Though the average was down 25 per cent compared to 2022, sale manager Greg Blanchard attributes that to nearly 100 more horses being sold this year, as well as the high cost of living in Canada. Plus, the average was higher than all three pre-pandemic years.

by Dave Briggs

Sale manager Greg Blanchard said he wasn’t surprised the average was down at the second annual London Classic Yearling Sale compared to the 2022 sale. This year’s two-day sale concluded Wednesday (Oct. 18) at the Western Fair Agriplex in London, ON.

“I expected that we were going to see a drop in average price this year, based on so many more entries,” Blanchard said. “I think last year was kind of the perfect storm, in that it was the first time with us running a sale and there hadn’t been an in-person sale here in a few years — just a strong market and a limited number of yearlings to choose from. So, demand was high and I would say maybe some even oversold a little bit last year.”

The 2022 Classic was the first under new management and the first live sale in London in three years. In 2020 and 2021 — when it was known as the London Virtual Yearling Sale — the sale was held online only due to the Agriplex being used as a COVID-19 field hospital.

This year’s sale grossed $7,759,000 for 284 yearlings. That’s a record for gross since the sale debuted in 2017 as the London Selected Yearling Sale. The gross was $7,536,000 in 2017, $7,064,800 in 2018 and $6,285,000 in 2019.

This year’s average of $26,687 was down 25 per cent from last year’s average of $35,682 (which was a record going back to 2017 when the sale debuted as the London Selected Yearling Sale). But this year, thanks mostly to the return to the sale of yearlings sold by Winbak Farm and Stonebridge Farm, 98 more horses were sold than in 2022 when 186 went through the ring. That led to more than a million dollars more in sales than a year ago ($6,637,000), but the higher number of yearlings had a sharp impact on this year’s average.

Despite being down sharply, this year’s average was better than the averages in the sale’s pre-pandemic years. The average was $24,627 in 2017, $22,644 in 2018 and $21,598 in 2019.

“This year, it was probably more in line with previous years in terms of average, but, having said that, the high-quality horses sold well,” Blanchard said. “We certainly had some of the big-name buyers there.

With a range of prices, there were something there for everybody. The buyers were happy and hopefully the sellers were happy as well and we were certainly happy with the sale from an operational standpoint. There were a few little glitches, here and there, but overall everything went pretty smoothly. Our first time running a sale with a full complement of close to 300 horses, we were pretty happy overall with how things went.”

The averages for the two years the sale was online-only were: $29,842 in 2021 and $32,480 in 2020.

Blanchard said he suspects a challenging Canadian economy with high inflation and high cost of living “definitely plays into” this year’s average being down.

“There’s no question, I think we’re in the midst of tough economic challenges, especially here in Canada, so I suspect that that had a bit of an impact this year on the sale,” Blanchard said.

Last year, eight yearlings were sold for $100,000 or more. This year, there were five six-figure yearlings — three sold on Tuesday (Oct. 17) and two on Wednesday.

Two yearlings purchased by Determination of Montreal, both sold on Wednesday, shared the billing as the sale toppers.

Determination purchased Hip #170 D A Lets Boogie, a Dancin Lou—Sports Beauty colt consigned by Dean and Ashley Wilson for $200,000. For the same price, Determination bought Hip #224 Gridiron Seelster, a Bettors Delight colt out of Glamour Seelster bred and consigned by Seelster Farms.

The day 1 topper was Hip #46 Stonebridge Alien, a Shadow Play colt out of Ken Doll J purchased for $165,000 by Mark Steacy from the Stonebridge Farm consignment.

Hip #115 The Hitman Heart, a Green Manalishi colt out of Rite Outa The Park was the highest-priced trotter sold. Steve Colvin bought the colt from Dean and Ashley Wilson’s consignment.

The final six-figure yearling was Hip #49 Peloton Seelster, a Shadow Play colt out of Porsche Seelster purchased for $105,000 by Shadow Play’s former trainer Dr. Ian Moore from Seelster Farms.

Pacing colts led the sale with an average of $32,297, followed by trotting fillies ($31,273), trotting colts ($28,544) and pacing fillies ($17,945).

Stonebridge led all consignors (three or more sold) with an average of $47,125 for eight yearlings sold. They were followed by: Seelster ($38,788 for 34), Dean and Ashley Wilson ($32,152 for 34), Princeton Farm Inc. ($29,350 for 21 yearlings) and Preferred Equine Marketing ($27,418 for 56).

Blanchard said it was gratifying to see Stonebridge and Winbak yearlings return to the London sale after a few years or selling elsewhere.

“It was nice to see everybody back under one roof,” he said. “All the top consignors in Ontario were here. I think the strength we have is our venue and I think it’s as nice as any you’ll find anywhere for an indoor sale of this size. For the time of year when we have it, it’s really ideal. So, that’s a strength we have and it’s something we’re proud of.”

This year, the Classic was available for the first time on the Equiline sales catalogue app.

“There’s a growing segment that likes to use the tablets to view their catalogue and keep notes and records, so that was a nice addition this year and [we] got good feedback on that,” Blanchard said. “We didn’t get our videos up on there, but that’s a little takeaway that we’ll make sure is there next year.

“One big change this year, one big shift, was the number of people who registered to bid online and who actually did participate and purchase horses.”

Other than that, Blanchard said there were no other big changes from 2022.

“The template that we used last year was pretty much what we went with,” he said. “We didn’t want to try to reinvent the wheel from last year, which went well. We really wanted to just make sure that we could comfortably accommodate a full house of horses this year, so that was priority number one.

“We’ll look at everything again and we’ll gather feedback from consignors, sellers, buyers and just see what we think worked and what didn’t and look to continue to improve the sale. We think we’ve got something good there, for sure.

“Just in general terms, I would say we’re quite satisfied, but always striving for higher.”