The yearling sale concluded with a total gross of $37 million and an average of $42,830.

by Ray Cotolo

Wednesday (Nov. 6) wrapped the yearling portion of the 2024 Standardbred Horse Sales Company auction in Harrisburg, PA – a year that saw minor gains from last year’s drop off from the record 2022 sale.

The third day of the yearling sale grossed $5,560,000 from 337 horses sold, down 6.7 per cent from last year’s single-session gross of $5,957,000 from 313 horses sold. The average also dropped 13.3 per cent, from $19,032 to $16,499, and the median dropped from $15,000 to $12,000.

However, 2024’s complete yearling sale grossed 3.4 per cent more year over year with $37,091,000 in sales from 866 horses sold. Though, the average year over year fell 3.3 per cent to $42,830 from $44,284.

“With the market right now, the middle market is straining badly and I don’t know what we can do to bring that back,” said Dale Welk, president and director of operations for the Standardbred Horse Sales Company. “The high end is great. Monday was a wonderful day and yesterday stayed fairly strong, but there were a lot of great horses that went through here that sold cheap today.”

Julie Meirs of Concord Stud Farm shared this sentiment.

“The high end is solid and that’s definitely going to stay solid,” Meirs said. “The middle is disappearing and so that’s been a challenge for breeders to try to figure out how we’re going to get back in there, because there’s only so many top mares.”

With the slight bump in gross over 2023, Concord Stud Farm was among the consignors that saw year-over-year gains. In fact, the consignment entered the third day of the sale already ahead of its 2023 figures and closed the yearling portion up 6.3 per cent to a gross of $5,616,000 with seven more horses sold.

“We were very solid our first two days,” Meirs said. “Today, is a little different.”

Meirs also talked of how some hits consignors are taking — as well as their home runs — are representative of market demand for established stallions as well as lukewarm reception of still developing stallions.

“We are trying to pull out our crystal balls because we have to breed them so far in advance,” she said. “So, you have to try to guess what everyone is going to want for the future. So, some people have guessed right and some people haven’t.

“Stallions, you never know who is going to hit and who’s not. Chapter Seven has been very solid and, luckily for us, we had a significant number of them so that has helped considerably. But you take a stallion like Tall Dark Stranger and he has not and nobody wanted him. There definitely was a dip that we didn’t expect when we were breeding to him for this crop.”

Hanover Shoe Farms also entered Day 3 of the yearling sale ahead of its 2023 numbers. The consignment, which made Black Book history selling $1-million yearling Cambridge Hanover on Monday (Nov. 4), gained nearly 13 per cent from its 2023 gross with $10,685,000 in sales this year from 13 more horses sold. They were the yearling sale’s leading consignor by a margin of nearly $5 million.

“We certainly left 2023 somewhat disappointed and we were hoping for a bounce-back year and thankfully we’ve had that,” said Mark Loewe, who is in his first year as vice-president of customer relations for Hanover. “The fact that we can say that Hanover Shoe Farms sold the highest-priced yearling at both the Lexington and Harrisburg sales speaks volumes. The first million-dollar horse ever sold at Harrisburg this year, so I think the team made some corrections during the course of the year that were successful and we hope to grow from that.”

Loewe also noted a softening in middle-market yearling prices.

“It feels like there’s a lot of people who are all on the same horses,” he said. “So, your high end is very strong. Your middle seems to be where there’s a little bit of a letdown and the low end always manages to hold its own. It’s just a matter of people making sure they bring the horses to the sale that the people want. That’s watching the races, watching the stallions, watching the mares that are being successful and trying to breed to the buyers so they are seeing what they want to see.

“You’re always looking for the highest price you can get for a horse, but if somebody gets a horse that they consider a value buy and the horse is successful, it just means that they’ll be back the next year. So, yes, regardless of what they pay, we want that horse to be successful so that the buyers will come back knowing that they are going to get a quality product every year from Hanover, regardless of the price.”

David Reid, president of Preferred Equine Marketing, echoed the strength of the high-end in the yearling market as well as the turbulence to the middle-priced sector.

“The top of the market was good and the middle of the market has been a little challenging throughout the year,” he said. “I think today was definitely a little challenging, but the marketplace is what it is. At the end of the day, the public is the best judge of the marketplace. They judged and now we move onto the mixed sale portion tomorrow.”

WEDNESDAY’S LEADERS

Hip #607, a Preferred Equine-consigned filly named Shes On The Money, topped the Wednesday session with a $95,000 winning bid from George Ducharme, who famously trained 2013 Hambletonian champ Royalty For Life. Shes On The Money is an E L Titan filly that is the fifth foal from Chocolatier mare Queen Of More, whose granddam Caper Caillie is a half-sister to world champion and double-millionaire Wesgate Crown.

Noel Daley signed for the second-largest purchase of the session when getting the gavel slam on Hip #675, a Six Pack filly named A Case Of You, for $80,000. The Walnridge Farm-consigned filly is the fifth foal from SJ’s Caviar mare Tactical Caviar, who is a full sister to a pair of world champions in Triumphant Caviar and Centurion ATM.

Three horses exited the sales ring at $75,000, including a pair of E L Titan colts. Howard Okusko, Jr. struck first with Hip #753, a Blue Chip Farms-consigned colt named Aquarius Blue Chip. This E L Titan colt is the first foal from Chapter Seven mare Double Red, whose granddam is Dan Patch Award winner Day For Night. Exceed Stables LLC took Hip #811 Avalon Blue Chip, the other E L Titan colt leaving the ring for $75,000. The Blue Chip Farms-consigned colt is the fifth foal from Andover Hall mare Aurova Hanover, whose granddam American Wish is a half-sister to $1.5-million earner Algiers Hall as well as Avalicious, the dam of 2024 Hambletonian winner Karl.

A rare roan standardbred earned the third $75,000 winning bid in the session. Hip #859, a Tactical Landing colt named Steel Grey consigned by Blue Chip Farms, sold to William Jackson.

TO THE MIXED SALE

Signs swapped and horses shipped in all through the Wednesday session ahead of the Black Book Mixed Sale, which begins today (Nov. 7).

“It’s going to be, I’m hoping, a fun two days,” said Welk. “Us guys on Friday start looking like, ‘Oh, we’ve got to tear all this down,’ but if you have a good sale on Thursday and Friday… like, last year, the mixed sale brought our whole sale back. We were down 19 per cent after the yearling sale and we ended up down six per cent because of the mixed sale. We had a record mixed sale last year. I think we’re going to surpass that this year.”

The opening session of the Mixed Sale features weanlings, yearlings, stallion shares, broodmares and the first phase of All American Harnessbreds dispersal, which includes Hambletonian Oaks runner-up Buy A Round. Friday features racehorses of all ages as well as the fabulous fillies section of racing mares and breeding prospects.

“There’s always going to be breeders wanting to reinvest to upgrade their stock,” said Reid. “So, I think tomorrow is going to be good. I think the racehorse market is going to be solid [too].

“We have a lot to offer and I’m very happy with our quality of the line-up for the next two days. Obviously, it’s an honor just to have Hot Mess Hanover in here – the dam of Jiggy Jog [S]. Whenever you can sell a mare of her quality… she’s a queen. She’s 10 years old and in foal to Walner and carrying a full sibling to Jiggy Jog [S]. That should be exciting [today] to get a feel for the marketplace. I look forward to selling her and others, and then Friday (Nov. 8) we’ll come back with horses like Mambacita and Amazing Catch, who was a terrific 3-year-old this year. He’s by Walner and Walner had a great week here, so we’re looking forward to selling him on Friday, as well as those others.”

Today’s session begins at 11 a.m. (E.T).