Tattersalls results mixed

Led by the $1,704,675 Group 1 winner Ipi Tombe, the Tattersalls December sale's mares and breeding stock sessions ended Thursday with mixed results overall.

Despite high prices for select mares and broodmare prospects, the four-day auction saw losses in gross and average, but the median climbed. The four sessions were part of a larger, three-part December sale that saw declines across the board. That outcome was somewhat expected in light of the fact that last year's record-breaking December sales were buoyed by a pair of prominent dispersals: Wafic Said's Addison Racing and Fahd Salman's Newgate Stud.

The mare sessions sold 744 lots for about $63,832,658 for an average price of about $85,797 and a median of about $38,105. In the local auction currency of guineas, that meant declines of 18 percent and 12 percent for gross and average from last year, when 799 horses sold. The 2004 median rose 3 percent.

The auction began Nov. 22 with yearlings, continued Nov. 24 through 27 with weanlings, and ended with this week's mare and breeding stock sessions. Overall, the sales sold 1,574 lots for about $106,118,225 (down 16 percent), for an average price of about $67,419 (down 10 percent) and a median of approximately $32,088 (a 6 percent decline).