TIMONIUM, Md. – The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-olds in training sale, which has steadily risen in prominence in recent years, opened with a steady, if not smashing, session Monday, with a More Than Ready colt leading the way at $750,000. Monday's session closed with 172 horses sold at the Maryland State Fairgrounds, for total gross receipts of $12,066,000, according to figures reported by Fasig-Tipton about 9 p.m., shortly after the close of business. The gross marked a gain of 5 percent from the 2017 opening session, which kicked off a record renewal of the auction with 162 horses fetching $11,537,500. The average price was $70,151, ticking down 1 percent from $71,219 in last year's opener. The median dropped 10 percent, to $36,000 from $40,000. "Very stable," Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning said. "We're coming off a record year last year as well. A solid, solid, solid day, and that's what you hope for in this marketplace." In a marketplace that has been polarized and highly selective, Monday's buyback rate was slightly improved, sitting at 23 percent compared to 25 percent in the comparable session. Private sales, transactions negotiated back at the barns after horses failed to meet their reserves in the auction ring, were expected to continue to trickle in. The market has “been a bit spotty from what I can see, but I think it's same old – there's money for the real top horses," said trainer Simon Callaghan, who stood alongside bloodstock agent Ben McElroy as the latter signed the sale ticket on the session-leading More Than Ready colt. Callaghan said that the colt, from the consignment of Randy Hartley and Dean DeRenzo, had been purchased for one of his current clients. The colt had breezed a furlong in 10 1/5 seconds during the under-tack preview show last week. "I thought his breeze was pretty exceptional," Callaghan said. "Very good-looking horse, very athletic, and did everything right." Callaghan added that, while More Than Ready is a successful multi-surface sire, the new purchase's physical makeup and "substance" indicated that he could be a talented performer on dirt. The colt, pinhooked by Hartley and De Renzo after they purchased him for $500,000 out of the Keeneland September yearling sale, is out of the Unbridled's Song mare Embur's Song. Embur’s Song won three Grade 3 stakes in 2011 to earn Sovereign Award honors as Canada's champion older mare and is now the dam of one winner from two starters to date. The mare is a half-sister to stakes winner Ten Flat and to stakes-placed Embattle and Dawn Raid. Dawn Raid is the dam of Preakness Stakes winner Exaggerator. The More Than Ready colt was one of two offerings to surpass the half-million mark Monday. Late in the session, Michael Lund Peterson went to $625,000 to acquire a colt from the first crop of 2013 Breeders' Cup Classic winner Mucho Macho Man. The colt had been among the standouts of the breeze show, working a quarter in 21 1/5 seconds to lead the 61 who worked that distance by two-fifths of a second. The Mucho Macho Man colt had previously been offered at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.'s March sale of 2-year-olds in training, but failed to meet his reserve, with a high bid of $55,000. "He matured a little bit," consignor Kip Elser of Kirkwood Stables said. "He was brilliant on this surface here. He's always been very, very good, and he stood out showing here." The April colt is out of the winning Giant's Causeway mare Itsagiantcauseway, who is from the family of Canadian Horse of the Year Peaks and Valleys and Eclipse Award champion Forever Together. Other graded stakes winners in the extended family include prominent sire Broken Vow. The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale's second and final session begins at 2 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday. A number of anticipated offerings have fallen in the second session of the catalog, which is arranged alphabetically by the name of the dam. Those include a Medaglia d'Oro colt out of Grade 3 winner and $2.2 million mare Tapicat, a pinhook prospect purchased by Hartley and De Renzo for $475,000 last September. Tuesday's session also includes the only filly in the sale by popular commercial sire War Front, and the Union Rags colt who worked a furlong in 10 seconds flat to lead the breeze show by that traditional yardstick. "I've heard similar chatter," Browning said of the impression that the second day of the sale may include stronger horses. "Although we finished really strong [Monday] – there were some good horses in the last 100 horses today, as reflected in the results. It's truly, completely alphabetical, but there are some nice horses we'll have the opportunity to sell tomorrow." For hip-by-hip results, click here.