Yearling Sale Season Begins With Fasig-Tipton Select Yearlings

You might have had your fill of economic indicators over the last year or so, but one of the leading early measurements of the thoroughbred breeding industry begins Monday when the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July select yearling auction in Lexington. The two-day auction has 494 yearlings catalogued to pass through the sales ring and it is the first yearling auction of the year which makes it a sign of things to come for buyers and sellers this year and perhaps breeders in years to come.

Yearlings sales are ever important to breeders not only because it dictates their 2009 revenues, but yearling prices also have a direct impact on stallion fees. A young stallion's early popularity and demand are in-part set by the prices their first, second and third crops demand through the auction ring.

The bad global economy appears to have removed an important group of buyers from the thoroughbred auction market as major two-year-old sales held in the spring suffered a 30% decline according to Bloodhorse.com. Those are the same sales that many of yearlings will be expected to pass through next year so "pinhookers" are expected to be cautious with their check books.

Pinhookers are that segment of the thoroughbred industry who buy thoroughbreds as yearlings in the summer and give them their early race training to be sold in two-year-old auctions next year.

Officials with Fasig-Tipton have stepped up their effort to increase the sale attendance of thoroughbred trainers who also have a major influence on buyers who are looking for yearlings to race under their silks in two years.