The second session of the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale saw new record highs for session gross (over $23 million), average (over $97,000), six-figure yearlings (100), median ($80,000) and established new standards for gross (over $44.5 million), average (over $126,000) and $100,000+ yearlings (197) through two days.

story by Dave Briggs / quotes by James Platz

The Lexington Selected Yearling Sale smashed every record possible for its second session held Tuesday (Oct. 3) at the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion. Through two days, the auction is now ahead of last year’s all-time best sale.

Tuesday’s session set new records for second-session gross ($23,242,000), average ($97,247), six-figure yearlings (100) and median ($80,000). It has also established new two-day standards for gross ($45,464,000), average ($126,289), $100,000+ yearlings (197) and median ($100,000).

The sale’s second session was up 14 per cent in gross and up eight per cent in average compared to the second night in 2022. Through two nights, the sale is up 4.5 per cent in gross and up 1.3 per cent in average compared to a year ago.

This year 239 yearlings were sold in session two compared to 227 a year ago.

That 55 per cent of the yearlings sold through two days have fetched $100,000 — up 20 per cent over the number of six-figure yearlings at this point in 2022 — is a testament to the depth of this year’s auction.

“With the purse structure the way it is and how it’s spread out through the jurisdictions, I definitely think that we have a broad buyer base here, which signals a strength of the sale,” said co-sale manager David Reid. “The history of the sale, the success of the sale [is one thing], but when you add all these jurisdictions with the purse money that’s available, I think it’s very healthy for the overall industry and it’s encouraging to see new names show up, existing names show up.”

Last year, the sales catalogue featured more of a trotter bias, which was thought to drive prices due to the European buyer influence. This year, the roster is more balanced between trotters and pacers and, still, the prices keep climbing.

“Coming in, we stated that the catalogue was a little more balanced between pacers and trotters and last night we sold more pacers and today, I would imagine, it was the same,” Reid said. “I don’t have the exact number, but I would say that would be the contributing factor for the increase. More importantly, I think we’re just happy with the overall balance and the overall gross dollars spent… and the average, to be up in your second session after a strong first session and after a historic sale last year, it’s just a testament to the breeders, the depth of the catalogue.

“A lot of six-figure horses and the median is up over eight per cent from last year and the average is up over eight per cent from last year. The number of $100,000 horses, we had 75 last year and we had 100 today. The numbers are impressive when you look at the average, the median, gross… they are very impressive numbers.

“Just the whole process right from the beginning, from taking the entries, to evaluating the pedigrees that we had on the individuals. It just validates what we’ve been saying all along that it’s a deep, strong catalogue and the buyers, thank God, they are healthy and they are contributing to the health of the sale.”

Diamond Creek owner Adam Bowden said the sale has been, “even stronger than anticipated. There were a lot of good individuals and a lot of good pedigrees still. So, like David [Reid] had mentioned earlier, the catalogue is deep and it’s certainly playing out that way.

“Coming off last year’s record sale, it would be hard to beat those numbers… [but] today feels like it was better than last year. So, I think all the indices are telling us that it’s a strong market.”

TWO YEARLINGS REACHED $350,000 ON DAY TWO

Two yearlings fetched $350,000 on Tuesday — the highest price reached during the second session.

Hip #176 Phantomofthenight, a Tall Dark Stranger colt out of Lu’s Illusion, was first, selling to day one leading buyer Bill Pollock (represented by trainer Andrew Harris) from Reid’s Preferred Equine consignment.

Later, Hip #333 French Riviera, a Greenshoe filly out of Creamy Mimi, was purchased by the Andy Miller Stable out of the Kentuckiana Farms consignment.

Five other yearlings sold for $300,000 or more.

Despite Pollock buying nine horses for a total of $3.2 million on Monday night, trainer Tony Alagna now holds the overall lead among buyers. On Monday, Alagna spent $2,795,000 to buy 15 yearlings. On Tuesday afternoon, he spent $1,280,000, total, to buy nine horses. Over two days, Alagna now has spent $4,075,000 to purchase 24 yearlings.

“I’m really happy with what I got,” Alagna said. “How can I not be with the numbers of the horses and the pedigrees of the horses that we’ve been able to purchase. Of course, I’ve got a great bunch of owners that support what we’re doing. It’s a group effort and we’ve all spent a lot of time going around to the farms together and here at the sale.

“We came up with a shortlist, we set some numbers and yesterday we were fortunate enough that a lot of horses fell into the numbers that we had set.”

On Monday night, Alagna was the underbidder on the highest-priced pacer sold — Hip #49 Treacheryinthedark, a Captaintreacherous filly out of Rainbowinthedark that fetched $700,000 from Pollock / Harris.

“We probably could’ve pushed a little bit more, but Andrew [Harris] was well-meant to buy the filly,” Alagna said. “He has the brother, of course, and they are spending a lot of money so it comes to the point where it just wasn’t making any sense to keep going with that, so we stopped.”

Last year, Alagna was the Lexington sale’s leading buyer, but he spent $1 million less to do it. He brought home 21 yearlings for a total bill of $3,014,000.

PREFERRED LEADING BUYER ON DAY 2

Preferred Equine had a huge day on Tuesday. It sold $4,560,000 worth of horses to lead all consignors by a wide margin.

Through two days, Hunterton holds a slim lead over Preferred in the gross sales list $7,850,000 to $7,575,000.

By average, Peninsula Farm is the leading consignor with a figure of $181,000 for nine sold. All American Harnessbreds is second with an average of $164,167 for six sold. Hunterton is third with $160,204 for 49 sold.

CHAPTER SEVEN LEADING STALLION BY WIDE MARGIN

Through two sessions, trotting fillies are averaging the most ($154,390), followed by trotting colts ($125,581), pacing filles ($117,282) and pacing colts ($103,348).

Chapter Seven led all stallions with $3,068,000 on day two and leads the sale overall ($6,938,000) by a wide margin. Walner is second ($2,548,000 on day 2, $5,198,000 overall), followed by leading pacing stallion Captaintreacherous ($1,398,000 / $5,018,000).

Today’s (Oct. 4) third session of the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale begins at 1 p.m. at Fasig-Tipton. For more information about the sale, please visit:http://www.lexingtonselected.com