by David Carr, Research Manager, USTA

Lexington, KY — The Lexington Selected Yearling Sale passed the halfway mark in its catalog of 808 horses with Friday night’s (October 5) third session, continuing to post big gains over what was considered an excellent sale in 2006. Overall, the sale average of $66,066 is an improvement of more than 15 percent compared to last year. Friday’s average of $46,238 surpassed the numbers in the same session last year by 13.7 percent.

Although the overall quality of yearlings tends to decline in later sessions, Friday still boasted having a pair of youngsters sell for at least $200,000, and a total of 15 reached the $100,000 mark. In contrast, only eight sold for six figures in last year’s third session.

The sale topper for the session, and the fourth highest-priced yearling in the Lexington sale this year, was Social Butterfly, a filly by prominent trotting sire Credit Winner. Dam Gracious Marla can claim to be the half sister to the dam of freshman phenom Snow White. Jerry Silva paid $250,000 for this filly from the Diamond Creek Farm consignment.

The second yearling to reach the $200,000 level was It’s On My Tab, a colt by first crop trotting sire Cantab Hall, who is making a spectacular showing at the Lexington Selected Sale. The colt is out of Mackadamian, a Mack Lobell mare who was a stakes winner in Europe and is a half sister to divisional horse of the year Pizza Dolce. Adam Victor signed the sales slip for $200,000 on behalf of Italian owner Scuderi Bivan for the colt that was raised by Lindy Farms.

First crop sires have made a huge splash at the sale, particularly trotters, but a pair of legendary pacing sires had their moments of glory during Friday’s session. The industry has suffered a tremendous loss within the last 12 months from the deaths of Artsplace and Western Hanover, two of the top five money-earning sires of all time, but both will be well-served for years to come by foals on the racetrack and in the breeding shed.

Artsplace sired the third highest priced yearling on Friday, and his fifth overall in the sale reaching $100,000. This particular one was a colt out of Asleep On The Beach, dam of a pair of $200,000 winners. Brian Doyle, representing British owner Tom Hill, paid $157,000 for this colt from Hunterton Farm.

Western Hanover sired Campus Cutie, a filly selling for $105,000, was consigned by Hunterton for Meadow Creek Farm. Agent Mark Austin signed for this daughter of Mango Hanover, full sister to Mollie Hanover.

Erv Miller, who also signed for the overall sale topper on Thursday, stepped back into the spotlight when he paid $125,000 on behalf of the partnership of Magical Marker Farm with Jack and Peggy Hood. The object of their attention was trotting colt Express Glide, by Yankee Glide out of the Brittany Farms mare Clover Mist.

Following closely behind on price, at $120,000, was Cantabcontinental. This Cantab Hall colt is out of Intercontinental, the dam of 1996 Horse of the Year Continentalvictory. Also consigned by Brittany Farms, this trotting colt was acquired by Toss Out LLC, operated by Maurizio Biasuzzi.

Pacing colt Urban Guy brought a winning bid of $112,000 from John Pentland. This Winbak Farm-raised youngster is by Artiscape out of Tiburon Jane.

Here are some summary statistics for Friday’s session and the entire sale, which continues through Sunday.