Mixed results at Texas sale

Fasig-Tipton's Texas 2-year-old sale ended Tuesday with mixed results, but a new buyer from Dubai and a steady average gave sale officials something to celebrate.

The one-day auction at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Tex., saw a 14 percent decline in gross receipts and a 36 percent drop in median, while the average price rose very slightly, by $40, to $17,201. The session grossed $2,477,000 from 144 horses sold, with a median of $9,650. That's compared with last year's $2,883,000 gross for 168 juveniles and a 2008 median of $15,000.

The large slide in median reflected the general trend in early-season select 2-year-old sales.

The buy-back rate improved significantly, dropping from 35 percent last year to 30 percent. The number of withdrawals also improved slightly, with just 30 horses (13 percent) scratched this year. At the 2008 sale, 14 percent scratched.

The sale-topper was a $170,000 Yankee Gentleman colt that Ragin Cajun Stable bought from Asmussen Horse Center, agent. The bay colt, out of the stakes-placed Carr de Naskra mare Carrena Rose, sold as Hip No. 94. Named Gentle Moment, he is a half-brother to the winner Gilded Rose.

New buyer Adityan Selvaratnam, a public trainer in Dubai, proved a substantial hedge against the soft 2-year-old market conditions. Making his first trip to the United States, Selvaratnam scooped up 15 horses at the Texas sale and spent $701,000 to do it. The most expensive of those was Hip No. 99, a $100,000 Chapel Royal colt out of Chitchat Chitchat, by Montbrook. Twin Oaks Training Center, agent, was the consignor. The colt's name is Chitchatnthechapel.