Dear Lady Ann, a daughter of Salt Lake, brought $37,000 to top the Northern California yearling sale at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa Aug. 26. Super Horse purchased the chestnut yearling from Jack and Barb Hatch’s Green Acre Stables, agent for Lercari Thoroughbreds.
Larry Mabee and his mother, Betty Mabee, bred Dear Lady Ann in California. Their Golden Eagle Farm consigned the filly, as a weanling, to the Barretts October mixed sale, where Lercari Thoroughbreds purchased her for $7,200.
Dear Lady Ann is out of the 10-year-old unraced Avenue of Flags mare Dear Lady and is a half-sister to the winner Ladies Souvenir (by Souvenir Copy). Dear Lady is a half-sister to stakes winner Darling Dame (by Lyphard) and the unraced Lovely Martha (by Storm Bird), who is the dam of 2005 Diana Stakes (gr. IT) winner Sand Springs (by Dynaformer). Other members of the family include the full siblings Dancing Brave and Jolypha (both by Lyphard and out of Navajo Princess), who were champions in Europe.
The 104 yearlings sold during the Northern Califirnia auction, which was conducted by the California Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association in the name of CTBA Sales, grossed $471,700. Their average price was $4,536, and their median price was $2,500. The buy-back rate was 44.4%.
Compared to last year, the number sold was down 32.5% from 154. The gross plummeted 47.5% from $899,200. The average fell 22.3% from $5,839. And the median dropped 37.5% from $4,000.
Sierra Sunset was the auction’s biggest spender, paying $62,000 for three horses. Green Acre Stables led the consignors’ list with its gross of $92,100 for 11 yearlings that sold.