Ipi Tombe sells for $1.7M

The demand for accomplished broodmares and broodmare prospects continued Tuesday at the Tattersalls December mare auction in Newmarket, England.

The second of four sessions peaked with Ipi Tombe, the Zimbabwean-bred mare who won Group 1 races in South Africa and the United Arab Emirates before becoming a Grade 3 winner in the United States. A South African champion, she brought a final bid of 850,000 guineas, or about $1,704,675, from James Delahooke, agent. Delahooke said he bought Ipi Tombe, a Manshood mare who is in foal to Sadler's Wells, for a group of U.S. breeders. The mare will return to the United States to foal. Denali Stud consigned the mare on behalf of Team Valor.

The Tuesday session sold 177 lots for about $28,739,417, producing an average price of about $162,369 and a median of about $84,231. Considered in the local auction currency of guineas, those figures represented mixed results compared with last year's second day. Gross fell 7 percent and the average fell less than 1 percent, but the median rose 18 percent.