Auction Officials Pleased With Quality of FT TX Catalog

The Fasig-Tipton Texas auction at Lone Star Park on Monday night will have fewer yearlings on offer than the corresponding sale a year ago, but the catalog of 129 head boasts considerable depth. Birdstone, Flatter, Old Fashioned and Summer Bird are represented by four of the sale’s most buzzed-about hips, while the venue will also showcase offspring by such freshmen stallions as Discreetly Mine, Grasshopper, Honest Man, Line of David and Neko Bay.

The sale will be the second night auction Fasig-Tipton Texas has ever held at Lone Star. The format was introduced last August, when 113 of the 170 yearlings catalogued sold for $1,150,000. The average was $10,177, and the median, $6,000. The auction was topped by a $57,000 Successful Appeal colt bred in Louisiana.

This year’s sale on Monday will begin at 5 p.m. Central. It will be held in the pavilion located just inside the stable gate at Lone Star.

“The night format was well-received last year,” said Tim Boyce, sales director of Fasig-Tipton Texas. “We’ll have a cocktail hour beforehand, and have a charity auction for The Paddock Fund and Texas Thoroughbred Scholarship Fund.”

The yearling auction will then begin, with the one-session sale made up of less Louisiana-breds than a year ago, but more Oklahoma-breds and a stronger selection of Texas-breds.

“The numbers are down, but the quality is not,” Boyce said. “There’s several horses that people think enough of to call a sales-topper. There’s a lot of good horses in the catalog.”The first of the ‘buzz’ horses is Hip No. 3, an Oklahoma-bred filly by Flatter consigned by Eureka Thoroughbred Farm. She is from the placed Pentelicus mare Run Caroline Run, who has produced four winners from five starters. “The Kentucky inspectors tell me she is an outstanding individual,” said Boyce.

Also anticipated is Hip No. 14, an Arkansas-bred colt by Old Fashioned. He is from the stakes-winning Black Tie Affair mare Santa Cristina, and is a half-brother to stakes winners Trying Brian and Kristine’s King. The consignor is Inside Move.

Inside Move is also the consignor of the colt from Summer Bird’s first crop. He sells as Hip No. 45. The colt is a Louisiana-bred, and the first foal from the winning Hold That Tiger mare Bengal Boutique.

A filly by Birdstone, who sells as Hip No. 89, is a Kentucky-bred. She is out of a half-sister to multiple Grade 1 winner Congaree. Lane’s End Texas serves as agent for La Bahia Stud.

The auction also features a trio of fillies by Bellamy Road, hips 11, 22 and 67.

“I’ve got several by Bellamy Road, the sire of the [second-highest price] at our July sale,” Boyce said, referencing a $420,000 colt sold at Fasig-Tipton’s Kentucky complex. “I feel pretty good about those horses.”

Boyce expects a large cross-section of buyers, with parties due in from Florida, Kentucky and Mexico.

“We may have more coming from out-of-state just because I believe buyers are very much aware that the overall numbers of horses going into the sales this year is down,” he said. “It’s going to get tougher and tougher as the year goes on to buy horses.”

Other hips of interest include No. 47, a Jet Phone half-brother to recent Emerald Downs Derby winner Worldventurer; No. 62, a colt by Corinthian; No. 74, a Political Force filly whose third dam produced European champion St Nicholas Abbey; and No. 117, a filly by Songandaprayer.

To access an online catalog, click here.