Lexington sale softened slightly on Day 3

Through three days the sale has grossed nearly $56 million and produced an average sale price of nearly $90,000. The four-day auction concludes tonight.

story by Dave Briggs
quotes by James Platz and Debbie Little

While numbers softened a bit during the third session of the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale held Wednesday afternoon (Oct. 7) at the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion, co-sale manager David Reid said he thinks “the marketplace is holding up fine. We’re going to finish with a bang [Thursday] night and at the end of [Thursday] night’s session, I think we’re going to be very happy with the average, the gross, the median, and the overall results.”

On Wednesday, 254 yearlings went through the ring. The gross of $11,930,000 was up 3.3 per cent over 2025 ($11,552,00), but this year 25 more horses were sold. The average of $46,969 was down 7 per cent from the average of $50,445 in 2025 and down 4 per cent from the average of $48,881 for the third session in 2024. Wednesday’s median of $35,000 was down 12.5 per cent from the median of $40,000 in 2025 and down 5.4 per cent from the 2023 median of $37,000.

Twenty-seven yearlings sold for $100,000 or more on Wednesday, down one from last year’s third session and up three from 24 in 2024. Through three days, 195 yearlings have sold for six figures, up from 180 in 2025 and 178 in 2024.

“The marketplace is continuing to follow the same trend as we saw the first two days,” said Reid, who manages the sale with Bruce Brinkerhoff. “Obviously, we always see a little bit of a step down today and it was a little bit choppier, per se, with a bit more fluctuation in the marketplace, but we still sold a lot of horses for over six figures.”

Through three sessions, this year’s sale has grossed $55,687,000 for 621 horses sold to produce an average of $89,673. The median is $60,000. The gross is up 6 per cent over last year’s three-day total of $52,519,000 with 50 more horses sold this year. This year’s cumulative average is $89,673, which is down 2.5 per cent from $91,977 at this point in 2025 and down 8.5 per cent from the average through two days in 2024. This year’s three-day media of $60,000 is the same as it was at this point last year and down 3.2 per cent from the 2024 median of $62,000.

“The crowd was great,” Reid said. “The pace was great and it was beautiful weather. It falls right in line with last year, a very consistent marketplace and, as we say, consistency is the key some days.

“I think the online bidding was good. As we move on into the later sessions, we always get increased traffic on the internet. I thought the traffic in person was very good, so nothing to complain about from that end.

“We started the online bidding during COVID and it just serves as another tool to help service our customers. People doing that are using it for a convenience factor. Not everyone can get away for that period of time. Not everyone has their resources to get away and it’s just another tool that we’re offering for our customers that allows them to participate in the sale directly versus trying to phone a friend or something else. I use it as a positive. It just helps expand our footprint and we’re happy to offer that service to our customers.”

As for whether internet auctions would replace live sales, Reid said, “The live sale venue is not going to go away anytime soon, especially in the yearling market. People love to touch and feel and I don’t see that changing in the near future.”

Topping Wednesday’s session was Hip #429 Creole Queen, a Tactical Landing filly out of Bayou purchased for $275,000 by the sale’s leading buyer Marcus Melander ($3,035,000 spent, total on 14 yearlings) out of the Alliance Bloodstock consignment. The filly was bred and raised by Diamond Creek Farm.

“This mare, Bayou, it’s the Pizza Dolce family – one of the longstanding trotting families,” said Diamond Creek vice-president Shaun Laungani. “This mare just continues to give us just outstanding-looking horse after outstanding-looking horse.

“The full brother to this horse, Delta, he was bought for $150,000 last year by Melander and he’s been with Melander this past year and he showed real prowess… He got turned out for the season, but they must like him because they really appreciated this filly, as did most people.

“We really thank the Melander team for believing in our horses. They buy a lot from us and they’ve had quite a bit of success here in the last few years.”

Through three days, Alliance Bloodstock sits sixth in gross sales with $3,338,000 for 42 sold. Hunterton leads the group with $10,847,000 in sales for 93 sold, followed by Kentuckiana ($8,191,000 for 81) and Preferred Equine ($5,442,000 for 89). Alliance was the third leading consignor on Wednesday with sales of $1,191,000 for 19 sold.

“We couldn’t be happier with how things are going,” Laungani said. “We went into this wanting to show everyone that we can be the best in hospitality – everybody’s had a good time at our consignment with food and drink and a nice, relaxing tent for people to stay in. It’s been great for us to get exposure to everybody. We’re just trying to do the best job possible. Our clients have been pleased with our work.

“As a consignor and a breeder, you get your feelings hurt when horses that you liked on the farm… [have their] flaws pointed out that you had overlooked, but that’s all part of the reality of the market.”

Putting on his Diamond Creek hat, Laungani said, “Obviously, Tactical Approach is a huge disappointment. The market has not received him well. All I can say to that, you know, it reminds me a little bit of last year when the market didn’t receive Pebble Beach super well, but they went on to race quite well at 2. So, it does appear that Tactical Approach is going to be one of these stallions that didn’t have a ton of sales success in his first crop and will have to prove it on the racetrack. That’s the one good part about the stallion game, even if it doesn’t come easily in the sales ring the first year, you still have an opportunity to win everybody over the other way. I don’t see any reason why… they are smart individuals – we had several of them. They videoed well. They are natural trotters. Obviously, they are not the sales product that everybody was looking for this year, but I don’t discount their chances on the racetrack. You just hope that several of them end up in good hands and they are managed properly and we get to see what he has.

“On the total flip side of the coin, Confederate and Cannibal, the start to their careers couldn’t be going better. I mean, Cannibal has really been… not a surprise, but just a pleasant reality. We thought putting him in New York would work out well, but I don’t know how many people told me – same with Confederate – they came to the sale, not necessarily looking for a Confederate or Cannibal, but after they saw the individuals they started to come around and ended up bidding on them or buying them. The Confederates seem to be universally accepted, which is so nice.

“Then, on the Cannibal side, the strength of the New York program. It’s amazing to me, if you’ve got a stallion throwing nice individuals and the mares were bred well, then the program can help them that much. I think his average coming into today was over $60,000 and that’s a $10,000 stud fee. That’s just miraculous. Best I can tell today, it’s going super well. We sold our Cannibals today in the 60s for both of them. They’ve been easy to sell, the money’s been great. I’d imagine there are tons of very happy Cannibal and Confederate breeders out there and a lot of disappointed Tactical Approach breeders, unfortunately.”

Through three days, Confederate is the leading pacing stallion with total progeny sales of $4.3 million for 51 sold for an average of $84,314. Cannibal is sixth among pacers with $776,000 in total sales for 15 yearlings to produce an average of $51,733. Tactical Approach is seventh among trotters with sales of $888,000 for 29 yearlings (average of $30,621). Leading the trotters is Walner (74, $11,176,000, $151,027), Chapter Seven (56, $9,740,000, $173,929), and Tactical Landing (51, $5,100,000, $100,000).

The second-highest yearling sold on Wednesday was Hip #480 Abebe, a Gimpanzee colt out of Dibaba S that sold for $250,000 to Annette Lorentzon out of the Cane Run Farm consignment.

Hip #412 You Lucky Devil, a King Of The North colt out of Celebrity Angel, sold for $220,000 to a numbered company in Montreal out of the Kentuckiana consignment.

Jumping back to consignors, Concord Stud Farm is fourth through three days with $4,418,000 for 39 sold. The farm is also fourth in average with $113,282, behind Kountry Lane Standardbred (average of $242,857 for seven sold), Blue Chip Farms ($161,000 for nine), and Hunterton ($116,634 for 93).

Concord Stud’s Julie Meirs said, “I think it’s been really good. I’m very pleased with the sale.

“There’s a couple that sort of fell through the cracks, but in general it’s been accurate.

“We’re up this year. I’m pretty sure… I didn’t run the stats, but somebody else did, so you can double check that if you want. I think within the first two days, we outsold our entire consignment from last year.”

As for buyers, Melander spent $405,000, total, on two yearlings on Wednesday to exceed $3 million in purchases and jump over Ake Svanstedt at the top of the list. Svanstedt has now spent $2,365,000, total, on 10 yearlings.

Trainer Ron Burke sits sixth in spending with $1,170,000 given to take home 11 yearlings.

“I was able to get a bunch of Sweet Lous, which I was thrilled [about],” Burke said. “For the top ones, you had to pay extra, but for the middle ones, maybe you even got to pay a little less. So, it’s like the market, the very, very best, you’re going to pay over, but there were bargains out there to be had.

“We bought a [Downbytheseaside] colt, Hip #3 [Pappatrail, $140,000], a full sibling to Warrawee Ubeaut and we thought that was a good buy. We were both really happy with that. That was cool.

“On ones we bid on, we probably get 60 to 70 per cent, so that means we lose 30-40 per cent. It’s usually the trotters. We have a hard time competing with the Europeans, but we’ll stick to it.

“There is a lot of good horses. I thought the quality was definitely up this year, maybe it’s because they went with a smaller number [of yearlings], but the quality is very high.”

Today’s (Oct. 8) fourth and final session, which begins at 7 p.m., is the annual regional showcase featuring, predominantly yearlings from the Midwest.

“It’s a staple here that we close on the end with a regional night,” said Reid. “We have a lot of nice horses and a lot of great sires represented — young, old, proven. I anticipate us having a good sale [Thursday] night. The weather looks great and there’s no reason the marketplace won’t continue the way it’s been all week. I’m excited for [Thursday] night.”

As for there being only four sessions this year compared to five in recent years, Reid joked, “You guys only have to listen to me four days this year, not five, so that’s a 20 per cent increase in productivity.”