New Zealand sale-topper brings $1.4 million

New Zealand Bloodstock’s premier yearling sale in Karaka ended a two-day run Tuesday with a seven-figure sale-topper that tempered financial declines.

Te Akau Stud’s David Ellis paid about $1,435,000 for a Fastnet Rock-Nureyev colt who is a half-brother to Group 1 winner King’s Rose and to last year’s sale-topper, the Red Ransom colt Bolshoi Ruler.

The 2012 sale ended with a 17 percent drop in gross as 350 yearlings sold for about $44,392,340; last year 375 horses sold. The average price, about $126,835, was down 12 percent, and the median, approximately $98,400, fell by 14 percent. the buyback rate also climbed to 26 percent from last season’s 21 percent.