Tattersalls sale shows strength

The Tattersalls July sale in Newmarket, England, ended Friday with gains across the board and a $294,000 top price for a 4-year-old winner by Cape Cross.

Shortened from four days to three this year, the July auction sold 457 horses of various ages for a gross of about $9,743,954, resulting in an average price of about $21,322 and an $11,540 median. Compared year-to-year in the local auction currency of guineas, gross inched upward by just over 1 percent, but average increased 5 percent, and median jumped by 17 percent.

J. P. McManus’s agent Frank Berry put up the auction’s highest bid when he went to 175,000 guineas, or about $294,000, for Mrs. John J. Murphy’s Top Spin. The 4-year-old colt already has earned more than $72,000 on the flat and now will turn to jumping as a hurdler for McManus.

Ireland’s Highfort Stud was the consignor.

The auction’s leading consignor was Sheikh Hamdan al-Maktoum’s Shadwell Stud, which sold 59 horses for about $1,432,546. The British Bloodstock Agency (Ireland) was the leading buyer with 16 horses totaling about $593,460.