Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale growing in importance
TIMONIUM, Md. – It’s double duty for a couple of trainers who have a runner in Saturday’s Preakness Stakes, as they’re also marking time at the Maryland State Fairgounds in Timonium, about 20 minutes from Pimlico.
Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen watched his Preakness morning-line favorite Epicenter train before setting up shop in the grandstand of the Timonium track, watching hundreds of juveniles breeze toward the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-olds in training sale.
Kevin McKathan saw his Preakness entrant Fenwick safely back to the stakes barn after training Thursday before rushing over to his consignment’s barn at Timonium to prepare several prospects for their breezes. And several owners of horses running in stakes races at Pimlico are also thumbing through sale catalogs, looking for their next stars at the sale, which takes place Monday and Tuesday.
The Midlantic sale has steadily grown in national prominence. Traditionally a vibrant marketplace for horses bred and eligible for programs in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York and other nearby states, the sale’s spot on the calendar has helped it to turn out seven-figure horses in six consecutive years. The sale record is held by Gamine, who sold for $1.8 million in 2019 and went on to earn an Eclipse Award.
“Its graduates have done well . . . it’s about racetrack performance,” said owner Terry Finley of West Point Thoroughbreds. “This sale has really held up very, very well, especially over the last 10 years.”
The Midlantic sale’s placement in May, toward the end of the 2-year-old sale season, which began in March, allows breeders and consignors to target the sale with laterdeveloping horses, or to reroute horses here who may have missed earlier sales. This sale also offers an opportunity for horses to breeze before potential buyers on a dirt surface, a rarity for juvenile sales. The Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co., which offers more juveniles than any other company, utilizes a synthetic track. The Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream auction breezes horses on a dirt track, but offers only a relative handful of horses.
“It gives everyone a chance to see horses on dirt, which I think comes into play,” Finley said. “Not every horse likes the synthetic down there. So I think there’s a little bit of a different dynamic to that.”
At this year’s three-session under-tack preview, a colt by the late Bernardini threw down the bullet, working a furlong in 9 4/5 seconds. It was the first time since 2012 that a juvenile had broken the 10-second barrier on this track.
“The expectations were pretty high,” said Carlos Manresa, a trainer for Becky Thomas’s Sequel Bloodstock, which is consigning the colt on behalf of breeders Chester and Mary Broman. “Like most of the Bromans’ horses, they’re bred to go fast, and he did just that. We didn’t know he was going to go quite that fast – we hadn’t asked him to go that fast. But we knew he would be a standout performer. We had huge expectations, and he exceeded them.”
The colt is out of the winning Medaglia d’Oro mare G Note, dam of three winners from as many starters. G Note is out of Grade 2 winner Seeking the Ante, who is out of Grade 1 winner Antespend. Seeking the Ante produced stakes winner Minerologist, dam of stakes winner Can You Diggit. She also produced stakes-placed Risk a Chance, dam of this year’s Grade 2 winner Un Ojo. Antespend is the dam of Grade 1 winner Friends Lake.
Bernardini has three juveniles in this catalog prior to outs. The sire power in the Midlantic catalog includes eight 2-year-olds by three-time reigning leading sire Into Mischief, two by perennial leading sire Tapit, three by breakout young sire Gun Runner, four for classic sire Curlin, and 10 for classic sire Uncle Mo.
Among this year’s freshman sires, Triple Crown winner Justify has four in the catalog; City of Light, who dominated his class in the yearling marketplace last year, has seven; Bolt d’Oro, a standout in the early season 2-year-old sales, has 13; and Mo Town, Kentucky’s early leader by freshman earnings, has eight.
The catalog also includes juveniles out of Grade 1 winners Ask the Moon, Awesome Humor, and Hooh Why, and half-siblings to Grade 1 winners Unbridled Command, Pinehurst, Denman’s Call, and Kalypso.
These standouts and more will come before a marketplace where supply and demand is coming into play, with only the OBS June sale remaining on the 2-year-old calendar.
It’s been a strong 2-year-old sales season, said McKathan, who founded the McKathan Brothers Training Center, specializing in sourcing and training young stock, with his late brother J.B.
“It’s like a buying frenzy,” he said. “The market has been amazing. If you go over there and do the right thing – and you know how they have to jump through all the hoops and all that – they bring real money.”