Gelding tops Tattersalls session

Royal Diamond, a gelded son of King's Best currently on a four-race win streak, topped the Tuesday session at the Tattersalls autumn horses in training auction in Newmarket, England.

Trained by Mark Prescott, who consigned him at Tattersalls, the gelding brought approximately $688,800 from trainer Michael Dods, bidding for Andrew Tinkler. The 3-year-old gelding has won 4 of 9 starts, including a 10-length victory in his most recent start on Oct. 10.

Prescott's 17-horse consignment grossed $1,973,756 as the day's leading seller at a session that posted dips in gross and average but a 10-percent upswing in median.

Tuesday's session, the auction's second, grossed about $10,851,183 for 232 horses, for an average price of about $46,772 and a median of approximately $22,816. Gross fell 9 percent from last year's total for 249 horses, while the average was down 2 percent.

Buy-backs were 11 percent, down from 15 percent last year.

The sale was to continue through Oct. 28.