THE 2026 yearling sales season got off to a positive start at the Fasig-Tipton July Sale this week, where 147 yearlings generated the highest average and median prices in the sale’s history.
The average price of $116,299 (€101,709) marked an annual increase of 9%, while the median of $95,000 (€83,082) was over 5% higher than the previous record set in 2024. 77% of those offered sold for a total of $17,096,000 (€14,951,307).
The $600,000 (€524,730) top lot was by leading first and second crop sire Vekoma, who commands $100,000 (€87,455). If all the above figures suggest that buying and breeding these horses is an elite game, then the top lot’s backstory will fuel rags-to-riches dreams.
The colt, consigned by Shawhan Place, was bred when Vekoma stood for $15,000, out of a mare that cost $17,000. The foal she was carrying failed to sell 12 months prior, but that’s now history after her second produce sold to Legion Bloodstock.
“Huge day,” Matt Koch of Shawhan Place reflected. “You never expect to sell a horse for that much money ever, at least I don’t; we try to stay very realistic. This colt was special because he’s for the home team, out of a mare that we purchased a couple years ago. We bred, we foaled, we raised this colt, we prepped him. The whole team was here; everyone came up from the farm.
“You have indications that you’re gonna do well, but we’ve been there before and not everything’s worked out, but today it did and it was absolutely amazing.”
Spendthrift stallion Vekoma sired 39 two-year-old winners in 2024 - the joint-highest of any North American sire, and included five blacktype winners. His stock was understandably popular throughout Tuesday, with Tom McCrocklin stretching to $300,000 for a filly from Warrendale Sales.
Earlier in the day, McCrocklin gave $450,000 for Airdrie Stud’s filly by their sire Girvin.
The highest-priced filly of the sale was bred in Kentucky out of an unraced Uncle Mo mare, while her granddam is a full-sister to Grade 1 winners Sweet Catomine and Life Is Sweet.
The first crop of Gun Runner’s three-time Grade 1 winner Taiba have made a smart first impression, averaging $143,500 as weanlings, and on Tuesday, four yearlings fetched $300,000, $220,000, $200,000 and $120,000.
Phil Hager’s Taproot Bloodstock bought the most expensive of the quartet, a colt consigned by Taylor Made Sales on behalf of breeder Don Alberto Corporation. The cross has worked well before - the mare’s first two yearlings by Gun Runner sold for a combined $1,250,000.
Record high
Ryder Finney’s $285,000 outlay on a McKinzie colt was another highlight, but consignor Hunter Valley Farm will best remember Tuesday as the day they sold the $2,000,000 top lot at the July Selected Horses of Racing Age Sale, which immediately followed the yearling sale.
Pedro Lanz, acting on behalf of KAS Stables, paid the highest price in the sale’s history for Allied Racing Stable’s well-named home-bred Our Moneyman, who was offered off the back of his neck defeat in the Grade 3 Indiana Derby won by Wathnan Racing’s Leading Change.
As with the highest-priced yearling of the day, Our Moneyman came from humble beginnings, as his dam cost $7,500 and was covered when his sire Mr Money commanded $4,000.
Allied Racing raced Mr Money, who now stands at Clear Creek Stud in Louisiana at a fee of $2,000. A $130,000 yearling himself, the grandson of Into Mischief won multiple Grade 3 races from eight to nine furlongs and came within a neck of Grade 1 glory in the Pennsylvania Derby.
Our Moneyman is one of four stakes winners from the first two crops of the stallion, and following his sale, Allied Racing’s Chester Thomas said: “We’re just grateful. Grateful to Fasig for having us up here at the last second. I mean, how do you complain about this?”
Pedro Lanz, meanwhile, said of the bidding process: “It felt like a boxing final; the main event,” before revealing that KAS Stables, the Saudi-based operation of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz and sons, plan to keep Our Moneyman in training with Bret Calhoun for the time being.
Two months ago, Lanz bought a Flightline colt on behalf of the same client for $2.1 million. Sent to John Sadler, he has since been named Inshallah.
Our Moneyman was a clear highlight of the sale, with Hedge Ratio the next highest-priced horse at $500,000. My Racehorse and Wesley Ward signed for Elite Sales’ offering, who progressed to win a stakes race last time out, bringing his record to three from six for Chad Brown and Klaravich Stables.
The Speightstown three-year-old was one of 39 racehorses to sell on the day, when there was a strong clearance rate of 93%. A significantly smaller catalogue means that the turnover $6,538,000 cannot be compared fairly, but the average grew by 6% to $167,641 and the median fell by 5% to $90,000.