Record Sale

- A record sale at Calder yesterday in terms of gross revenue and average price, as well as the unprecedented $5.2 million Tale of the Cat colt.

"There was remarkable strength at the top of the market; it was unlike anything that I have ever seen at the 2-year-old sales in the 17 years that I have been coming to them," said Boyd Browning, Fasig-Tipton's executive vice president and chief operating officer.

The final figures were 147 horses sold for a gross of $50,132,000, an average of $341,034, and a sale record median of $200,000. Compared to last year, the gross and average advanced 21% and 16%, respectively from the former world marks of $41,586,000 and $292,859. The median climbed 18% from $170,000 in 2004 while eclipsing the auction's former record of $175,000 that was set in 2001. [Bloodhorse]

Some pinhooking home runs amongst the seven figure sellers as well. The record colt had not been sold before, but the following had: (catalog pages pdf files) (previous sale price in parenthesis):

Hip 265, a Forestry colt sold for $3 million ($200,000); Hip 89, a Grand Slam colt for $2.9 M ($450,000); Hip 226, a Golden Missile colt for $1.5 M ($360,000); Hip 266, an Exchange Rate colt for $1.05 M ($140,000).

One negative was that there were a lot of buybacks, 40% worth, a lot of those having attracted six figure bids too; seems like some people were shooting for the stars, and not everyone got what they wanted.

The complete results of the sale can be seen here. As usual, the subscription only Thoroughbred Daily News has the most comprehensive coverage of the sale results.