The Tattersalls July sale featuring fillies, mares, and horses in training ended Thursday with declines that had been expected in light of the general economy, recent slips in Thoroughbred sale returns, and a smaller catalog.

The three-day auction in Newmarket, England, sold 438 horses for a gross of about $9,376,696, for an average price of approximately $21,407. Those figures were down 26 percent and 15 percent, respectively, from last season's sale, when 507 horses sold. The 2009 median also slumped by 18 percent to about $10,988.

The Fasig-Tipton Kentucky auction house will hold its selected fall mixed sale on the nights of Nov. 9-10, the company said, in an effort to avoid a conflict with the Breeders' Cup.

The Breeders' Cup will take place at Santa Anita Park on Nov. 6-7, prompting Fasig-Tipton to make its sale dates later than usual to allow buyers and consignors a chance to travel from California to Kentucky in plenty of time for the auction.

Leading French stallion Anabaa, the sire of Breeders' Cup Mile winner Goldikova, died following colic surgery in Normandy on Tuesday.

A 17-year-old son of Danzig out of Group 2 winner Balbonella, Anabaa contracted acute peritonitis after the operation.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - American auction houses have asked the Society of International Thoroughbred Auctioneers for clarification of a recent guideline banning the sale of mares 18 years old or older.

The auctioneers' group formulated the guideline in June at one of its two meetings of the year, and the minutes emerging from that meeting have now created confusion, according to representatives of the American auction houses that are members of the organization: Barretts, the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company, Fasig-Tipton, and Keeneland.

The Tattersalls July sale in Newmarket, England, opened Tuesday with declines after offering fewer horses in this year's opening session than last year. The auction features fillies, broodmares, and horses in training,

The Society of International Thoroughbred Auctioneers has adopted new guidelines that will effectively ban the sale of broodmares 18 years old or older, or mares who have been barren for three consecutive years at the world's major auction houses. Such mares can still be sold under special circumstances.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Jockey Club's decision earlier this year to make its tattoo identification service free - and, this week, the addition of its markings database information to those free ID services - has been a boon to retirement groups, horse rescuers, and average horse owners. With the ability to learn more about their horses' background, new owners can glean information about everything from old injuries to personality quirks. And identifying a beloved horse's pedigree might also help them track down and acquire other horses of similar breeding.

Strike the Tiger's upset win in the Windsor Castle Stakes at the Royal Ascot meeting in England last month has led breeder-trainer Wesley Ward to plan an ambitious stakes schedule for the California-bred.

Strike the Tiger, who became the first American-trained winner at Royal Ascot, has returned to Ward's stable at Monmouth Park and is being prepared for the $50,000 Chenery Stakes over 5 1/2 furlongs on turf at Colonial Downs in Virginia on July 25.

"He's been training all week long," Ward said. "It's good spacing to get him back."

A pair of Malibu Moon yearlings bred by Dark Hollow Farm took top honors at the 75th Maryland Horse Breeders Association's Thoroughbred yearling show on Sunday.

A colt out of the Unbridled mare Kinlin was named grand champion by the judge, the bloodstock agent Buzz Chace. He selected a filly out of the Clever Trick matron Clever Phrase as reserve champion. Each had won their respective classes for Maryland-bred yearlings by out-of-state stallions before taking their championship and reserve championship titles.

Mitch Dutko had the best possible view at Royal Ascot when his horse Strike the Tiger won the Windsor Castle Stakes and put his connections in the record books. Dutko was in the Royal Enclosure and subsequently celebrated in so many places it was hard to keep track of them all. In the Ascot owner bar, waiters poured bottle after bottle of Bollinger, James Bond's Champagne of choice. There was the night in an Irish pub, somewhere in London, that is owned by soccer star and racing man Niall Quinn. There, they put Dutko behind the bar to pull pints of Guinness, like a celebrity bartender.