Tattersalls sale numbers down on second day

The listed stakes winner Fallen Idol and a runner from Andrew Tinkler's racing stable led selling Tuesday at the Tattersalls autumn horses in training sale in Newmarket, England, which reversed the opening session's gain in median.

Fallen Idol and Tinkler's stakes-placed Well Sharp each fetched final bids of 250,000 guineas, or about $420,000, equaling the opening session's top price for Red Gulch. Like Red Gulch, Fallen Idol sold to bloodstock agent Anthony Stroud, who again declined to identify his client but said that Fallen Idol, too, would head for the Dubai Carnival. Fallen Idol, by Pivotal, is out of Fallen Star, a half-sister to Group 1 winner Fly to the Stars.

Well Sharp, by Selkirk, is a two-time winner who finished third in the King George V Stakes at Royal Ascot. Trainer Jonjo O'Neill bought him as a jumping prospect for J. P. McManus.

Tinkler's stable also produced Tuesday's other horse to sell for 200,000 guineas or more when the 2-year-old Intikhab gelding Tell Dad brought 240,000 guineas, or about $403,200, from Sarah Lakin on behalf of a Hong Kong syndicate.

Tuesday's session closed with 249 horses bringing an aggregate $10,517,136 for a $42,237 average price and a $20,160 median. Compared with last year's equivalent session, and in the auction currency of guineas, Tuesday's session lost 3 percent in gross, even though last year's session sold 235 horses. The average and median prices also fell by 8 percent each. Buy-backs remained level with last year at 13 percent.