By DRF.com
PLEASANTON, Calif. (Aug. 9, 2024) — A year ago, the CTBA’s Northern California yearling and horses of racing age sale was held at Pleasanton mere weeks after the announcement that Golden Gate Fields was soon to be closed.
Despite a turbulent time, demand for yearlings was strong with a higher average price compared to the 2022 auction.
This year’s sale will be held Tuesday in Pleasanton amid a different setting for the sport in Northern California. Pleasanton will host an autumn race meeting later this year on dates previously run at Golden Gate Fields, which closed June 9. A group of owners, trainers, and breeders, working with the California Authority of Racing Fairs, will conduct the meeting, and have plans to hold a winter-spring meeting in early 2025.
Many of the backers of the new Pleasanton meet will be active buyers and sellers on Tuesday. Over the years, this sale’s graduates have often raced in Northern California, with a fewer number sent to Southern California.
Tuesday’s sale has drawn a smaller catalog than in recent years. Including a small number of supplemental entries, there are 123 prospects available Tuesday compared to 180 last year. This year’s sale includes a small number of 2-year-olds. The 2022 sale had a catalog of 151 horses.
The 2023 sale saw 116 yearlings sell for $1,073,900, an average of $9,258 and a median price of $5,500, according to the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association, which conducted the sale. There were 18 horses listed as not sold and 32 withdrawn. The 2022 sale had an average price of $8,296 and a median of $4,500.
The most expensive hip of the 2023 sale was a Vronsky colt purchased for $100,000. The colt, who has yet to race, had nine workouts at Santa Anita from mid-April to late June, ranging from a furlong to three furlongs.
Matching the 2023 gross figure this year may be impossible with a smaller catalog.
The auction includes prospects by seven of the 10 leading stallions in the state by progeny earnings through Wednesday – Clubhouse Ride, Danzing Candy, Grazen, Mr. Big, Sir Prancealot, Smiling Tiger, and Stanford. They all have at least one prospect in the auction.
There are first-crop yearlings by Halladay, Mo Forza, One Bad Boy, and Tap Back, as well as 2-year-olds by second-crop stallions Bodexpress and Sawyer’s Hill.