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00:00And welcome back to the Racing Business Hour.
00:02I am joined now by Fasig-Tipton's Director
00:05of Digital Sales, Leif Ehren.
00:07Thanks so much for joining us, Leif.
00:09And there's never a dull week at Fasig.
00:11You guys, we've got the July sale next week,
00:13and then last week you had the Flash sale,
00:16which ended Friday,
00:17and that's why we wanted to bring you in today
00:19to talk about Cloudy Dancer.
00:21She's the dam of the Norfolk Winter shareholder
00:24at Royal Ascot,
00:25and she sold on Friday for $430,000.
00:29Being opened on the mare five days after shareholders win,
00:32so what was the process like for you all
00:34of getting in touch with the owner
00:36or the owner getting in touch with you
00:37and putting together this sale so quickly?
00:40Well, Grant and Boyd actually had gotten in touch
00:43with the owner about, you know,
00:45the possibility of doing a Flash sale.
00:48And I was actually on vacation out west with my family,
00:53and they called and said,
00:55we're, you know, we're wanting to do this.
00:57What do you think?
00:58And I thought, what a great opportunity
01:01to show what our digital website is capable of
01:06to capitalize on an update.
01:08And so I was thrilled to have her on there.
01:12And, you know, it ended up being a very successful exercise.
01:19Worked out pretty well to come home
01:20from a vacation to that, right?
01:23Jumped straight into work.
01:24Like, I think I got back on Sunday
01:27and we opened on Tuesday, so it was perfect.
01:30Yeah.
01:31Is that five days, is that a tight turnaround?
01:34Is it, how, what all goes into planning that?
01:37Well, for a one horse sale, it's not a tight turnaround.
01:42But, you know, when, it is tough
01:46in a normal digital situation
01:48because we only give ourselves about a week
01:51to turn around the catalog.
01:52So we're gonna have, you know,
01:54we have 100 to 150 head in a catalog
01:58and we only have a week to turn that around.
02:00And that is a ton of work as far as collecting paperwork,
02:03getting good pictures and video,
02:04getting all the vetting done, getting all that.
02:06So when you take that and you turn it into one horse,
02:10it seems very easy compared to what it's like
02:12to do a monthly digital auction.
02:14Yeah, that makes sense.
02:15So she drew 2,432 viewers according to your press release
02:21from being open until Friday.
02:23And that's just, that's a ton of views.
02:25You'd be hard pressed to say America can get more eyes on her
02:28at a physical sale, but how do you ensure
02:31that you're getting the right type of people,
02:33the right type of buyers looking at her?
02:35I mean, I'm sure it's different than calling up an agent
02:38and asking if he's coming to the July sale next week.
02:41Well, I think the best part for me about digital is,
02:44it's, you know,
02:45Fasig's still the oldest auction house in North America.
02:47So there's a huge mailing list we have, an emailing list.
02:51And then we, you know, we use the TDN to get the word out.
02:53And it's getting in front of the people we think
02:58that need to have it in front of them is easy for us.
03:01But when you take a guy like Mr. Hudson
03:05who hadn't bought a horse or hasn't been as active
03:09as he had been in the past,
03:11none of us would have expected him
03:12to be the purchaser of the horse.
03:14So that's kind of the beauty of digital
03:17is that it's bringing in a whole new segment
03:21of the market that we're not expecting.
03:24You know, we have our expectations
03:26of these buyers come to the sales,
03:28these buyers participate in the auctions.
03:30But when you go digital,
03:31we've had a whole nother group of people come in
03:33that have never done business with Fasig-Tipton.
03:36So it's exciting to see growth
03:41in the auction business in general,
03:44which, you know, is great for everyone.
03:50Yeah, I feel like we've grown so accustomed
03:51to the digital sales arena,
03:53but it was only over two years ago
03:55that you guys launched Fasig-Tipton Digital.
03:58What have you learned
03:59and how has the platform evolved since you got started?
04:03Well, we have taken baby steps and learned,
04:07I think, along the way,
04:08the best way to set the catalogs up,
04:12what is gonna sell in what time of year?
04:16You know, I've gotten to the point now
04:18where I know, you know, it's hard to sell a broodmare
04:20in June or a broodmare prospect that doesn't have an update
04:24or, you know, people are starting, in general,
04:27the mind frames are starting to move towards racehorses.
04:31I would have told you in the beginning,
04:32I think young stock, weanlings and yearlings
04:34would never be able to be sold online,
04:37that that'll always be in person.
04:39And now we're seeing a boom of, you know,
04:42those kind of horses being sold online.
04:45It has evolved.
04:47It's at a very rapid pace.
04:49I mean, exponential growth.
04:52We've already sold more horses this year
04:55than we did last year.
04:56And the demand, you know, when we first started doing it,
05:00it was how often can we have a sale
05:03to have a critical mass of horses?
05:05And now we don't have a choice.
05:07If we don't have a sale, people are saying,
05:09why aren't you having a sale this month?
05:13Which is a blessing for us, there's no doubt about that.
05:15I mean, it's, but you know,
05:18the whole point in doing this all along
05:19was to offer our clients another avenue
05:24to sell horses and to make it more liquid.
05:26And I think from the sellers to the buyers to us,
05:30it has been beneficial for everyone involved.
05:33And I think that's why it's working so well.
05:37You know, I would say by average,
05:40we have the highest average in digital sales in the world.
05:45And I think by clearance rate, we definitely do.
05:51I mean, that's the thing, to be honest with you,
05:53I'm most proud of is this year,
05:55we've boasted a 90% clearance rate
05:58and we've sold over 500 head of horses.
06:00I mean, there's just not a,
06:03there's not any other segment of the market
06:05that is as strong as that.
06:06And so, yeah, I'm proud of that number.
06:09I mean, and Fasig is too.
06:11And it's, I think when you do things that are,
06:17you know, a benefit to your clients,
06:21that's why it works.
06:22I mean, it was put out here for them and for them to use
06:25and they have, and we're very appreciative of that.
06:29And I think they are too.
06:31I have a lot of people that are returning customers.
06:35Yeah, that's gotta be a promising sign.
06:37So you have the monthly digital sales now,
06:40now flash sales, and then old school physical sales.
06:44If you're approaching an owner
06:46about potentially selling through Fasig-Tipton,
06:48in what circumstances are you gonna recommend
06:51a flash sale, a monthly digital sale,
06:53or waiting until a physical sale comes around?
06:56So I'll say this, the flash sales are extremely difficult.
07:01It's, number one, it's very difficult to get a huge update,
07:06no matter who you are.
07:07Like to get that horse winning the Norfolk, you know,
07:11like it did to look like possibly being
07:13one of the best two-year-olds in Europe,
07:16that's hard to get.
07:17And it's even harder to find an owner that is realistic
07:22about what the value of the horse may be.
07:25So we've been approached quite a few times
07:28about different flash sales that, you know,
07:32and owners had astronomical expectations,
07:34and it's not, you know, that's the one thing for me
07:37that's the most important is if you do a flash sale,
07:40it has to work, you know, and that's a lot of pressure.
07:43Like if we put up flash sales and it's RNAs every time,
07:48there's no one that's gonna return to that.
07:51So for us, it's getting that recipe right of,
07:54okay, huge update, a realistic owner,
07:58and, you know, a buying base that is willing to participate.
08:03And, you know, that's why we have so few of them
08:07is because I got all those buttons have to be pressed
08:10for us to, you know, take that task on.
08:14And so that's why the ones we've had have been so successful
08:18but, you know, deciding between a flash sale
08:21and a monthly sale, you know, it's,
08:24you know, when you have a flash sale horse,
08:26you know, when you have one,
08:28it's a huge update.
08:28It's a, and it doesn't come around that often,
08:32but the in-person sales, it depends, or not in-person,
08:36sorry, the monthly digital sales,
08:38it depends on the time of year.
08:39You know, right now I would say any race horse
08:41you can put online.
08:43And I think right now with our horses of racing age catalog,
08:46it's just a lot of people feel more comfortable
08:48selling in that arena and that's great.
08:50I mean, I'm glad that FASIC has the options
08:53for people to choose from going in-person to going digital.
08:58You know, it's a feather in our cap, I think.
09:04For sure.
09:04Well, that's awesome.
09:05I can't wait to see what, who the next flash sale is.
09:09Exactly.
09:09Before I let you go,
09:10I did want to ask you about the July sale next week.
09:13I know you're kind of in the digital realm,
09:15but it's the kickoff of the yearling sale season
09:18with the July sale.
09:19And a big part of it is the Freshman Sire Showcase.
09:22So do you have any stallions you're predicting
09:25are going to be making headlines
09:27or any under the radar Freshman Sires
09:29you can tell us about?
09:30I don't have any predictions at this point.
09:33I'm as excited as you are to see them all.
09:35I'm not on the inspections team
09:37because of all the digital stuff I'm doing.
09:40So I haven't seen the stuff all the other guys have,
09:42but you know, we had a meeting
09:44about the July sale this morning
09:46and all the trainers are coming in town for it.
09:49And I think the horse of racing age section
09:51is going to be strong.
09:53And that usually lends itself to a strong yearling sale.
09:56I think the buying base is going to be good.
09:58You know, we have no reason
10:00to not have the same expectations we do every year.
10:04Awesome, absolutely.
10:05Well, best of luck next week.
10:06I'm sure it's all going to go well.
10:08I'm excited to be there.
10:09And thanks so much for joining us today, Lee.
10:11All right, thank you for having me.
10:13Thanks.