LEXINGTON, Ky. – A $775,000 Curlin colt led the way at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky winter mixed sale, becoming the highest-priced short yearling in the history of the auction.
Monday’s single-session sale, with its shorter timespan, finished with figures that were down from last year's record renewal of the auction but which stacked up well against recent figures as a whole. Fasig-Tipton reported that 260 horses sold during this year's daylong auction at its Newtown Paddocks in Lexington for gross receipts of $11,495,500. At last year's two-day sale, 372 horses brought $21,687,000.
“Our goal is to serve the market,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning Jr. said of the smaller sale. “There are certain folks that are much more comfortable selling at a live auction – and that’s great. There are other folks who really prefer to sell on the digital platform – and that’s great, too. The sales are complementary to each other. We’re trying to serve the whole marketplace and hopefully doing a pretty good job of that.”
While last year's sale was led by the $2 million broodmare Zetta Z, it was also supercharged by the dispersal of the late Robert Lothenbach. The 62 offerings from that dispersal adding more than $8.2 million to the gross, led by $1.3 million Bell's the One and $1.1 million She Can't Sing.
The average price for Monday's sale was $44,213, down 24 percent from last year's record $58,298. This year's figure stacks up well against other recent years, however, with the average finishing at $35,088 in 2023; $40,013 in 2022; $29,428 in 2021; and $26,568 in 2020.
This year's median figure was a solid $16,000, down just $1,000, or 6 percent, from the record $17,000 in 2024. Other recent median figures were $15,000 in 2023; $16,000 in 2022; $10,000 in 2021; and $8,500 in 2020.
The buyback rate before any private sales was 19 percent, considered a good number in a highly selective marketplace where figures under 20 percent can be rare. The buyback rate last year before any private sales was a very low 14 percent.
The Curlin colt who led Monday's action was purchased through an online bid from a buyer using the moniker "Maverick." He was consigned by Hill 'n' Dale as agent for a dispersal from Red Oak Stable.
The colt, a February foal, is out of the Grade 1-winning millionaire Unbridled Mo, who also changed hands Monday night, selling for $350,000 to Repole Stable, with West Bloodstock acting as agent. Unbridled Mo, by emerging broodmare sire Uncle Mo, has not yet produced a winner from two starters. Her biggest of four graded stakes wins came in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom, defeating champion Unique Bella.
Although Monday's auction was the first live sale of this calendar year for Fasig-Tipton, it marked the end of the mixed sale season, which began in October. Thus, it was the final chance to acquire mares at public auction prior to breeding sheds opening next week.
The highest price for a broodmare, and the second-highest price of the day, was the $650,000 that bloodstock agent Steven W. Young paid for stakes winner Boxwood. The 9-year-old English Channel mare, consigned by Royal Oak Farm for the dispersal of William Pape, was offered in foal to rising young sire Nyquist.
Boxwood is the dam of Keep It Easy, a stakes-winning 2-year-old last year. For hip-by-hip results from the sale, click here.
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