F-T Midlantic Sale in 'Uncharted Waters' After Changes

The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale will have a different feel when it gets started May 20 at the Maryland State Fairgrounds. For starters, the two-day sale in Timonium, Md., has been truncated to one day. But the biggest difference is that many of the 586 hips cataloged did not breeze during last week's under tack show. Torrential rain reduced the viability of the track at the fairgrounds, and after a catastrophic breakdown, Fasig-Tipton changed to a gallop-only format for the May 18 under tack session. Fasig-Tipton president and CEO Boyd Browning Jr. said the sale is in "uncharted waters," but is optimistic about the volume of people on the sales ground. The feedback from horsemen and horsewomen has fueled his positive perspective. "I think our consignors have done a great job adapting and adjusting under the circumstances," he said. "I think that some buyers might see it as an opportunity. Some buyers have been kind of clamoring for some changes. We're just going to have to see how they react and the marketplace (Tuesday). All in all, I think that's one of the things about our industry that is pretty remarkable, is the resiliency and the ability to cope with adverse circumstances. And that's been on display with our buyers and sellers alike this week, and hopefully will continue (Tuesday)." The change Browning alluded to is from a segment of the industry that wants to see 2-year-old sales do away with breeze shows and turn to gallop-only formats. There seemed to be plenty of support for this in recent days in Maryland. "There's been a large outcry for gallop-only," said consignor Clovis Crane of Crane Thoroughbreds. "If there is ever a buyers' market, this is going to be a buyers' market. Those who have been screaming that they want gallop-only, they are going to get it, and we're going to see how it's received." Crane said the gallop-only format eliminates the opportunity to showcase a top athlete, and without breeze shows, it becomes harder to distinguish the best of the crop. But, he said, gallop-only is the best thing for the horse. Torie Gladwell said her Top Line Sales scratched some of its sales entries because she wasn't able to breeze them to "really showcase their talent." As a result, those horses will be sent to the Ocala Breeders' Sales June 2-Year-Olds in Training and Horses of Racing Age Sale. "Here's my thing: They're racing these horses at Keeneland in (April)—the first baby races," she said. "To get those horses ready for those baby races, they are doing the exact same thing we're doing to these horses to get them ready for the breeze show." Despite the change in this year's format, she's optimistic because some of her consignment was able to breeze last week, and she was happy with their performances. Joe Pickerrell of Pick View said OBS's June sale isn't his first choice because "we are here to sell them." He said the one-day, gallop-only set-up is the "best option with what we were handed." "It's going to make the agents work a little harder to find the good horses," he said. "It's going to come down to relationships with consignors and buyers going to places they've had success with before." Trainer Michael McCarthy, coming off of winning the Preakness Stakes (G1) just down the road at Pimlico Race Course with Journalism, said he will be at the sale and is in favor of the gallop-only approach. "I think it's great," he said. "I enjoy watching these horses, the way they move, the way they gallop. It's unfortunate what happened the other day. But I think this is fine. I think there is nothing wrong with galloping horses." Browning doesn't know if gallop-only is the future of this sale. "We're just going to have to wait and see," he said. "There was no intention on our part. It wasn't an experiment that we were trying to pull off or anything like that. What we're trying to do is do the very best job that we can … until the last horse goes through the ring to give these horses an opportunity to be shown and sold and marketed as well as they possibly can under the right circumstances." Pickerrell is seeing a lot of buzz from the presence of many foreign buyers on the sales ground over the past few days. Last year, international bidders made their presence felt. KAS Stables, from Saudi Arabia, bought the opening-day sale topper, a Bernardini filly for $650,000. That number was matched the next day by another Saudi prince. These buys were the fruit of Fasig-Tipton's international outreach efforts, and Browning said there is an international contingent on the ground for this year's sale. "We've had good success with the international graduates and how they perform," he said. "So we're optimistic that we'll have strong international participation again this year." The sale is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. EST, an hour earlier than previously planned. Of the cataloged 586 hips, there are 138 outs as of Monday afternoon.