Thunder Gulch colt leads sale

A $270,000 Thunder Gulch colt was Tuesday's session-leader on the final day of Fasig-Tipton Midlantic's May sale of 2-year-olds in Timonium, Md.

Buzz Chace, agent, signed the ticket for the chestnut colt, who was the two-day auction's highest price overall as of 5 p.m. Tuesday. Sold by Niall Brennan, agent, the colt is the first foal out of Jovi San, by St. Jovite. Jovi San is a daughter of Elegant Victress (Sir Ivor) and is therefore a half-sister to four stakes-winners: Vying Victor, Explicit, Flying Victor, and Sharp Victor. She also is a half-sister to the winner Desert Victress, dam of the Grade 2 winner Desert Digger.

The sale opened Monday with 143 lots selling for a total of $4,304,200, up 11 percent from last year's sale, when 120 horses sold for $3,866,200. But the first-session average dropped, from $32,218 last year to $30,099 this time.

Buy-backs also declined slightly on day one, falling from last year's figure of 33 percent to 32 percent.

The first session was topped by a $190,000 Boston Harbor filly out of Chou Chou (Premiership). Ciaran Dunne, agent, bought the filly from the Leprechaun Racing consignment.