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Photo by The Racing Biz.
by Frank Vespe
A week hence, on October 4, Fasig-Tipton Midlantic will host its annual Fall Yearlings Sale at the Timonium Fairgrounds.
While the company’s just-after-the-Preakness two-year-old sale is its busiest and perhaps best regarded, the yearling event has carved a similar niche for itself as a good place to buy a runner at perhaps something less than the premium costs of sales like Keeneland’s monster, 13-session, 4,000+ hip event which ended Sunday.
Among the top competitors the Midlantic sale has produced are the three poster-horses that adorn the catalog’s cover: Bradester, Stellar Wind, and Cathryn Sophia:
- Bradester, a son of Lion Heart, cost just $20,000 at this event in 2011 and then was subsequently sold as a two-year-old in training for $195,000. He owns 10 wins and has earned nearly $1.2 million.
- Stellar Wind, a Virginia-bred daughter of Curlin, sold here in 2013 for $86,000. She has won six of 10 career starts, earned nearly $1.2 million, and was a tough-luck second in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
- Cathryn Sophia, bred in Maryland, fetched $30,000 here in 2014. The winner of this spring’s Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks, she has won six of nine starts and earned over $1.2 million.
And it’s truly an A-to-Z sale, at least alphabetically speaking. Sires range from Afleet Alex (two hips on offer) to Zensational (one). Here are some more facts and figures:
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- What’s in a name? Out of 367 numbered hips, 307 are unnamed. Of the rest, names range from Appealing Temper (hip 302) to Zesty Zar (hip 336).
- Boys and girls together… Of the group, there are 212 fillies and 152 colts. Oh, and one gelding. That’s hip 258, a Pennsylvania-bred son of Redeemed named Risen.
- All the colors of the (brown) rainbow. A plurality of horses — 153 — are listed as being bay in color. That’s not to be confused with the 95 that are dark bay or brown, or the 85 that are chestnut. Thirty-one horses are gray or roan, meaning 31 opportunities for someone to say, “What a pretty gray horse!”
- One of these things is not like the others. Hip 20, a Jersey Town colt, is listed as black. He’s the only black horse in the sale.
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- Maryland – 156
- Kentucky – 71
- Pennsylvania – 57
- New York – 42
- West Virginia – 15
- Virginia – 12
- New Jersey – 6
- Florida – 5
- Alabama – 1
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TOP SIRES
- El Padrino – 16
- Friesan Fire – 12
- Despite the Odds – 9
- Hunters Bay – 8
- Freedom Child – 8
- Weigelia – 7
- Great Notion – 7
- Cal Nation – 6
- Outflanker – 6
- Warrior’s Reward – 6
- Paddy O’Prado – 6
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- Not for Love – 18
- Two Punch – 8
- Polish Numbers – 6
- Tiznow – 6
- Medaglia d’Oro – 5
- Tale of the Cat – 5
- Broken Vow – 5
- Victory Gallop – 5
- Outflanker – 4
- A. P. Indy – 4
- Honour and Glory – 4
- Holy Bull – 4
- Speightstown – 4
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