Buyers requested steroid tests on 30 of the 122 yearlings sold at the two-day Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale of selected yearlings. The 24.6% test rate was by far the highest since steroid testing was made available at public auctions earlier this year.

The test rate at the preceeding yearling sale—Fasig-Tipton’s Kentucky July sale of selected yearlings—was 7.2% (22 of 305).

“I think the percentage of testing here was quite high, but the intrinsic value of the horses sold in Saratoga also is high,” said Terence Collier, Fasig-Tipton’s director of marketing. “A $500 test is not a significant cost for the people buying horses here.

“There will be a lot more horses tested in September, more than here, but I doubt the percentage will be as high. None of the horses tested at the July sale came back positive, and I would expect the same result here, but of course we’ll have to wait and see.”

Results are expected at the end of this week or early next week. In the case of a positive test, the seller must pay the $500 test cost and the buyer gains the right to void the sale. None of the 71 tests performed on auction horses this year has come back positive.

While steroids were on the minds of buyers and sellers at Saratoga, interest in the voluntary ownership registry continued to lag. Ownership information was submitted for 27 horses in the Saratoga sale. Only one buyer accessed the data.

At the July sale, 83 ownership interests were lodged in the repository and not a single buyer asked to see the information.

D.G. Van Clief Jr., chairman of Fasig-Tipton and the Sales Integrity Program Monitoring Committee, said it is too early to judge the usefulness of the ownership registry.

“At this point it’s preliminary. We won’t draw any conclusions until the end of the year,” Van Clief said.

Noting that sales companies are devoting resources to collecting and maintaining ownership information in the sales office, Van Clief said it is possible the information could be made available electronically in the future to save money.

Longtime auction-reform proponent Satish Sanan said he believes disclosure remains important. Sanan said medical-history disclosure, which is currently voluntary, should be mandatory.

“We continue to ask for veterinary disclosure. The consignors know if something is wrong with a horse or a procedure has been done, but they don’t want to give that information,” Sanan said. “It’s going to take some time, but the climate is right and we just want to do the right things. Until we get 100% transparency and 100% integrity, people will continue to [complain] and moan, and rightfully so.”

The new conditions of sale require disclosure if a horse changes hands after entering the sales grounds but before going through the ring. The penalty for non-disclosure is 50% of the hammer price, in addition to up to 200% of the consignor’s commission, the same penalty as a violation of the voluntary-disclosure provisions.

“If you ignore any of the ownership disclosure issues, the consequences are substantial,” Van Clief said.
(Source: Thoroughbred Times)