Million-dollar filly at Tattersalls

Miletrian, winner of last year's Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot, brought $1,043,700 to top Monday's opening session of the four-day Tattersalls December sale of fillies and mares in England.

Reiley McDonald, the Eaton Sales partner who bid for Elizabeth Moran to acquire Keeneland November's $4 million sale-topper, Twenty Eight Carats, last month, signed the ticket this time on behalf of an American client he would not identify. McDonald told the English press that Miletrian, a 4-year-old Marju half-sister to group stakes-winner Mr. Combustible, would stay in Europe for at least a year, because her new owner wanted a mare to breed to Coolmore's Irish-based stallion Galileo.

High prices continued on the sale's second afternoon, which posted its best-ever second-day gross of $13,308,500 and an average price of $98,232. Tuesday's top price was the $969,150 that Cathal Ryan, son of Castleton Farm owner Tony Ryan, paid for Kylemore, a full sister to Group 1 winner Aristotle and a half-sister to Group 1 winner Starborough and Group 3 winner Spanish Falls.

Three-year-old Kylemore, a daughter of Sadler's Wells and Group 1 winner Flamenco Wave (Desert Wine), sold in foal to Giant's Causeway, winner of five Group 1 races and second in the 2000 Breeders' Cup Classic.

The filly and mare sale's first two days suggested international mare buyers are unfazed by economic concerns. The two sessions sold 397 lots for $32,199,487, up 21 percent from last year, when 394 sold. The two-day average also increased 20 percent, to $81,107.

The sale continues through Dec. 6.