LEXINGTON, Ky. -- A strong North American yearling sale season came to a strong finish on Thursday evening, with the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall yearling sale concluding with record figures. Fasig-Tipton reported that 1,100 horses changed hands for a total of $55,426,500 over four days at its Newtown Paddocks headquarters in Lexington. At last year's four-session sale, 1,153 horses sold for a then-record $52,607,500. This week's cumulative average price was $50,388, rising 10 percent from the prior record of $45,627 established last year. The median spiked 14 percent to a record $25,000, from the high-water mark of $22,000 established in 2021. Those gains were particularly noteworthy since last year's sale was fueled by horses from a dispersal of the legendary Sam-Son Farm, including a $925,000 colt who tied for the October sale's highest price all time. “We were optimistic coming in, because we knew the consignors and sellers had supported us with better quality horses than in the past,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning, Jr., said. “It’s thrilling to set records for gross, average, and median, particularly considering the 2021 sale had such a dramatic increase from prior years as well.” Last year's yearling marketplace roared back with enthusiasm to go racing following a pandemic-hampered 2020, and this year, with strong purse structures and incentive programs in a number of locations, the yearling market has again been strong.  Jonathan Green, general manager for one of the sale's leading buyers, D. J. Stable, pointed to another factor in the high market figures, as buyers are pushed to new heights when bidding against partnerships. "I would say that the overall marketplace is strong," Green said. "I think the top of the marketplace is ultra-strong for a number of reasons - primarily because there are so many groups that are going to partnerships now. ... When you sit down to try to buy a top horse, you're going up against some of these groups now that are putting their money [together] on the table." The buyback rate ticked up slightly to 19 percent in a somewhat polarized marketplace, compared to 18 percent last year. "If you have a really well-bred horse and it checks all the boxes, you're going to get what you want and then some," Green said, adding that for horses who do not check all those boxes, "it just seems like there is not a market anymore like there used to be." The highest price of the sale was achieved late in the final session, as trainer Wesley Ward went to $700,000 for a filly by the red-hot young sire Gun Runner. The Horse of the Year could be represented by as many as seven runners at next week's Breeders' Cup, and with his on-track success, his yearlings have been in high demand. "[He could be] the greatest sire of all time," David Fiske, bloodstock and racing adviser for Gun Runner's co-owner Winchell Thoroughbreds, said this sale season. Winchell Thoroughbreds went back to the well to support its latest standout sire, purchasing a Gun Runner colt for $550,000 this week. Ward's purchase, consigned by Claiborne Farm, as agent, is the second foal out of the unraced Speightstown mare No More Parties. Out of Grade 3 winner Social Queen, she is a full sister to Grade 1 winner Force the Pass. This is the immediate family of stakes winner Wonder Gal, dam of Grade 1 winner and Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies contender Wonder Wheel. Grade 1 winner Perfect Drift also appears on the catalog page. D. J. Stable stretched to $600,000 for the second-highest price of the sale, a Tapit filly sold earlier this week. This was the second trip through an auction ring this season for the filly, who was consigned by Blake-Albina Thoroughbred Services, as agent. She was offered in Book 1 of the Keeneland September yearling sale, but failed to meet her reserve with a high bid of $425,000. With an additional month of maturation under her belt, she found her ideal marketplace. The filly is out of the multiple graded stakes-winning Forestry mare Carolyn's Cat. She is the dam of five winners from nine starters, led by Grade 3 winner Mufajaah, a full sister to this filly, and stakes-placed Aunt Kat. "It really comes down to how they look athletically," Green said. "It's great when they have a nice, loose walk and a pretty head and they look athletic, and then you back it up with this kind of pedigree. ... We're very familiar with the family." Of the 10 highest-priced horses at the October sale, three-time reigning leading sire Into Mischief recorded four of those lots, with a $560,000 colt sold to Tom McCrocklin, a $425,000 filly purchased by Ward, and a $400,000 colt purchased by D. J. Stable. "When you're talking about the top stallions in the past decade, you have to look at, obviously, Into Mischief and Tapit," Green said. For hip-by-hip results, click here. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.