Tale of the Cat colt leads gains in Texas juvenile sale

The second edition of the Texas Thoroughbred Association 2-year-olds in training sale lived up to the high expectations set by its vastly improved catalog and posted strong across-the-board gains, led by a $120,000 Tale of the Cat colt.

Tuesday’s auction saw 70 horses sold for revenues of $1,873,900, up 91 percent from the inaugural TTA juvenile sale last year when 53 horses brought $981,300.

The average sale price increased 45 percent to $26,770 from $18,515, the median rose 33 percent to $16,000 from $12,000, and the buyback rate rose to 25 percent from 20 percent.

At the top of the market, three horses sold for $100,000 or more after none hit that mark the previous year. The 13 horses sold for $50,000 or more easily surpassed the three to do so in 2016.

“The top end of the market was extremely strong today thanks to some high-quality stock brought in by our consignors,” TTA Sales director Tim Boyce said. “And I’m also encouraged by the middle and lower end. We had a very good median for this sale and the sales pavilion has not been filled with so many buyers in quite a while. After having last year’s sale under our belt, I think consignors and buyers had the confidence to fully support the sale this year and now going forward.”

Carrol Castille of Louisiana-based Whispering Oaks Farm bought the sale-topping Tale of the Cat colt for $120,000.

The dark bay or brown colt is out of the winning Kris S. mare Divine Lady, who is the dam of two winners from four foals to race. His third dam is the Grade 1 winner Hail Atlantis, putting him in the family of Grade 1 winner Bandini, Group 3 winner Discourse, and prominent sire Stormy Atlantic.

Dicken's Tale was bred in Kentucky by George Krikorian, and sold for $27,000 at last year's Keeneland September yearling sale. He was consigned at the Texas sale by Benchmark Training Center, as agent, and breezed an eighth of a mile in :10 2/5 seconds during the pre-sale under-tack show on Monday at Lone Star Park.

The sale-topper was the most expensive horse sold in the Lone Star Park sales pavilion since the TTA took over management of the state’s auctions last year following the departure of Fasig-Tipton. He was the highest-priced juvenile sold at a Lone Star Park sale since 2014, when a pair of horses commanded $135,000.

To view the full sale results, click here.