by Shelby Downs
The second and final day of the Fasig-Tipton Texas Summer Yearling Sale wrapped up Tuesday with mixed results. Gross sales rose slightly but the average and median fell by double digit percentages.
The sale, which was held in the Texas Thoroughbred Sales Pavilion next to Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie, offered 443 yearlings of which 281 sold for $3,369,700, an increase of 2.6% from the 2007 gross of $3,283,200 for 241 sold. The average dropped 12% from $13,623 last year to $11,992, and the median fell to $4,500 from $6,200, a decline of 27.4%. Buybacks were virtually unchanged at 36.6% this year compared with 36.9% in 2007. Although figures increased slightly for the first session, day two was significantly down from the comparable session of 2007 in part because last year’s second session was topped by a $330,000 record-breaking horse in addition to two other six-figure sales. The overall figures were more on par with the 2006 sale.
"I thought we did fairly well all things considered," said Tim Boyce, director of sales for Fasig-Tipton Texas. "The sale didn’t run out of steam on the second day like I thought it might. The market kept up and the buyers stayed until the end. We had a good cross between end-users and pinhookers. The good horses sold very well and we had a lot of action on them."
The highest price of the sale came on day one, when a Louisiana-bred son of Even the Score sold for $120,000. Lee Young Farm purchased the colt from the consignment of Elysian Bloodstock, but two horses sold for six figures to top the second session.
A Kentucky-bred son of More Than Ready earned the top bid on the second day with a $110,000 price tag. M & B Bloodstock, the Florida-based pinhooking operation of Tony Bowling, Bobby Dodd and Dave McKathan, purchased the colt, a full brother to multiple stakes winner Audacious Chloe, from the consignment of agent Roger Daly.
"He’s a star horse, very well-balanced," Daly said of hip 310. "He could have been a little bigger and brought more money. There’s always money here for a good horse if you bring a well-bred individual and the good ones were as good as they could be today."
The top filly of the day sold four lots earlier as hip 306. The Texas-bred filly is a full sister to 2008 juvenile stakes winner Bridesmaid and a half to Peter Pan Stakes (gr. II) winner Postponed and was consigned by Lane’s End Texas, agent, the home of her sire, leading Texas stallion Valid Expectations. Bobby Powell signed the $100,000 ticket as agent for Mike Rutherford. The filly was the only other six-figure horse of the day.
"She had a great catalog page and a great family, and Valid Expectations’ record speaks for itself," Powell said. "Mike loves to run horses in Texas but this horse should be able to run anywhere."