Pair of $433K colts leads Tattersalls

A pair of colts sold for $433,000 (260,000 guineas) each during the second day of Book 2 selling at the Tattersalls October yearling sale in Newmarket, England, on Tuesday, providing a boost to the session's average price even as the median continued to plunge.

Sheikh Hamdan al-Maktoum's Shadwell Estate Company bought one of the yearling colts, a son of Invincible Spirit out of the With Approval mare Exclusive Approval. The other session-topper, a son of Selkirk out of the Sadler's Wells mare Eminencia, was purchased by Paul Cole, the British trainer.

Gross for the session was $12,302,910 (7,732,500 guineas), down 7.6 percent from the gross last year of $11,426,493, a total that was down 46 percent from the comparable 2007 session.

The average of $59,153 was down only 6.7 percent, though median was down 18.9 percent to $41,722.