TIMONIUM, Md. – As the racing world rolls through nearby Pimlico, the ongoing breeze-up season in North America has landed at nearby Timonium, as Fasig-Tipton hosts its Midlantic sale of 2-year-olds in training at the Maryland State Fairgrounds.
The sale, which has a strong recent history of producing top-level runners, will now be held as a single session on Tuesday. That was one of several schedule changes caused by wet weather in Baltimore, as the pre-sale proceedings were marred by rain and the breakdown of a filly.
The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale has 586 hips cataloged, including supplemental entries, for the only breeze-up sale in North America that utilizes a dirt track. The other major-market sales at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. use an all-weather track. The Fasig-Tipton sale was originally scheduled for two sessions, on Monday and Tuesday, with a three-day under-tack preview show intended for last Tuesday to Thursday. Heavy rain in Baltimore on Tuesday pushed the Midlantic breeze show back a day, with the new schedule being Wednesday to Friday.
“I think the buyers like to see [dirt works]. However, in certain circumstances, it’s not always feasible,” consignor Jesse Hoppel said. “We’ve all seen races canceled due to weather. A day like today, everyone’s talking about the condition of the track. If we were at OBS right now, [we wouldn’t be]. Both surfaces have their pluses and minuses.”
After an uneventful Wednesday session, the breeze show began its second session on Thursday. Although an official track condition was not listed, nearby Pimlico was listed as sloppy, and the Timonium track was floated several times during the day. A bit less than halfway through the Thursday session, a Practical Joke filly suffered catastrophic forelimb injuries entering the turn past the wire of her one-furlong breeze.
Another heavy burst of rain almost immediately moved into the area, and Fasig-Tipton representatives met with the Maryland State Fairgrounds racetrack superintendent. The rest of the day’s works were postponed, and all the horses who had yet to breeze on Thursday and Friday will now work in a single session on Sunday.
“It’s obviously something that is very sad and something everyone hates to see,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. told the media Thursday night. “We work very diligently and strive to create the highest standards of horse safety and welfare at our auctions, and, really, in everything we do. It’s devastating when something like that happens.
“We initially were going to try to plan to [work Friday], and I asked the track officials to go back over and evaluate the track,” Browning continued. "At the end of the day they thought they needed to open up the track and give it time and opportunity to dry out over the next few days. The forecast on Sunday is very favorable.”
The Practical Joke filly was consigned by Hartley-DeRenzo Thoroughbreds. One day prior to the incident, Dean DeRenzo had spoken highly of the track at Timonium.
“We’ve been here 35 years, and we know this racetrack and how they take care of it,” DeRenzo said. “So we’re confident when they say, ‘Okay, we’ve got a safe track, we’re gonna go.’ I had no doubts.
“After 35 years, I think they’ve proven themselves to us. And I know that Boyd, who runs this company, would never, ever chance hurting any horses at all.”
Once the Midlantic sale session is underway, the hunt for its next successful graduates will be on. Alumni since 2020 are led by Eclipse Award champions Gamine and Straight No Chaser, and 2023 Kentucky Derby winner Mage.
Consignors and buyers arrive in Maryland on the heels of two successful auctions in Florida to open this season. The OBS March sale was led by a record-priced $3 million Gun Runner colt, and the average price was up. The OBS April sale recorded a record average.
Although the median was down slightly at both sales, the buyback rate was under 20 percent at both, a strong figure in this highly selective marketplace.
Still, consignors warned about selectivity.
“Look, obviously it’s very good at the top, and it’s no great surprise,” Ciaran Dunne of Wavertree Stables said. “It’s the same as it’s been. The top 10 percent sell really well, you struggle to sell another 40 percent, and half of them don’t find a home.”
Browning said he hopes the placement of this sale, falling toward the second half of the season, will lead to some urgency that sparks the crucial middle market.
“We’ve seen that the market’s been very, very strong at the upper end, maybe a little bit weaker than we would hope in the middle,” Browning said. “Hopefully, the later date here and the dirt racetrack will provide a little more middle market.”
Buyers from the Middle East, including trainer Bhupat Seemar, have tended to frequent this sale in recent years. Strong international participation has been seen at the OBS sales this season, with Japanese interests among the leading buyers, and Mahmud Mouni, a Libya-based bloodstock agent purchasing for a new syndicate that he says intends to race stateside, also playing a major role.
On the domestic side, the Midlantic sale is well-positioned near a number of regional circuits and tends to attract buyers looking to take advantage of lucrative statebred programs. In addition to juveniles bred here in Maryland – and, of course, the ubiquitous Kentucky-breds – the catalog includes horses bred in 15 other states and provinces, including New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.
“You do have some regional buyers,” said Steven Venosa, whose SGV Thoroughbreds targeted this sale specifically with a New York-bred Yaupon colt. “We have several colts this year and wanted to spread them out and not sell them against each other, and we felt pointing him up here would be the right sale for him.”
Through the early portion of the breeze show, 11 juveniles shared the fastest furlong time at 10 1/5 seconds, a creditable time in light of the conditions. Sub-10-second times are rare on the Timonium track. Since 2013, only three horses have breezed in 9 4/5 seconds, and working just a tick over 10 seconds in less-than-perfect conditions is respectable.
A colt and a filly by freshman sire Yaupon were among the fastest workers, along with colts by fellow freshmen Engage, Galilean, and Maxfield. Rounding out the group were colts by Into Mischief, Munnings, and Tiz the Law, and fillies by Blame, Classic Empire, and Girvin.
Last year’s Fasig Midlantic sale was led by a $1.25 million Bolt d’Oro filly. The sale finished with $32,921,500 in horses sold, resulting in an average price of $95,425 and a median of $50,000. The average eclipsed the sale record from 2022, while the median equaled the record set in 2021 and matched in 2023. The buyback rate was 17 percent.
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