LEXINGTON, Ky. - Fasig-Tipton’s October yearling sale ended Wednesday with a $130,000 colt by leading freshman sire Congrats at the top of the session’s prices.

The three-day Lexington auction ended with 690 yearlings sold for an aggregate $9,395,300, up 19 percent from last year’s total for 566 horses. Average price showed only a negligible decrease, falling from last year’s $13,949 to $13,616. But median price fell more noticeably, by 17 percent, from $6,000 last season to $5,000. Buybacks were at 29 percent, up from last year’s figure of 25 percent.

Grade 3 winner Coal Play will join the McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds roster in 2011 at a $4,000 fee.
Coal Play, a 5-year-old Mineshaft horse, won the Grade 3 Salvator Mile in 2009 and the 2008 Majestic Prince Stakes. He won both going wire to wire, taking the Majestic Prince by 7 1/2 lengths and the Salvator Mile by three. His two stakes-placings include a second to Big Brown in the 20008 Haskell.
Bred by Emory Hamilton and campaigned by Robert LaPenta, Coal Play won 5of his 16 starts and finished second twice and third once. He earned $528,068.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – With two sessions in the books with mixed results, Fasig-Tipton’s October yearling sale entered its last session Wednesday with a $105,000 Afleet Alex filly the leader at 4 p.m.

The Afleet Alex filly, cataloged as Hip No. 1020, sold to agent Bo Hunt from the Darby Dan Farm consignment. The bay filly is out of the unraced Forestry mare Summer Forest and hails from the family that produced Group 1-placed Firm Pledge.

The Irving Cowan dispersal produced the $310,000 session-topper Tuesday at Fasig-Tipton's October yearling sale, a Hard Spun filly out of Cowan's champion Hollywood Wildcat. The session was the second consecutive day to post increases in gross receipts and average price and a decrease in median.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Champion Smarty Jones, the popular 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, will return to his native state of Pennsylvania for the 2011 breeding season.

Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Ky., ended months of speculation Tuesday by announcing that Smarty Jones will stand at Ghost Ridge Farms in York, Pa. Ghost Ridge has not yet announced a fee for the 9-year-old Elusive Quality horse, whose fee was $10,000 this year.

Pat Chapman, who bred Smarty Jones with her late husband Roy, and her family own half of the horse’s breeding rights.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Irving Cowan dispersal produced the $310,000 early session-leader Tuesday at Fasig-Tipton’s October yearling sale, a Hard Spun filly out of Cowan’s champion Hollywood Wildcat.

Lakland Farm purchased the filly, a three-quarter-sister to 2000 Breeders’ Cup Mile winner and sire War Chant. She also is a three-quarter-sister to Grade 1-placed Ivan Denisovich and a half-sibling to graded-placed Double Cat, Ministers Wild Cat, and Shintoh.

The Taylor Made agency consigned the filly as part of the Cowan dispersal’s first phase at the Lexington auction.

Italian Group 1 winner Hearts of Fire will head for Qatar after being sold Monday for nearly $1 million to top the opening session of the Tattersalls autumn horses in training sale in Newmarket, England.

Qatari trainer Ibrahim al-Malki cast a single bid, the winning one of about $918,225 for the 3-year-old Firebreak colt. He signed the ticket on behalf of Hassan Ali abdul Malik of Qatar.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - WinStar Farm has retired Hold Me Back, winner of the 2010 Grade 3 Dominion Day Handicap and the 2009 Grade 2 Lane’s End Stakes, due to a strained tendon, according to WinStar vice-president Elliott Walden.

The 4-year-old Giant’s Causeway colt heads to stud at WinStar in Versailles, Ky., with a record of four wins and three second-place finishes from 14 career starts. He earned $872,610.

In addition to his two graded wins, Hold Me Back also was runner-up in two Grade 1 races, the Travers and Blue Grass Stakes last year.

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.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A. P. Indy's Grade 2-winning son Shaniko will relocate from Kentucky to Louisiana for the 2011 breeding season, according to Millennium Farms.

The 9-year-old sire stood at Millennium in Paris, Ky., this year for $5,000 and now moves to Millennium Farms at Moon Lake in Elm Grove, La. Shaniko has five juvenile winners in his first crop, including stakes-placed Native Niko.

Shaniko will stand for $2,500 in Louisiana.