$45,000 Ministers Wild Cat colt tops Northern California Sale

A yearling colt by Ministers Wild Cat was purchased for $45,000 at Tuesday’s Northern California Sale in Pleasanton, the most expensive hip of an auction with double-digit declines in gross receipts, average, and median prices.

The Ministers Wild Cat colt was purchased by Michael Dante and consigned by Harris Farms, agent, for breeder Tom Bachman.

The sale offered primarily yearlings, with a small number of horses of racing age. In the yearling market, 102 horses sold for $499,600, an average of $5,898 and a median price of $2,200. There were 47 horses listed as not sold and 12 that were withdrawn, according to the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association, which conducted the sale.

The gross fell 23 percent from the 2017 sale in which 95 horses sold for $652,500. The average price fell 28 percent, from $6,868 in 2017, while the median fell 26 percent, from $3,000 last year.

Of the non-yearlings, 15 horses sold Tuesday for $37,600, an average of $2,507.

A yearling colt by Unusual Heat, consigned by Harris Farms, agent, was listed as bought back for $75,000.

The Ministers Wild Cat colt is out of Bold Roberta, a two-time stakes winner who won 6 of 52 starts and earned $449,704 racing from 2000-04. The colt is a brother to Bella Luma, a 4-year-old filly who won the Golden Poppy Stakes at Golden Gate Fields in May.