Arqana's Deauville yearling sale in Deauville, France, ended Monday afternoon with improvements in average and median prices, fueling optimism that the select sales are returning to

stability after losses last year and earlier this season.

The four-day auction sold 343 yearlings, slightly down from last year's 360, and saw a slight loss in gross, from 39,967,000 euros last year to 39,369,000, or about $55,510,290, this season. But the average price of about $161,837 was 3 percent higher than last year's, and the median, approximately $105,750, was up 7 percent.

Catalogs are available online for the inaugural California Cup yearling sale, sponsored by Barretts Equine Sales and the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association. The auction, to take place on Oct. 5 at Fairplex Park's Hinds Pavilion in Pomona, Calif., starting at 11 a.m, has 282 yearlings in its catalog, viewable at the auction house's website, .

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Fox Hill Farms' two-time graded winner Old Fashioned will enter stud alongside his sire at Taylor Made Farm near Lexington.

Taylor Made and Fox Hill owner Rick Porter announced Monday that they had reached an agreement to put Old Fashioned on the same stallion roster with Unbridled's Song, who stood this year for an advertised fee of $112,500 if paid on Nov. 1 and $125,000 under stands-and-nurses terms.

Arqana's Deauville yearling sale continued Sunday with declines across the board.

Sunday's highest price at the French auction was the 205,000 euros, or about $291,100, that Agence FIPS paid for a Peintre Celebre colt consigned by Neustrian Associates (Haras du Buff, agent). The chestnut colt is out of the stakes-placed Irish River mare Hayhaat.

Consigned as Hip No. 310, the colt was one of four yearlings to bring 200,000 or more on Sunday.

A $115,000 Roman Ruler filly was the top seller Saturday night at the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred preferred yearling sale's opening session in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., at a session marred by severe declines and a 54 percent buy-back rate. The session-topping filly, out of Sovereigneoftheseas, by Boston Harbor, was the one of three six-figure horses at the session.

Anthony Tufaro purchased the session-topping bay filly from Francis and Barbara Vanlangendonck's Summerfield agency.

Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum continued his yearling-buying spree at Deauville, France, on Saturday, with another session-topping purchase at Arqana's Deauville select yearling auction. The session ended with a drop in gross receipts and average price.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - The ink had hardly dried on the receipt for the Saratoga select sale topper, a $2.8 million Storm Cat half-brother to Aragorn, before his buyer was making big bids again at the world's next major boutique yearling sale. And as at Saratoga, those bids helped lift the auction's bottom line.

Well, at least the sale wasn't down.

Tuesday's Northern California yearling sale at Pleasanton showed moderate gains over the corresponding sale at Santa Rosa in 2008.

The sale finished with 110 horses selling for a gross of $566,000, an increase 12 percent over last year. The average grew by 8 percent, to $5,145, while the median of $3,250 was up 30 percent. The increase in average price reversed two years of decline.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - It was a long, strange night at Tuesday's Fasig-Tipton select yearling sale, but it had a happy ending.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - It almost felt like old times Monday night at Fasig-Tipton's Saratoga auction pavilion. When final results came out at 11 p.m., there were plus signs in every financial category and corks popping merrily in the new Buyers' Balcony bar (reserved exclusively for purchasers bearing a red pass they received with each sales receipt). The flow of cash and Champagne was reminiscent of sales here a decade ago, when Thoroughbred yearling auctions were booming.