Fasig-Tipton: Average up, buyback rate down in early selling

First half sale-topper, Hip 187, Uncle Mo-Two Klassy, by Two Punch. Photo by The Racing Biz.

Through the first 208 hips, Tuesday’s Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Fall Yearlings Sale is showing an increase in the average, while the buyback rate has fallen.

At that slightly-more-than-midway point, 145 hips had sold for a total of more than $3.2 million.  The average to that point of $22,114 was nearly 16 percent higher than the $19,083 that the sale experienced in 2015.

The buyback rate had also fallen.  Only 34 of 179 hips through the ring had failed to sell in the early going; that represented a buyback rate of just about 19 percent.  In 2015, 93 of 367 horses through the ring failed to sell — a rate of 25.3 percent.

The midway sale topper was hip 187.  The Pennsylvania-bred Uncle Mo filly, consigned by Darby Dan Farm, brought a winning bid from Charles Zacney of $290,000.  She is out of the unplaced Two Punch mare Two Klassy, herself the dam of the multiple stakes winner Uptown Boy, who also was stakes-placed.

Other strong early sellers included hip 171, a Curlin colt who fetched a winning bid of $150,000 from Hillwood Stable LLC; hip 144, a Tale of the Cat colt for which Novogratz Racing Stables paid $105,000; and hip 89, a Not for Love colt for which Hillwood Stables paid $100,000.