LEXINGTON, Ky. - A trio of six-figure yearlings added some sizzle to the expanded Fasig-Tipton October yearling sale’s opening session Monday in Lexington. The larger catalog contributed to a 57 percent increase in gross, while the session’s average and median ended with mixed results. Average increased 24 percent, from $11,065 to $13,741, but median declined by 17 percent, falling from last year’s opening-day figure of $6,000 to $5,000 on Monday. The day’s buy-back rate was 32 percent, the same as last year’s figure. The session sold 224 yearlings for a combined $3,078,000. The session-topping colt was a $280,000 Tapit son of stakes winner Classic Woman, by Storm Bird. Mark Casse, agent, bought the colt from Dapple Stud, agent. The bay colt sold as Hip No. 189 and is a half-brother to winners City Stormer and Unseen Evidence. A $120,000 Dixie Union filly was the highest-priced filly. The first foal out of Cash Storm, by Aptitude, she sold to agent Cary Frommer. Baccari Bloodstock was the consigning agent. The bay filly’s dam is a half-sister to Grade 2 winner Most Distinguished, also by Dixie Union. The third six-figure yearling was a $110,000 Kitalpha colt that M & M Racing bought from Bloodstock Holdings (War Horse Place, agent). The bay colt is out of four-time stakes winner and Grade 2-placed Champagne Royal, by Jeblar. He is a half-brother to the winner Domybadpartnerin. The three-day auction at Fasig-Tipton’s Newtown Paddocks headquarters features a larger catalog this year after posting increases in gross, average, and median last season. The sale also was to feature phase one of Irving Cowan’s dispersal later in the auction, handled by the Taylor Made Sales agency. A Dynaformer colt out of the A.P. Indy mare Idols Eye appeared at first to have brought the auction’s first six-figure price. But when the hammer fell, the bay colt was a $195,000 buy-back. His dam is unraced but is a half-sister to Group 1-placed Old Deuteronomy. She also is the dam of one winner to date, the Bernstein filly Use Somebody, a winner this year at 3. Fasig-Tipton expanded the October sale’s catalog this year by nearly 21 percent to 1,168 yearlings, one year after trying to cancel the 2009 edition. The cancellation was met by protests from sellers, prompting Fasig-Tipton to put the October auction back on the calendar. The 2009 sale results rewarded that decision with a 3 percent increase in average price to $13,949 and a 9 percent upswing in median to $6,000. The auction was to continue through Wednesday at Fasig-Tipton’s Newtown Paddocks in Lexington. Sessions start daily at 10 a.m.