Equestrian auctions are always a sight to behold. Trainers, ranch owners, and several other high-net-worth individuals flock to these auctions and enjoy participating in them. One such hearty auction recently took place in the state of New York. 

The Fasig-Tipton New York Bred Yearlings Sale at Saratoga Springs, New York, attracts equestrians from all over the country every year. Along similar lines, many equestrian enthusiasts across the nation gathered in New York for investing opulence in this year’s auction, which kicked off on 13th August 2013 with a grand start.

Equestrian auction registers a solid first day

Horses at an equestrian auction are labeled by hip numbers. These numbers are unique identification tags given to each horse to facilitate the buying and selling process. While several racehorses registered yielded some outstanding sales, the Kentucky-bred Violence was auctioned at the highest price. Trained by the legendary Hall of Famer, Violence has a good racing record.

The 13-year-old racehorse has won three races out of four starts and came second in the race it failed to win. Baccari Bloodstock bought Violence for a whopping $380,000. In fact, the equestrian racehorse fetched this grand sum despite being the fourth horse on the auction list. This suggests that Baccari Bloodstock already had their eye out for the Hip 306 horse for a long time.

Several other equestrian racehorses also brought top dollar into the Fasig-Tipton New York Bred Yearlings Sale coffers. The CEO and President of the auction house, Boyd Browning, was very impressed with the turnout at the auction. “We had an excellent opening session to the 2023 New York-bred yearling sale,” he said. Browning was initially worried about the RNA rates going at the auction. However, his worries were put to rest as the night progressed and the RNA rate gently smoothed out. The auction, however, also faced some speed bumps.

A slow but steady start

The first day of the sale went well, but it could not cross the benchmark of the previous auction. Fasig-Tipton reported that only 53 out of 81 horses could be sold on Sunday, and 28 horses went unsold. While the overall turnout was good and stood at $5,999,000, the auction house registered a 13.1% year-on-year loss. 

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However, the sale did achieve some positive numbers as well. The average price of each equestrian racehorse sold was $113,189. This was five percent more than the 2022 auction. Moreover, the median of this year’s auction sales shifted to a whopping $100,000. The rise in the median registered a staggering 29.1 percent increase. CEO Browning said that this was a good outcome. He mentioned that while 2022 was a record-breaking year for them, the improvement in two key parameters was also a significant achievement for the auction house. 

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