$170K colt leads Texas sale

There were some positive signs in a gloomy economy Tuesday at Fasig-Tipton's Texas 2-year-old sale at Lone Star Park.

The single-day sale was still under way at 5:30 p.m. with a $170,000 session-leader. That a was Hip No. 94, a Yankee Gentleman colt out of Carrena Rose, by Carr de Naskra. Currently named Gentle Moment, the bay colt is out of a stakes-placed mare and is a half-brother to the Richter Scale winner Gilded Rose. Ragin Cajun Stable purchased the colt from Asmussen Horse Center, agent.

The Yankee Gentleman colt was one of two juveniles to fetch six-figure bids by that time. The other was Hip No. 99, a Chapel Royal colt named Chitchatnthechapel. Consigned by Twin Oaks Training Center, agent, the bay brought $100,000 from Adityan Selvaratnam. The colt is out of the stakes-placed Montbrook mare Chitchat Chitchat and is her first foal.

The day saw some new buyers, most notably Selvaratnam, a Dubai-based trainer. Selvaratnam, a third-generation trainer with a public stable in the Emirates, had picked up 11 horses for $546,000 by 5:30 p.m. A Sri Lankan native, Selvaratnam was buying for several owners in Dubai, and all his purchases were expected to return to the emirate.

Unlike earlier juvenile auctions this year, the Texas session had a relatively low number of outs by late afternoon, with just 21 of the first 171 horses cataloged, or about 12 percent, listed as out. The buy-back rate at that point also was about 30 percent, a figure that is not unusual at 2-year-old auctions.

* The Keeneland Association is to host an under-tack preview Thursday for its April 6-7 select 2-year-old sale in Lexington. The under-tack show is to begin at 10:30 a.m. at Keeneland. The auction features a 216-horse catalog and starts each night at 7 p.m. Both the sale and the preview show will stream live at , and HRTV will air a 90-minute preview show on Saturday at 9 a.m. in addition to covering the auction live.