New York: Initial sale modest

The inaugural New York Breeders Sales Company sale concluded on Wednesday with a total of 208 horses selling for gross receipts of $1,234,600.

The two-day sale included weanlings, yearlings, horses of racing age, and broodmares. The average was $5,936 and the median was $2,500. The buy-back rate was 42 percent for 190 horses who failed to meet their reserve.

The sales-topper was a $57,000 weanling colt by Thunderello, the runner-up in the 2002 Breeders' Cup Sprint. Thunderello's first foals are weanlings this year. The colt's dam, Scoutingforastar, is an unraced daughter of Theatrical.

The top seller was consigned by Howard Kaskel's Sugar Maple Farm, which is located in Poughquag, N.Y., and was bought by Kieran Bourke, agent.

Barry Ostrager, the president of the NYBSC, was pleased with the results. The company was created earlier this summer and is funded by 40 shareholders, who put up $15,000 each to conduct the sale.

"At long last, we have established a first-class, professionally run regional sale," Ostrager said. "The sale is now established; we have something on which we can definitely build."