

“I don’t think there’s any questions” that buyers have continued demand, Browning said. “I would expect the competition to be pretty strong, really at all levels.”

Over its history, the FasigTipton October sale catalog typically included horses who had missed the earlier season yearling sales for one reason or another. Over time, this sale has become a destination for those with later-developing horses, and the quality of the catalog has continued to grow as a result of those strategies. The sale’s recent graduates include Hot Rod Charlie and Jack Christopher, both Grade 1 winners this year and current Breeders’ Cup candidates.

“I think it’s a really strong catalog, both in terms of pedigrees and physicals,” Browning said of the 2021 renewal. “We’ve seen in recent years, more and more people might be holding quality horses back [for this sale] that might need more time for maturity, so the quality of horses has continued to improve year over year.”

At last month’s Keeneland September yearling sale, which allows for a wide representation of sires, Into Mischief and Quality Road led all sires by gross and average sales, respectively. Into Mischief, the nation’s twotime reigning leading general sire, is represented by 18 yearlings in the Fasig-Tipton catalog for this season finale. Quality Road has six, including yearlings out of Grade 1 winners Nereid, Sam’s Sister, and Yellow Agate.

Among this year’s first-crop yearling sires, City of Light, a son of Quality Road, has been the breakout success story. He has five yearlings in the catalog, while 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify has 17 from his first crop in the book.

Last year’s October sale, which was led by a $600,000 Uncle Mo colt, finished with 961 yearlings sold for a total of $32,743,700, resulting in an average of $34,073 and a median of $15,000. The average was down 10 percent from the 2019 renewal, but the median rose 15 percent. The buyback percentage was 22 percent, compared to 24 percent the prior year.