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FINE YEAR FOR THOROUGHBRED SALES Largo Sum of 79,210 Realized at Auction Many Big Prices at Privato Sales. NEW YORK, N. Y., October 20. The best appreciation of the expansion of the thoroughbred auction sales business and of the increase in thoroughbred values is to be obtained by comparing records of 1010 witii the records of 1017 and 1918. Two hundred and seventy-three yearlings were led to the auction block in 1917, and they brought a total of 83,275, an average of ,404 a head. Sixty-seven horses of racing ago brought 10,100, an average of ,732.83 a head. In 1918 two hundred and thirty-five thoroughbred yearlings brought a total of 4S,620, an Average of ,057.90 a head; nine brood mares fetched 0,050, an average of ,327.77 a head, and 152 horses of racing age fetched 00,S10, an average of ,321.12 a head. More than tliree-tiarters of a million dollars ,210, to be exact was realized at the auction block at Saratoga for the thoroughbreds the Fasig-Tipton Company offered to bidders. Two hundred and twenty-seven yearlings brought 1919.sh03,500, an average of ,053.85 a head; nineteen brood mares fetched 30,300, an average of ,173.00 a head; three stallions brought 1,800, an average of ,207, and eighty-three horses in training fetched 17,010, an average of ,417. These figures relate merely to the auction sales business. Many horses of various ages have been bought and sold privately. Monfort Jones paid 0,000 in June for the two-year-old Brookholt, a son of Ballot; S. C. Hildreth paid 7,500 for Dominique, a son of Peter Quince. Hildreth is said to have refused an offer Of 50,000 for the three-year-old Purchase. Larry Waterbury, a successful New York broker, paid 5,000 for the three-year-old Sennings Park. E. J. Tranter, president of the Fasig-Tipton Co. of New York, who keeps a close watcli on the thoroughbred- market, generally estimates that some two and a half million dollars will have changed hands in transactions in thoroughbred blood before the first of the year. Many horses of various ages will be sold in Kentucky this fall. It was thought that the top limit of American buvers, as regards auction sales prices, was reached in the summer of 1918, when Mrs. Walter M. Jeffords of Philadelphia paid 5,600 for a French-bred vearling by Sweeper Zuna; which won the Saratoga Special in August under the name of Golden Broom; when Commander .T. K. L.- Ross of Montreal paid 4,500 for a colt by Black Jester Primula, and Joseph E. Widener paid 4,000 for a son of Yulcain and Fairy Gold, which claims Friar Rock, Fair Play and Flittergold for half-brothers. But this theory lias been badly shattered. Ten thousand dollars and 5,000 were common prices for good-looking thoroughbreds last August. A breeder offering a youngster that looked like a thoroughbred and boasted of a fair pedigree who failed to get from ,000 to ,000 for his stuff went back to Kentucky or Virginia utterly disgusted. ; . W V. Thraves, a Virginian, who is about to embark" on a thoroughbred producing enterprise at Long Ridge Farm in Fayette County. Kentucky, paid 1,500 for a yearling son of Ultimus, anil offered bv John Oliver Keene. Commander Ross paid 5,000 for a son of Sunstar and Marian Hood. Phil T. Chinn, acting for Mr. Water-bury, paid 2,500 for a son of Celt and Simil Dune, that claims tho sprinter The Boy for half-brother. W. It. Coe paid 5,000 for a brown son of Celt and Patricia IV. Commander Ross paid 0,000 for Melodv. a brood mare, by Meddler Ballantrae that was offered at the dispersal sale of the Mackay btTlie vearlings from Claiborne and Ellerslie studs, offered bv Arthur 15. Hancock, brought the unexpected total of 40,200, an average for Claiborne of 071 43. and for Ellerslie of 1919.sh,070.59. Other breeders of American stock that is in fashion just now fared equally well.
