Fasig-Tipton figures mixed

Fasig-Tipton Midlantic fall yearling sale ended Wednesday with mixed results, setting a sale record for gross but posting a loss in average.

The auction closed with total receipts of $14,580,700 for 658 yearlings sold, just edging last year's total of $14,499,600 for 615 yearlings. The larger catalog may have contributed to a decrease in the average price, which fell 6 percent to $22,159. The median, though, jumped 10 percent to $11,500. Buy-backs also rose, from 22 percent last year to 32 percent this year.

The sale-topper, a $220,000 Kafwain filly sold as Hip No. 991, was a study in the value of a good catalog update. When the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic catalogs went to press, Hip No. 991 was a half-sister to a modest allowance winner named Meadow Breeze. But by the time the auction took place, Meadow Breeze had won the Grade 1 Matron at Belmont by a head, adding a lot of luster to the filly's pedigree.

The Bluewater Sales agency consigned the gray or roan filly, a daughter of the unraced Unaccounted For mare Unacloud, to agent Nick De Meric.