Fasig-Tipton’s annual fall yearling sale is set for October 1, beginning at 11:00 a.m. Unlike prior years, this edition will be a single day sale, with some 279 hips (prior to outs) offered.

The sale is slated to kick off with a Divining Rod colt who’s Maryland-bred, Maryland Million eligible, and Virginia certified and to end with a New York-bred Tacitus filly.

In between, you’ll see a bunch of Great Notions and Blofelds – they are represented by 10 each prior to outs – and 57 sires with just one horse slated to go through the ring. 

“Midlantic Fall graduates have notched nearly 60 stakes wins or placings in 2024 alone, including a bevy of quality graded stakes winners,” said Paget Bennett, Midlantic Director of Sales. “Yearlings from the Midlantic region are well raised and their results on the racetrack bear that out year-after-year.”

How the market is feeling about Maryland-breds will have a big impact on this year’s sale. Prior to outs, there are 134 Maryland-breds in the sale, fully 48% of the catalog. The next state by hips on offer is New York, with 44.

Maryland racing, of course, is in a profoundly transitional phase. The new Maryland Jockey Club – a nonprofit organization – is scheduled to take control of day-to-day racing January 1 on behalf of the state’s Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority. Over the coming years, that group will oversee the demolition and rebuilding of Pimlico and the purchase and construction of a new training center at a location to be determined. Laurel Park will eventually be closed.

Given Maryland’s importance to the sale – last year Maryland-breds accounted for roughly 48% of total sales at this event – the public’s confidence, or lack thereof, in the future of Maryland racing could go a ways towards determining how the sale does.

Of course, in the end, the horses themselves are what will drive the sale. To that end, a number of top 20 sires are represented. Those include Twirling Candy, Goldencents, Munnings, Hard Spun, Mendelssohn, and Nyquist. Other fashionable sires represented include Violence, Bolt d’Oro, Tiz the Law, and Vekoma.

Last year’s fall yearling sale, conducted over two days, saw 290 horses change hands with total sales of $7,082,000. That was good for an average of $24,421 with a median of $12,000.

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