Figures down at WTBA yearling sale

AUBURN, Wash. - Tuesday's Washington Thoroughbred Breeders Association summer yearling sale saw 153 yearlings change hands for $2,355,800, making for an average price of $15,397. The gross was down 12.6 percent from last year's summer sale, and the average was down 14.3 percent.

Contributing to the declines was an increase in the number of yearlings who did not reach their reserves, from 43 last year to 52 at Tuesday's sale. This list included the would-be sale topper, a Smoke Glacken colt, who did not reach his reserve despite receiving a bid for $77,000.

With the Smoke Glacken colt not selling, the sale topper was a Thunder Gulch colt out of multiple stakes winner Ropersandwranglers, who was purchased by California trainer Jeff Bonde for $75,000. The colt was consigned by Jerre Paxton's Northwest Farms.

Northwest Farms also sold the highest-priced filly, a daughter of Monarchos from Virginia Inn, an unraced half-sister to stakes winner Strong Credentials. The filly was purchased by local bloodstock agent Dana Halvorson. Northwest Farms sold four of the eight highest-priced yearlings at the sale.

The sale's leading buyer was Portland businessman and longtime horseman Art McFadden, who races his horses with trainer Bud Klokstad at Emerald Downs. McFadden purchased eight yearlings for a total of $184,000.

Eleven yearlings sold for $40,000 or more, and six of those yearlings went to out-of-state buyers. The median price was $10,000, which was down 29.8 percent from last year's median of $14,250.