The top attraction of the two-day Eastern Fall Yearling sale in Timonium was E.P. Taylor’s 22-horse Windfields Farm consignment.

A crowd of more than 1,500 attended the record-breaking sale in which the Windfields horses generated more than 25 percent of the gross. Fifteen of the 191 yearlings sold were from the Chesapeake City farm, including the sales topper – a Northern Dancer colt out of *Queen’s Statute purchased by Bayard Sharp for $120,000. It was the third Eastern Fall Sales in which Taylor had been a consignor, and it marked a personal high in gross receipts and average for the Maryland auction. Windfields yearlings sold for $425,000 and averaged $28,333 (the overall sales average, a new record, was $7,863).

• Taylor added sire power to the Windfields roster when purchasing top-class Tentam for $2.2 million. The 4-year-old son of Intentionally, one of the top grass horses in the nation that year, was to be syndicated and would stand his first season in 1974.
  Also new to stud was King’s Bishop, who was retiring to Allaire duPont’s Woodstock Farm in Chesapeake City. Round Table’s 4-year-old son was owned by duPont, Buckingham Farm, Shenstone Farm and Windfields Farm.
  King’s Bishop would move to Windfields the following year. Both died in 1981 at the age of 12, Tentam siring seven crops and King’s Bishop eight, and left indelible marks as sires and broodmare sires.
  
• Eugene Mori’s Alma North captured Atlantic City’s Matchmaker Stakes over a field that included Susan’s Girl and Light Hearted while equaling the track record. With her 22nd win from 74 starts, and seventh stakes win of the year, Alma North boosted her earnings to $483,183 – behind only Politely’s $552,972 among Maryland-bred mares. The owners of the top four finishers had a choice of service to Northern Dancer, Hoist the Flag, *Cougar II or Silent Screen. Mori selected Northern Dancer (to be used for another mare since Alma North was a daughter of the Windfields stallion).
  
  
• The Jockey Club reported a record number of 25,397 registered 2-year-olds (foals of 1971). They also revealed that California surpassed Kentucky as the nation’s leading producer. Maryland, fourth behind Florida, had 1,355 foals born in 1971, the largest in its history and close to tripling the number from a decade earlier. Virginia ranked fifth (1,027), Pennsylvania 16th (395) and New Jersey 18th (358). Other regional states were South Carolina with 172; West Virgina, 113; North Carolina, 84; and Delaware, 4.
  
  
• Syndicate-owned Knightly Manner was sold to R.A. Fowlston, owner and manager of Britton House Stud in England. The 12-year-old multiple stakes-winning son of Round Table had stood at Merryland Farm in Hydes, Md., since he was retired at 5. 
  Knightly Manner’s best runner was Virginia-bred Stonewalk, who was 2 at the time of the sale. Stonewalk would go on to win six stakes, all graded, place in three Grade 1s and earn more than $500,000. Knightly Manner eventually stood in Australia.