The average and median prices for the first day of the Tattersalls October Book 2 yearling sale plunged by double digits on Monday, days after the European yearling market showed unexpected resiliency during Book 1 selling.

The average price for the 201 yearlings sold on Monday was $55,498, a decline of 19.1 percent compared with the average price for the 160 yearlings sold last year on the first day of Book 2 selling. The average price last year was itself down 30 percent compared with the 2007 figure.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The start of October has been a rough time for California's Thoroughbred industry.

The nine races in the California Cup program at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meeting on Oct. 3 drew just 63 starters, including three races with five runners. In the $200,000 California Cup Classic, the day's richest event, two of the six runners did not finish because of injuries. Grazen, the 4-5 favorite, suffered a bowed tendon; Blackbriar, a fatal sesamoid injury.

NEWMARKET, England - Tattersalls auctioneers concluded the October Book 1 yearling sale Thursday night with a sense of relief, as gross revenue increased 10 percent and declines in average and median were far less than feared in light of roughly 30 to 40 percent downturns at earlier yearling auctions.

The average price, gross receipts, and median all fell by double-digit percentages at the conclusion of two days of selling at Fasig-Tipton's Eastern fall yearling sale, which ended Tuesday in Timonium, Md., according to figures provided by the sales company.

Stallions who had previously stood at the Florida operation of Frank Stronach's Adena Springs farm will be moved to the Adena properties in Kentucky and Canada, the farm announced on Tuesday.

Adena Springs South, located in Ocala, will remain in operation for breaking and training all of Adena's weanlings and yearlings, according to Adena officials, and the farm will also take boarders. All six of the active sires now at the farm, however, will move to the Adena Springs properties in either Paris, Ky., or Ontario, Canada.

NEWMARKET, England - Two million-dollar yearlings topped Wednesday's second Tattersalls October session that posted mixed results overall.

But it was a singular filly who excited the most interest among spectators on the cold, drizzly evening. That was Hip No. 405, the only foal in existence by four-time champion George Washington, who fatally broke down in the 2007 Breeders' Cup Classic after proving infertile at stud. Or rather, almost entirely infertile.

POMONA, Calif. - A Tiznow filly sold for $120,000 at Monday's California Cup yearling sale at Barretts, the lone six-figure horse of the one-day event.

Similar to other recent yearling sales, business figures fell from 2008, with the average falling 25 percent, from $16,689 to $12,413 this year. Overall, 178 horses sold for a gross of $2,209,600, a decline of 11 percent. The median was $5,000, down 44 percent from the 2008 figure of $9,000.

After more than a year of diminishing results at horse sales throughout the country, consignors are braced for disappointment at Monday's California Cup yearling sale at Barretts in Pomona, Calif.

"It's a little scary," said Russell Drake, who directs the River Edge consignment.

"I don't think it's going to be pretty," said Sam Hendricks, who has a 35-horse consignment.

The Goffs Orby yearling sale ended in Ireland on Thursday with declines as expected in the current era of economic downturns at Thoroughbred bloodstock auctions. But on a positive note, the median went up by just under four percent.

The three-session sale at Goffs headquarters in Kill, County Kildare, sold 499 yearlings for about $36,185,516, resulting in an average price of about $72,516 and a median of approximately $40,880.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - This year's freshman sire race is unusually close and interesting. As of Sept. 29, the top five freshmen by progeny earnings were each separated by between $15,000 and $64,000, so that just a win or two, or a decent stakes placing, could reshuffle the rankings.