Hip 298, from the October 2015 yearling sale. Photo by The Racing Biz.
For the first time in years, the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Winter Mixed sale at Timonium will take place in the dead of winter: this coming Sunday, January 31. The event is slated to begin at the Timonium sales pavilion at 11:00 a.m.
That’s a switch from recent years, when the sale took place typically in early to mid-December.
“Everybody felt like there was a fatigue factor setting in [given all the sales taking place over the last several months], and that’s part of the reason for moving it to January,” said Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sales Director Paget Bennett. “We’re trying to see whether this will make a difference.”
Last year’s December sale saw sales volume drop by more than a third from its 2013 haul, to $954,800, so clearly some experimentation is worth a try. And Bennett is optimistic that the date switch may help.
“Based on people inquiring about it,” she said, “I feel comfortable people will be out for it. Hopefully, it will work into everybody’s schedule.”
With the sale taking place on a Sunday, it will be facing off against live racing at Laurel Park. That could help — inspiring a ship-in trainer to make a run past the fairgrounds — or could hurt, if likely buyers are unable to get away from the track.
The number of hips in the catalog has fallen, from 202 numbered hips (prior to withdrawals) in 2014 to 167 this year (also prior to withdrawals). Of those, 77 (53.5 percent) are either yearlings or horses of racing age, while 56 (38.9 percent) are being sold as broodmares or broodmare prospects. Eleven hips are offered as racing or broodmare prospects.
“There’s always something for most tastes and pocketbooks,” said Bennett. “There’s something for everybody.”
Some facts and figs:
[su_list icon=”icon: gavel”]- Home at the fair: Overall, 72 percent of the hips — 104 out of 144 after withdrawals — were bred in the mid-Atlantic, with the 60 bred in Maryland topping all states.
- Off and… : More than half of all hips on offer (53.5 percent) are targeted at the racetrack. That includes 51 newly minted yearlings and 26 horses of racing age. There are also 11 horses offered as either racing or broodmare prospects. Of course, those yearlings are a ways away from the racetrack.
- The future is female: Sunday’s sale is overwhelmingly female: 102 of the 144 hips on offer are distaffers, versus just 42 males. That includes 56 fillies and 46 mares. Thirty-one of the males are colts, while 11 are geldings.
- How gray was my valley: Eleven of the hips on offer are gray/roan in color, the fewest of any color. Meanwhile, chestnuts are the most numerous; there are 50 of those.
- Maryland: 60
- Pennsylvania: 27
- New Jersey: 7
- West Virginia: 6
- Virginia: 4
- Yearling: 51
- Broodmare: 42
- Horse of racing age: 26
- Broodmare prospect: 14
- Racing/broodmare prospect: 11
By my view, the Sunday date definitely helps, especially with small-scale buyers like myself, who also work a Monday through Friday day job to support the horse habit. I will be attending the actual sale this year, while in previous years I had come through the barns the (weekend) day before, and only returned on the sale date if there was a hip I wanted to bid on. Doing it this way increases the chance of my doing an impulse buy.
That’s a fair point, Horseman. It’ll be interesting to see if the numbers play out that way…