Texas sale average inches up

Fasig-Tipton's Texas yearling sale, expanded to two days this year, eked out a gain in average price despite the addition of about 100 horses to the catalog this year. The two-day sale, which ran Monday and Tuesday at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Tex., ended with increases across the board.

The auction's top price was the $130,000 that Jimmy Davis, agent, paid for a Tejano Run colt in the Gabriel Thoroughbreds consignment. The colt is a son of stakes-placed To Geaux, by Zuppardo's Prince, and is a half-brother to 2004 stakes-winner Crawfish King and to winner Geaux Gabriel.

At Tuesday's session, a Valid Expectations colt out of the Roberto mare Nifty topped the selling on Leland Cook's final bid of $82,000. Charles Woodson Ham II sold the colt on behalf of Richland Ranch. The colt is a half-brother to Grade 3 winner Renewed.

The two sessions grossed $3,360,800 for 270 lots sold. Last year's one-day auction sold 219 yearlings for $2,694,000. The 2004 average price was $12,447, just nosing past last year's figure of $12,301 for a single session, while the median climbed from $5,300 last year to $7,000 this season. Buy-backs crept upward from 25 percent last year to 26 percent in 2004.