LEXINGTON, Ky. – Eclipse Award champion Monomoy Girl continued to write herself into the Thoroughbred industry's record books, selling for $9.5 million to Spendthrift Farm on Sunday night at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall selected mixed sale. The elite single-session auction, which opened the mixed-sale season in North America, finished with an improved average price but a decline in median. Fasig-Tipton reported 142 horses sold for $80,237,000. The 2019 renewal of the sale concluded with 128 horses sold for $68,011,000. Sunday night's average price finished at $565,049, ticking up 6 percent compared to $531,336 last year. The median was $200,000, dropping 33 percent from $300,000. Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning credited the gains to the quality of the horses in the catalog, including three Eclipse Award champions and several other major winners. Browning stressed, as always, that he appreciates the owners who entrust their horses to Fasig-Tipton during the process of assembling the catalog. "It's a relationship-based business," Browning said. "It's not just me, it's, if you go through that office, on our sales team, every person involved in the organization has a key factor in recruiting some of these elite horses, and that's why it works. . . . There's an awful lot of people who work hard on a year-round basis to recruit and to build the relationships with the people, because we care about them and we care about their horses." The buyback rate in a selective marketplace that has become more so across the board in 2020 was 33 percent, compared to 24 percent in 2019. Spendthrift plans to campaign sale-topper Monomoy Girl in 2021. "She's a superstar, she's an all-timer," Spendthrift general manager Ned Toffey said. "She'll go back to Brad Cox, and that's the plan right now – we'll let her decide, but as long as everything stays the same. She appears to be very sound, the vet checked her out, everything looks good. She'll go back in training another year, and then we've got a stallion or two that might suit." Monomoy Girl was consigned by the Elite Sales of business partners Bradley Weisbord and Liz Crow, as agent for the ownership partnership of Michael Dubb, Monomoy Stables, Stuart Grant's The Elkstone Group, and Bethlehem Stables. The 5-year-old Tapizar mare's price tied her for second all-time among racing or broodmare prospects sold at public auction in North America. The record-holder is Horse of the Year Havre de Grace, sold for $10 million in 2012, followed by two-time Eclipse Award champion Songbird, sold for $9.5 million in 2017. Both of those mares were purchased at Fasig-Tipton November sales by Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm. Monomoy Girl won Saturday's Breeders' Cup Distaff to remain unbeaten this season; overall, she has won 13 of 15 starts, has never finished worse than second, and has earned more than $4.4 million. She won the 2018 Kentucky Oaks and Breeders' Cup Distaff in an Eclipse Award championship campaign and is virtually certain of another divisional title after winning the Distaff. Monomoy Girl was part of an active night for owner B. Wayne Hughes's Spendthrift, which purchased 12 horses for a total of $25,030,000. That included four other mares in the top 10 prices of the sale – Grade 1 winner Bast, in foal to Justify, for $4.2 million; Grade 1 winner She's a Julie for $3 million; Grade 1 winner Got Stormy for $2.75 million; and stakes winner Mother Mother for $1.8 million. "Just thought it would be a good time to add some quality to the top end of our broodmare band," Toffey said. While many of those mares will eventually go to support Spendthrift stallions, first, the farm could have an active 2021 on the racetrack. In addition to Monomoy Girl returning to Cox, Toffey said that Got Stormy will remain in training with Mark Casse for another campaign. While Spendthrift had a busy night on the buying bench, Elite Sales had a busy night on the other side of the column, also consigning Eclipse Award champions Midnight Bisou and Uni. Midnight Bisou, a 13-time graded stakes winner who missed this year's Breeders' Cup when an injury forced her into retirement in October, was purchased for $5 million by Chuck Allen, who bought out partners Bloom Racing and Madaket Stables. Uni, winner of the 2019 Breeders' Cup Mile and fifth in Saturday's renewal, was purchased for $4.1 million by White Birch Farm. When the dust cleared, the top seven prices overall at the sale, in order, were Monomoy Girl; multiple Grade 1 winner Rushing Fall, with Jamie McCalmont signing the $5.5 million ticket on behalf of Coolmore's M.V. Magnier; Midnight Bisou; Bast; Uni; She's a Julie; and Got Stormy. They were followed on the leaderboard by Grade 1-placed Miss Besilu, from the immediate family of Horse of the Year honorees Saint Liam and Gun Runner, and in foal to Into Mischief; and Paris Bikini, the dam of Grade 1 winner Paris Lights, in foal to Uncle Mo. They were purchased by Katsumi Yoshida for $2.2 million and $1.95 million, respectively. Mother Mother rounded out the top 10. The sale's highest-priced weanling was a $600,000 colt from the first crop of Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and Pegasus World Cup winner City of Light. He was purchased by Larry Best's OXO Equine from the consignment of Hunter Valley Farm, as agent. The colt is the first foal out of the winning Into Mischief mare Breaking Beauty. Her dam is German Oaks winner Que Belle, also the dam of graded/group stakes winners Osidy and Quetsche. For hip-by-hip results, click here.