Average soars at Fasig-Tipton fall yearling sale with $300,000 topper

A $300,000 filly by Malibu Moon topped selling Monday afternoon at Fasig-Tipton’s Eastern fall yearling auction in Timonium, Md., where two horses brought more than last year’s $200,000 sale-topping price and figures increased across the board.

The sale-topper was the $300,000 daughter of Never Fail that Ellen M. Charles bought from Audley Farm, represented by Mr. and Mrs. Rick Abbott’s Charlton agency. The gray or roan filly, a Jan. 28 foal, is a Virginia-bred from the family of graded winner and producer How About Now, dam of Go For Wand Handicap winner Lovely Lil. The filly’s dam, Never Fail, is a stakes-placed winner by Holy Bull.

This year’s sale was one session, a day shorter than last season’s auction. It sold 276 yearlings for $6,166,100, eking out a gain over last season’s aggregate $6,149,600, but the latter total was for 332 yearlings. The average price soared 19 percent, rising from $18,791 last year to $22,341 in 2012. And median also advanced by 20 percent, from $10,000 last season to $20,000. Buybacks also improved at just 15 percent, well down from last year’s two-day figure of 26 percent.

The sale’s most most expensive colt was the Paramount Sales agency’s $210,000 Street Sense half-brother to graded winner Richwoman. Irish Acres Farm and Jim Moloney picked up the dark bay or brown colt out of Richbabe, a stakes-winning Richman mare. He is an April 4 foal.