Maryland sale hits record levels

Fasig-Tipton Midlantic's preferred juvenile sale in Timonium, Md., kept up the 2-year-old season's record momentum. One of the last juvenile auctions of the season, the two-day Midlantic sale ended Tuesday with a record gross of $21,236,500, a record average price of $57,396, and a record top price of $625,000.

The sale-topping colt, Hip No. 246, is a son of Johannesburg and the World Appeal mare Hasty Appeal. Danzel Brendemuehl's Classic Bloodstock agency consigned the colt, purchased by agent Joe Brocklebank on behalf of Jeff Singer. The colt is a half-brother to Grade 3 winner Dr. Park, and his price was the highest ever for a horse sold at a Fasig-Tipton Midlantic auction. The company's previous record price in Maryland was $500,000, set at the Eastern fall yearling sale in 2004.

Combined, both sessions at the Maryland State Fairgrounds sold 370 juveniles, down from last season's 385 lots. But gross income rose 12 percent from last year, and the average price climbed 17 percent. The median price, however, dropped by 6 percent to $30,000. The buy-back rate rose from 23 percent last year to 27 percent.

The juvenile auction season peaked on Feb. 28 at Fasig-Tipton's Calder select sale, where a Forestry-Magical Masquerade colt brought a world-record equine auction price of $16 million. Coolmore purchased that colt, now named The Green Monkey.

The Barretts May sale in California also had a record sale-topper, a $2.5 million Red Bullet 2-year-old colt bought by Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum's Darley organization.