Business down at Maryland sale

Fasig-Tipton Midlantic's June 2-year-old and racing-age sale in Timonium, Md., saw significant declines across the board Tuesday.

The one-day auction sold 68 horses for gross receipts of $707,700, a drop of 13 percent from last year's sale, which sold 57 lots for $811,100. Average price fell 27 percent, from $14,230 to $10,407, and median slid 42 percent, falling from last year's $10,000 to $5,850. Despite those declines, the buyback rate improved. Last year, 33 percent of the horses on offer went unsold, as compared to 29 percent this year.

The afternoon's top lot was a $42,000 juvenile Include colt out of the winning Prospectors Gamble mare Silver Gambler. Joseph J. Balsamo purchased the colt from Wolf Creek Farm, agent. The colt's dam is a half-sister to stakes winner Trick Card, Grade 3-placed Stellar Rival, and the producer Valgravya, whose foals include graded stakes-placed Mystery Code.