$85,000 Harbor the Gold colt tops Washington sale

This year’s Washington Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association’s summer yearling and mixed sale had a smaller catalog than last year and thus finished with a decline in gross receipts, but posted small gains in average and median, led by an $85,000 Harbor the Gold colt.

A total of 75 yearlings sold on Tuesday night at the WTBOA’s Morris J. Alhadeff Pavilion at Emerald Downs for gross receipts of $992,000, a drop of 15 percent from the $1,162,000 grossed for 90 sold in 2017. The average price was $13,227, a gain of 2 percent from $12,912 last year. The median also rose 2 percent, to $7,500 from $7,350.

The buyback rate was 21 percent, improving slightly from 23 percent last year.

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Will Brewer, as agent, signed for the sale topper, who is by Oregon leading sire Harbor the Gold. The colt was from the consignment of Bar C Stables, which stands his sire.

The colt is a full brother to Washington champion juveniles Del Rio Harbor and Couldabenthewhiskey, as well as multiple stakes winner Sippin Fire and stakes-placed Legion of Boom. They are also half-siblings to stakes winner Bahati Gold. All are out of the unraced Horse Chestnut mare Bahati, Washington's broodmare of the year in 2015.

Four horses of racing age also sold on Tuesday night from five offered, for an average of $1,125.