Fasig-Tipton Midlantic's fall yearling sale of 2025 finished with a sales-topper, a leading consignor, a leading buyer and all the other statistics, news and results of a Thoroughbred auction. This one also came with a question.

How much smaller can it get? Hopefully, for the health of the regional sales market, not much.

Reduced to fewer than 200 horses, the Sept. 30 sale at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium made its case by posting a $30,920 average -- an increase of 30 percent over 2024; gross receipts reached $4,978,100 -- a boost of 16 percent despite 54 fewer horses offered.

"Obviously, the results are very strong today," said Fasig-Tipton's Boyd Browning afterward. "I think it demonstrates that there's a viable and legitimate market here in the Mid-Atlantic region for people to bring a quality horse to. I thought we had more buyers here than we had horses in terms of there was more money here than we had horses that could fill those orders. A lot of people went home without buying a horse."

And if that's the case, perhaps a shrinking catalog reverses -- a little -- in 2026. Fasig-Tipton will do its part, though any recruiting effort will have to contend with smaller foal crops in regional states and other opportunities at the company's October sale in Kentucky (1,601 horses in the catalog this year) and Keeneland September (which sold 3,078). Sellers try to follow the marketplace and Timonium's has contracted from catalogs of more than 500 in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Gross receipts topped $10 million in 2021 and 2022. The 2023 catalog dropped to 412 horses and a $7 million gross. Last year's sale dipped again, to 284 in the book and a gross of $4.2 million.

All that decline sent at least some sellers to other markets, and gave Fasig-Tipton some pause in advance of the sale.

"You always have a little trepidation when you come into a regional market of how it's going to translate because we know this region is in some transition," Browning said. "But I think the nice thing is that there were a lot of positives to take out of the sale, and hopefully it's something that we can build upon moving forward and give people some confidence to breed a horse and to bring a quality horse here to sell next year and beyond."

Like any horse sale, this one required plenty of work from its participants, but consignors who stayed the course got rewarded.

"I thought it was a great market, buying horses and selling horses," said Chris Gracie, whose Gracie Bloodstock showed up on both sides of the ledger with 16 horses sold and one purchased. "Obviously, there was a demand for horses."

Gracie sold a Corniche filly for Virginia breeders Jimmy and Emily Day for $100,000 and had seven others reach $25,000 or more. The Virginia-based consignor sees upside to the regional yearling market, and plans to stay active.

"I was disappointed I didn't bring a couple nice horses there," he said. "I sold a couple Virginia-breds at Keeneland, and I probably got penalized a little bit. I'll be thinking about bringing some of the nicer horses next year. I don't think the sale's going to get any smaller. The people selling those horses are pretty accurate about when they need to sell and what sales they need to be in. Some can sell earlier, some need more time. It was a lot more competitive this year because you saw end-users willing to spend more money which made the pinhookers spend more money."

Like Gracie, consignor Becky Davis appreciated the demand for horses. She sold the sales-topper for the third consecutive year (and for the sixth time in the last 10), getting $370,000 for a Maryland-bred Nyquist colt and putting nine others in the $25,000 and above category.
"I think it will draw some attention for people to either come back next year, or Kentucky people to look at the sale," Davis said. "I think we just proved a lot of people wrong. Nothing against Keeneland but if you're here, if you live here and your horse is here, there's no reason to go to Kentucky. A nice horse can sell well here."

Sales Leaders

Colts

$370,000. Dk.b./br.c. Nyquist—Lookin Dynamic, by Lookin At Lucky (Md.); Becky Davis agt.; Scanlon Training and Sales.

$100,000. B.c. Tiz the Law—Golden Delicious, by Harlan’s Holiday (Ky.); Marshall Silverman agt.; Sackatoga Stable, Robin Smullen agt. 

$90,000. Dk.b./br.c. Raging Bull (Fr)—Go Big Blue Nation, by Animal Kingdom (Va.); Becky Davis agt.; Aspire Equine.

$80,000. B.c. Practical Joke—Itgetsgreaterlater, by Justify (Md.);
Wasabi Venture Sales agt.; Toby Stables.

$80,000. Dk.b./br.c. Vekoma—Applaud, by Medaglia d’Oro (Md.);
The Stables At Mezza Luna, Chanceland Farm agt.; Cash Is King and LC Racing.

$80,000. B.c. City of Light—Majestic Reason, by Majestic Warrior (Md.); Northview Stallion Station (David Wade) agt.; Lucky Quarter Bloodstock.

$75,000. Dk.b./br.c. Maxfield—Victory Rally, by Jump Start (Md.);
Northview Stallion Station (David Wade) agt.; Hillwood Stables, Cary Frommer agt.

Fillies

$210,000. Dk.b./br.f. Army Mule—Hello Now, by Tiznow (Md.); Northview Stallion Station (David Wade) agt.; LC Racing.

$200,000. B.f. Corniche—Logic of Absurdity, by Bodemeister (Md.); Northview Stallion Station (David Wade) agt.; Robert Lambe.

$190,000. Dk.b./br.f. Upstart—Crabcakes, by Great Notion (Va.);
Morgan’s Ford Farm; Tom McCrocklin agt.

$140,000. Ch.f. Vekoma—Lunar Rille, by English Channel (Md.);
Country Life Farm and Partners, Bill Reightler agt.; Bray Bloodstock.

$100,000. B.f. Corniche—Callipepla, by Yes It’s True (Va.); Gracie Bloodstock agt.; Robert Lambe.

$80,000. B.f. Speaker’s Corner—Gratz Park, by Upstart (Ky.); Jim Conkling, Deb Ferguson agt.; Grassroots Training and Sales.

$75,000. Ch.f. Friesan Fire—Just Say Goodbye, by Not For Love (Md.); Thornmar, Northview Stallion Station (David Wade) agt.; Cash Is King and LC Racing.

$75,000. B.f. Great Notion—Bawlmer Hon, by Silver Train (Md.);
Becky Davis agt.; HNR Nothhaft Horse Racing.

$73,000. Dk.b./br.f. Great Notion—Talkin Smack, by Not For Love (Md.); Becky Davis agt.; Cary Frommer.

$70,000. Ch.f. Munnings—Ginger Tap, by Tapit (Ky.); Straight Line Equine Sales agt. II; Ringside.

$70,000. B.f. Nashville—Ellanation, by Alternation (Md.);
Dark Hollow Farm agt.; Grassroots Training and Sales.

Davis knows that smaller foal crops put pressure on regional markets, but also knows there is something to be said for Timonium's manageable catalog and footprint.

"The foal crop dropping nationally is scary, the foal crop dropping in Maryland is even more scary, to me," she said. "It makes it difficult for the regional market, but I could see it being a cycle. This sale got small, then it got to almost 600 horses because the Kentucky horses came. I've been worried and concerned, but seeing what happened this year I wouldn't be surprised if it does kind of turn around.

"Maybe it'll continue to be smaller, more of a boutique sale, but that's OK. That was always a little bit of an appeal to Maryland anyway."

Northview Stallion Station led all consignors by selling 43 horses for $1,242,500. A $200,000 Corniche filly got things started as Hip 17 and a $210,000 Army Mule filly all but wrapped things up as Hip 202. Both were Maryland-breds, like all but three of the yearlings the farm sold. With 24 percent of the catalog fueled by large groups from Sycamore Hall Farm and Thornmar farm, Northview was busy even if the sale was smaller.

"The number of Maryland-breds we're getting every year is decreasing and this sale is fed mostly by Maryland-breds," said Wade. "We're not getting the Kentucky consignors we got in the past, which is different, but with mostly regional consignors and a lot of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Virgina horses we did pretty well."

Fasig-Tipton did away with its December mixed sale at Timonium because the numbers weren't there, and because the new digital sales concept serves that market.

"If it gets too small, the sale will become obsolete like the December sale has," said Wade. "You're not going to draw buyers. Hopefully some consignors that used to come are going to look at it and say, 'If we take a nice horse there, we'll do well.' The top prices always look like they sold really well, but it's the others that make a sale and we've done better at this sale with certain horses than we would have done down in Kentucky or Saratoga."

Like Gracie and some others, Bill Reightler saw both sides of the sale as a consignor (19 sold for $412,700) and a buyer (one purchased for $50,000). A longtime advocate for the sale, he stressed its importance to the region.

"It's a great place to sell a horse, and to buy a horse," he said. "The Timonium yearling sale has never let me down selling a good horse by a national sire. It works every time. Becky Davis keeps doing it. Country Life Farm had a Vekoma that sold very well. We have to promote how good of a market it is."

Reightler said he showed his 25-horse consignment 500 times the day before the sale, a sign of demand and the willingness of buyers to do their due diligence.

"A sale is not good or bad, it's what's in the sale," Reightler said. "All of us in Maryland and the Mid-Atlantic, we have to keep promoting our sale and bringing good stock to the sale. If you don't support the market, the sales company is going to have to take a hard look at it and ask if they should continue."

Starting Fast

In 2024, Florida pinhooker Dave Scanlon waited through most of the sale to purchase Hip 206 -- a Nyquist colt from the Davis consignment. The $150,000 Maryland-bred from breeder Bowman and Higgins Stable turned into a $1 million 2-year-old score the following March.
This year, Scanlon went to work early -- going to $370,000 to get Hip 18, another Nyquist colt from Davis. Bred by Bowman and Higgins, Larry Johnson and trainer Mike Trombetta's RDM Racing Stable, the colt was the sale's most expensive purchase since 2016.

Scanlon makes no secret of his Timonium plan.

"We come up here with the same plan every year," he said. "If there's a really good colt here, we hope to sneak him out of here. But obviously, we looked around and we didn't sneak him past anybody. I didn't think they were going to let us get away with it two years in a row. It was a little bit more than I was hoping to pay, but I knew I was going to have to pay for him."

The colt represents Maryland racing excellence via a female family cultivated by Robert Meyerhoff, who purchased third-dam Dynamic Star at Keeneland's November sale in 1988. In foal to Deputy Minister, she produced Grade 2 winner Star Minister in 1989 and a string of other success stories including Grade 2 winner Stellar Brush. Dynamic Star's final foal, the 2002 filly Dynamic Deputy, by Deputy Minister, won a stakes, placed in the Delaware Handicap-G2 and produced nine winners led by stakes winners Another Broad and Dynamic Strike.

In 2020, Meyerhoff wound down his breeding/racing operation with assistance from his trainer Trombetta, Davis' father Dr. Tom Bowman and others. On March 8, Dynamic Deputy's daughter Lookin Dynamic won a $50,000 claimer at Laurel Park. She was the last horse to start for Meyerhoff, the end of an era that included decades of success fueled by the likes of multiple Grade 1 winner and influential sire Broad Brush, Breeder' Cup Classic-G1 winner Concern, Grade 1 winners Valley Crossing and Include and others with trainers Dickie Small and Bud Delp and later Trombetta.

Sold to Johnson and Trombetta, Lookin Dynamic started 15 more times over the next two years, winning twice and placing in two stakes before embarking on a broodmare career for Bowman and Milton Higgins III, Johnson and Trombetta.

Bred to Nyquist in 2023, a mating picked out by Higgins who died that spring, the daughter of Lookin At Lucky produced a dark bay colt in April 2024. Seventeen months later, he hit a home run at Timonium.
By the traffic around her barn, Davis expected him to sell well. How well was anybody's guess. She set the reserve, more of a "bid-starter" in her words, at $100,000, weathered some anxiety when Hip 17 went for $200,000 and then watched everything soar. She sold a $450,000 Curlin colt for Higgins at the sale in 2016 and thought for a minute this one might be a rival. Nobody's complaining about $370,000.
"I'm tremendously pleased," Davis said. "He's got so much growing and developing to do. There's going to be a big horse there. He has a nice, lanky frame. I wasn't sure that he was going to be the physical people really wanted, but he's easy on himself, really has a good brain. It's going to be fun to see what he becomes."

That will be up to Scanlon.

Now named Epic Quest, the Nyquist colt Scanlon purchased in 2024, bred by Bowman and Higgins, finished second in his debut for Todd Pletcher at Saratoga Sept. 1 and was breezing toward another start in early October. This year's purchase will head to Florida for some turnout time, start doing the basics, then be aimed for a sale in the spring. Scanlon looked at him based on the sire, but there's more to it.
"Nyquist is obviously the number one factor, but then he had great scope; he was a good walker -- athletic, handled himself really well here at the sale," Scanlon said. "I love how those horses are raised the right way. When I get them home, like the colt last year, they just train up really nice. I could literally watch that horse last year change before my eyes, so it's nice to get another one from them."

Northview Nation

While Davis sold the sales-topper, nobody was going to challenge Northview as the overall leading consignor. The Chesapeake City, Md., farm rang up $1,242,500 in receipts from 43 sold from 48 offered.

Eleven in the consignment were bred by Sycamore Hall Farm, the private entity of Northview owners Michael Golden and Lisa Hofstetter. Breeder Thornmar sent 15. Wade divided the consignment into separate shedrows of colts and fillies to facilitate showings by a staff that included 25 show people and six people handling cards.

The strategy, and the horses, paid off as two fillies reached $200,000 and a dozen others went for $25,000 or more. Trainer Butch Reid, bidding for LC Racing, won a long duel with Golden -- standing next to trainer Brittany Russell -- for Hip 202 at $210,000. Bred by Sycamore Hall in partnership with Holly House Farm, which owns dam Hello Now, the Maryland-bred daughter of Army Mule is a half-sister to the Russell-trained stakes winners Hello Beautiful and Hello Hot Rod.

"We liked that yearling all along and thought it would be a good one to train," said Wade. "We wanted to see it get into Brittany's hands. We got outbid, but he got into good hands."

Hours earlier, pinhooker Robert Lambe spent $200,000 to buy Hip 17, a Corniche filly, from Northview. Breeder Owen Kiernan bought the filly's dam, the Bodemeister mare Logic of Absurdity, for $30,000 while carrying the filly at Keeneland November in November 2023.

Beyond the six-figure purchases, Northview's consignment went deep with a City of Light colt out of Majestic Reason reaching $80,000 on a bid by Lucky Quarter Bloodstock. Two Maryland-breds went for $75,000 -- a Friesan Fire filly (to Cash is King and LC Racing) and a Maxfield colt (to Hillwood Stables via agent Cary Frommer).

Wade called the Maxfield a "really good buy," and also pointed to Lizzie Merryman's $22,000 purchase of an Army Mule filly out of a full-sister to stakes horses Coastal Mission and Lewisfield late as a potential bargain.
As for the future, Northview isn't going anywhere. Wade said he would be in Kentucky this fall and winter shopping for broodmares to upgrade Sycamore Hall's program. And the Timonium sale will be part of the plan.

"You have to adapt to what the market's doing," he said, "and that's what we're trying to do. "We've done better at this sale with certain horses than we would have done down in Kentucky."

Bouncing Around

Lambe bought a second filly by 2021 Eclipse Award-winning 2-year-old Corniche, Hip 146, from the Gracie consignment. Bred in Virginia by Jimmy and Emily Day, she is a half-sister to three winners from the Yes It's True mare Callipepla and the family of Barbaro. Corniche's first crop averaged $105,235 as weanlings last year and have jumped to $179,040 as yearlings in 2025.

"People noticed them as weanlings and they were really athletic and as yearlings they got a really nice shape to them," said Gracie. "We've had good luck selling out of that mare, but we were a little under the average because of pedigree. She was correct, square, by a good stallion, I knew we were in a good spot."

Maryland stallion Great Notion continues to make an impact, as 10 members of his 19th crop sold for an average of $37,200. The group included a $75,000 filly out of stakes winner and stakes producer Bawlmer Hon to trainer Phil Schoenthal on behalf of HnR Nothhaft Horse Racing and a $73,000 filly out of stakes producer Talkin Smack to Cary Frommer. Both fillies were part of the Davis consignment. A third Great Notion yearling, a Thornmar-bred filly out of graded-stakes producer Casual Kiss, did not meet her reserve at $70,000.

Star Maryland-bred mare Crabcakes, a daughter of Great Notion and a two-time Maryland Million winner, was represented by the sale's fourth-highest price in her $190,000 filly by Upstart. Sold by breeder Morgan's Ford Farm, the dark bay Virginia-bred went to Tom McCrocklin as a potential 2-year-old pinhook next year.

Morgan's Ford owners Wayne and Susie Chatfield-Taylor loved the return, but were -- as usual -- a little sad to see a horse leave the fold.
"We don't do enough of this so that we don't care," said Wayne.

"She's a good Virginia horse; she's going to be a nice filly for somebody. I hope she comes back to race here, and we get to cheer her on. She was impeccable, a wonderful mind, competitive, doesn't take anything off anybody. There's a lot to like."

The Chatfield-Taylors inherited Crabcakes and other Thoroughbreds owned by longtime friend Binnie Houghton when she died in 2017, and can't help but think of the connection through the horses.

"It's always bittersweet, always has been, we're little guys," said Susie while slipping the browband off the filly's halter in her stall. "She's been perfect. She doesn't do anything wrong. She got a little tired here, but otherwise she was perfect every day. I think she's Crabcakes' best, so far."

Consignor Bill Reightler got $140,000 for a Maryland-bred Vekoma filly bred by Country Life Farm and partners. Country Life bred the filly's second dam Fifteen Moons, who produced six winners. Her daughter Lunar Rille won three races for Country Life.

Reightler paid credit to the sale's timing --and the filly's development -- with the solid payday.

"I saw that filly five times, and every time I told them this horse is getting better," he said. "That's the beauty of the Maryland sale. It really helps selling there because of the way young horses mature. Even Keeneland (September) to Maryland, the horses improve a tick. The beauty of it is, you're local, there's less competition with other horses, and if you're by a Kentucky stallion you're in the top 10 percent of the sale already."

The lone Kentucky-bred to crack the top six came via consignor Marshall Silverman, who sold the Tiz the Law colt to agent Robin Smullen for Sackatoga Stable, which campaigned the classic-winning stallion.