Tattersalls: Motivator filly leads third Book 2 session

The third of four Book 2 sessions at the Tattersalls October yearling sale, held Wednesday in Newmarket, continued the trends from the preceding sessions, with double-digit gains in gross, average, and median supported by a low buyback rate.

Tattersalls reported 196 yearlings sold on Wednesday for gross revenues of 10,009,000 guineas (about $16.7 million), which, compared in guineas, marked an increase of 31 percent over the third Book 2 session in 2012, when 190 yearlings sold for 7,625,500 guineas (about $12.9 million). Wednesday’s average price of 51,066 guineas (about $85,520) rose 27 percent from last year’s corresponding session, and the median of 40,000 guineas (about $67,000) climbed 19 percent. The buyback rate on Wednesday was 10 percent; it was 17 percent in the third Book 2 session last year.

The session’s top price was fetched by a Motivator filly out of the unraced Olden Times mare Elegant Beauty. Ross Doyle, acting as agent, bought the filly for 320,000 guineas (about $536,000) from the consignment of Bumble Mitchell. Elegant Beauty is half-sister to multiple Group 1 winner and sire Grand Lodge. Another of her half-siblings, the Group 3-placed mare La Persiana, is the dam of Qushchi, who won the Waya Stakes at Saratoga last summer.

The Book 2 section of the Tattersalls October yearling sale concludes on Thursday. A single Book 3 session will be held on Friday.

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