Tuesday’s Fasig-Tipton California yearling sale will provide a barometer of the West Coast’s bloodstock business in a changing racing environment in the state.
This is the first full year without racing in Northern California, which ceased in December, and the first year in recent memory in which Tuesday’s sale is the only yearling auction in the state. The California Thoroughbred Breeders Association’s Northern California sale that had been held in August in Pleasanton was not conducted this year.
Tuesday’s sale, at Fairplex in Pomona, will offer more than 240 yearlings. There were 266 listed in the catalog. Through Wednesday, there were 18 withdrawals.
The auction has had mixed results in recent years. The 2024 sale saw 163 horses sell for an average of $29,334, a decline in average price of 5 percent from 2023. At that sale, 185 horses sold for an average of $31,089.
Last year, there were eight horses listed as sold for $100,000 or more, compared to 12 in 2023, according to sale company records. The 2024 catalog consisted entirely of yearlings, while the 2023 catalog had some horses of racing age. Tuesday’s sale is limited to yearlings and is dominated by California-breds.
“This is the only place you’re going to be able to buy California-breds right now,” said Mike Machowsky, Fasig-Tipton’s California representative. “You have to be here.”
The sale includes first-crop prospects by Corniche, Cyberknife, Drain the Clock, Early Voting, Eight Rings, Mo Donegal, Nashville, and Olympiad. Of the 10 top-ranked stallions in the state in progeny earnings through Wednesday, nine have yearlings in the sale – Grazen, Stay Thirsty, Smiling Tiger, Sir Prancealot, Clubhouse Ride, Stanford, Catholic Boy, Om, and Midnight Storm.
While Barton Thoroughbreds, Lovacres Ranch, Kim McCarthy, and Rancho San Miguel have the largest consignments, Harris Farms has consigned 13 prospects and an additional 11 as agent. John Harris, patriarch of the central California farm, died in July. Farm officials have since said they plan to reduce the farm’s bloodstock holdings, and a partial dispersal was held earlier this summer.
The Harris Farms consignment includes Hip No. 72, a colt by Mr. Big who is a full brother to the stakes winner Big Fish. Other notable colts include Hip No. 20, by Maxfield out of Lost Bus, winner of the Grade 2 Santa Monica Stakes in 2016 and the dam of stakes winner Bus Buzz; and Hip No. 184, by Om out of the stakes winner Bootleg Annie, dam of graded stakes winner Blackjackcat.
Among fillies, there could be interest in Hip No. 32, a California-bred by Justify who is out of stakes-placed Malibu Mischief; Hip No. 63, a California-bred by Oscar Performance who is a half-sister to 2021 Oceanside Stakes winner Flashiest; Hip No. 165, by Stay Thirsty and the first foal out of stakes winner At the Spa; and Hip No. 193, by Corniche and a half-sister to stakes winner Carmelita’s Man.
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