by John P. Sparkman

Buy-back rate improved somewhat, but, with more horses selling in the lower price ranges, average and total proceeds both declined during the final session of the Fasig-Tipton July sale of selected yearlings on Tuesday.

With 244 horses through the ring, 163 sold for $14,840,000, down 28%, while average dipped 22.3% to $91,043 on the day. That brought the two-day sale totals to 305 horses sold for $28,151,000, an average of $92,298.

Those figures represented declines of 22.7% and 10.3%, respectively, compared with the same sale in 2007. Overall, the buy-back rate increased from 31.9% last year to 38.8%.

“It's a tough world out there, but this was a very good sale,” said Walt Robertson, Fasig-Tipton's president and chief auctioneer. “Buyers tell me it was tough to buy the good horses.

“It's definitely a tougher market at the lower end than it has been, but it was tougher at the lower end at the two-year-old sales.”

The day did see a new top price established when Zayat Stable's Sobhy Sonbol bid $375,000 for a racey filly by Exchange Rate already named Wicked Exchange.

“She's a hell of a filly, very beautiful and racey looking, and she looks like she'll be an early runner,” Sonbol said of the second foal out of Wickedly Wise, by Tactical Cat, a half sister to stakes winner Cayman Sunset. “I thought she'd be as high as any filly in the sale, so the price broke about right. She's exactly the kind of horse we look for.”

David Hanley's White Church Farm purchased the filly for $100,000 at the 2007 Keeneland November breeding stock sale and resold her through Kitty Taylor's Warrendale Sales agency.

“We were hopeful,” Taylor said. “We had a lot of interest at the barn and a lot of vetting, but just like you come into any sale, you're nervous.”

“We loved the filly when we first saw her,” Hanley said. “She's done well every day since we got her and she's just a classy filly.”

Only two other horses broke the $300,000 barrier on a day which produced fewer high prices than generally expected. That brought the two-day total at that level to six horses.

At the same sale last year, ten horses sold for $300,000 or more, led by a $450,000 colt by Malibu Moon.

“We did have fewer horses for $300,000 this year,” Robertson said. “People are demanding a higher level of horse than they have in the past.

“Look around you. The world is tough in every market that you can name, from cattle to real estate, except for one—oil. And that went down today.

“The horse business is doing better than my 401k.”

John P. Sparkman is bloodstock editor of Thoroughbred Times