Tattersalls ends with record business

The Tattersalls December mare sale ended Thursday evening in Newmarket, England, with records across the board, starting with a world-record broodmare price of 4.6 million guineas, or about $9.4 million.

The four-day mare auction sold 870 horses for a record 66,235,800 guineas, or about $135,617,801, an increase of 42 percent from last season. The average and median of about $155,882 and $61,425, respectively, were also sale records. Average gained 47 percent, and the median rose 36 percent.

The world-record price came for the 4-year-old Group 1 winner Magical Romance, who sold to London Thoroughbred Services. Magical Romance, a daughter of Barathea and the Shirley Heights mare Shouk, is a three-quarter sister to English and Irish Oaks winner Alexandrova and a full sister to Canadian Grade 3-placed Saree. Elms Stud offered the mare in foal to Pivotal.

The $9.4 million price surpassed Ashado's world-record $9 million price at the 2005 Keeneland November sale.

The entire series of December sales - encompassing a yearling session, weanling sessions, and the mare auction - sold 1,799 horses for a total of 100,630,900 guineas, or about $206,041,768, a record for the annual set of winter auctions.