By Bloodhorse.com
POMONA, Calif. (Sept. 24, 2024) — A full brother to California breeders state champion Finneus topped the Sept. 24 Fasig-Tipton California Fall Yearlings sale at Pomona, selling for $250,000. The colt emulated his older brother, who topped the 2020 edition of the sale at $200,000.
Despite the Northern California racing schedule still sorting itself out in the wake of Golden Gate Fields‘ closure earlier this year, the Fasig-Tipton sale held relatively steady. A total of 163 yearlings grossed $4,781,400, for an average of $29,334 and a median of $15,000, compared with 2023 figures of 158 grossing $5,218,000, averaging $33,025, with a median of $17,000.
“All things considered, it was a productive exercise—we got the vast majority of the horses sold,” said Boyd Browning Jr., Fasig-Tipton’s president and chief executive officer, shortly after the sale’s conclusion.
Of the 250 through the ring, 87 did not sell, for a buyback rate of 34.8%, a similar buyback percentage to last year (33.6%).
“There will be brisk post-sale activity tonight and tomorrow as well,” Browning added Sept. 24.
The sale occurred just four days after a California Horse Racing Board meeting that resulted in conditional approval of a license application for a meeting at Pleasanton in Northern California from Oct. 19-Dec. 15. The Golden State Racing Association, which will conduct the meeting, was still working out final details of the horsemen’s agreement with the Thoroughbred Owners of California that included the amount of daily purse distribution.
“I think everyone has to have realistic expectations, given the state of the racing environment in California currently,” Browning said. “For you to tell me we would be this close to being even with last year, given the state of things, I probably would have been satisfied with that. You always want to have increases in your average and in your median, but it would have been unrealistic to expect that at this sale.”
California-breds made up nearly the entire catalog, and each of the eight horses to sell for $100,000 or more was a California-bred.
Terry Lovingier’s Lovacres Ranch consigned the sale topper, a son of Lovacres stallion Stay Thirsty and Lovingier’s homebred Ghostzapper mare My Fiona. The multiple stakes-winning mare was the 2014 champion Cal-bred 2-year-old female. John Moroney, who lives outside of St. Louis, Mo., and also has a home in Carlsbad, Calif., bought the sale topper. He has been a frequent partner with Lovingier on several racehorses.
“The family was good, and this colt really looked good to us,” Moroney said. “We decided that we had an opportunity to jump in and get him, so we did.”
Moroney, who has 25 Taco Bell franchises, has been in racing for 25 years, often running horses at Fairmount Park. He began partnering with Lovingier about five years ago, he said.
My Fiona produced stakes winner Fi Fi Pharoah to the cover of American Pharoah before Lovingier began breeding her to Stay Thirsty. Finneus, her first Stay Thirsty foal, became a stakes winner and grade 1-placed at 2 and was voted the year’s champion Cal-bred 2-year-old male. Maximus Decimus, My Fiona’s 2020 Stay Thirsty foal, sold for $100,000, but suffered an injury early in his career. Rumble King, her 2022 Stay Thirsty colt sold for $225,000, the second-highest price of the sale last year. He won his May 26 maiden debut at Santa Anita Park.
“This colt here was probably one of the best colts she has ever had,” Lovingier said of the 2024 yearling.
Barton Thoroughbreds sold the next three highest-priced horses at the 2024 sale, a daughter of McKinzie (Hip 180) and daughter of Yaupon (Hip 227) both brought $200,000, and a daughter of City of Light (Hip 86) sold for $190,000.
“We brought a nice group of fillies this year,” said Kate Barton Penner, executive vice president of her family’s racing and breeding operation. “I think those really were standouts, so it was nice that people were interested in those and showed up for those.”
Scott Sherwood of Blinkers On Racing Stable bought the McKinzie filly, who is out of Tap Tap Ur It. The Tapit mare has also produced stakes winner and Barton stallion Tap Back . Legacy Ranch purchased the Yaupon filly, who is out of the Into Mischief mare Bahama Mischief. Steve Gasparrelli’s Slugo Racing, with the help of trainer Brian Koriner, bought the City of Light filly, a daughter of the stakes-winning Empire Maker mare Miss Empire.