by Pete Denk

Average price increased 5.4% to $93,739 while buy-backs increased to a historically high 44.1% on opening day of the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July sale of selected yearlings.

Buyer selectivity was the theme on Monday at Newtown Paddocks in Lexington, where sellers experienced familiar feast-or-famine results.

“The game above $50,000 was really good, right on par with last year,” said Fasig-Tipton President Walt Robertson. “The $20,000 to $40,000 horses, it’s a tough place to play this year. There were a lot of reserves in that neighborhood that failed to be met.

“The lower part of the market is a tough place to be and a hard place to find buyers.”

Fasig-Tipton reported 142 of 254 horses offered as sold for total sales of $13,311,000, a 15.9% decrease from last year when 178 horses sold for $15,826,000. Median price was level at $75,000.

Paul Pompa Jr., minority owner of dual-classic winner Big Brown, went to $330,000 for an Unforgettable Max colt, highest price of the day. Pompa’s bloodstock agent, Jack Brothers of Hidden Brook, handled the bidding for the colt, who was one of the standouts in Monday’s New Sire Showcase.

“He had everything we look for in a racehorse, from top to bottom,” Brothers said.

Unforgettable Max – by Northern Afleet out of Maggy Hawk, by Hawkster – is a stakes-winning full brother to champion Afleet Alex. Both horses’ first crops are yearlings of 2008.

Bred in Kentucky by Equus Farm and Susan Forrester, the Unforgettable Max colt is out of the unraced Slewpy mare Wife’s Objection.

Gainesway consigned the colt, as agent, for a Gainesway pinhooking partnership that bought him for $42,000 at the 2007 Keeneland November breeding stock sale.

“We found him in the back ring in November, about book five,” said Gainesway’s Brian Graves. “It was his walk that attracted us to him, and when we got him home, he just turned into a standout.”

Top-priced filly of the day was a Saint Liam filly out of Chao Praya, by Gold Legend, who went to John Fort for $300,000. Bluewater Sales, agent, consigned the half sister to Grade 3 winner Level Playingfield, who was bred in Kentucky by Briland Farm and Mr. and Mrs. Robert O. Mitchell.

McMahon Bloodstock, agent for Saratoga Stable – a pinhooking partnership headed by Mike McMahon and Eddie Woods – went to $275,000 for a Ghostzapper filly out of the Carson City mare Fast and Early.

“She’s got all the makings of the type of filly we want to take to auction,” McMahon said. “We liked everything about her. She looks like a rocket. …It’s the right way to breed to Ghostzapper in my opinion. You always want a speed mare, and this mare has thrown a lot of speed.”

Taylor Made Sales Agency, agent, consigned the half sister to Grade 3 winner Sharp Impact. Woods and McMahon were pleased to land the first yearling by 2004 Horse of the Year Ghostzapper to go through an auction.

“We thought she could top the sale,” McMahon said. “We vetted her because you read the gloom and doom about the economy, and we said, ‘We better vet a few horses that we don’t think we can afford.’ ”

The sale continues with Tuesday’s session, beginning at 10 a.m. EDT.

For hip-by-hip results, click here.

Pete Denk is sales editor of Thoroughbred Times