The digital world moves fast, and Pounce is an example of how efficient the emerging online market for racehorses can be.
Pounce won an allowance optional claimer Feb. 11 at Gulfstream Park. Nine days later she topped the Fasig-Tipton February Digital Sale when she sold to Resolute Bloodstock for $370,000. Four days after that she was entered in the Herecomesthebride Stakes (G3T), to be run March 2 at Gulfstream.
This all happened in two weeks, without Pounce leaving her trainer Mark Casse’s barn at Palm Meadows Training Center in Boynton Beach, Fla.
“The great thing about her is that we had bidders from all over the world on her,” said Leif Aaron, Fasig-Tipton’s director of digital sales. “It’s exactly what the website was built for—people everywhere bidding, with less stress on the horses. They stay in their barns, on their routines and feed, with no risks or cost of shipping.”
Bred in Kentucky by Bell, Rankin, VanMeter, and Hancock, Pounce is a 3-year-old filly by Lookin At Lucky . She is the first foal out of the winning Twirling Candy mare Bouncy, who is a half sister to grade 3-placed Gold Dragon Queen , by Goldencents , and stakes-placed Blue Harbor , a Rockport Harbor gelding who earned $370,557.
Pounce broke her maiden on debut as a 2-year-old at Churchill Downs going six furlongs on dirt, then was off the board in allowance optional claimer at Turfway Park. Casse tried her on the turf at Gulfstream in her 3-year-old debut, and that performance caught the market’s eye.
Under restraint from rider Javier Castellano, Pounce set swift fractions of :22.85, :45.92, and 1:09.46. She stopped the timer for 7 1/2 furlongs in 1:26.93, winning by 2 1/4 lengths.
“She was extremely impressive in that race,” said Casse, who remains Pounce’s trainer after the sale. “She was able to overcome a terrible post. What impressed me was her turn of foot. She made the lead with some fast fractions and then settled and kept on running. I think she has the potential to be a really good horse.”
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The Herecomesthebride—a one mile turf test for 3-year-old fillies—will be her first attempt at black type.
Fasig-Tipton conducted its first digital sale in 2022. Between the Lothenbach Dispersal of Horses of Racing Age in January and the February digital sale, Fasig-Tipton Digital has grossed $9,239,800 already this year. In all of 2023 the Lexington-based auction company grossed $10,812,150 from six digital sales.
Aaron said buyers and sellers are quickly embracing the digital market for horses of racing age especially.
Leif Aaron, director of digital sales at Fasig-Tipton
“A lot of these buyers are very comfortable buying racehorses in this manner because they are used to the claiming game, where they get less information,” Aaron said. “Racehorses are the hottest segment of the market right now because the purses are so good.
“We’re getting more money than they would bring privately. There’s no doubt about that. The reason for that is competition among buyers. With most private sales you are dealing with one buyer. In a digital sale, you get an idea of what the entire market thinks your horse is worth.”
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