A healthy demand for weanlings at Timonium yesterday salvaged the two-day Fasig-Tipton Midlantic December mixed sale of thoroughbreds that had started dismally Sunday.

Weanlings brought an average of $9,629 yesterday compared to $8,928 at last year's sale. A gray filly with great promise born May 14 sold for $103,000 to Josham Farms of Canada. The weanling filly is a fine-looking daughter of the champion Silver Charm and the stakes-winning mare Promiseville.

Still, the two-day totals for the sale at the fairgrounds fell far short of last year's figures. Total sales decreased 29.8 percent and the average fell 16.8 percent.

This year, 378 horses sold for $2,478,600, an average of $6,557. Last year, 448 horses sold for $3,530,500, an average of $7,881. However, the median remained steady, with the figure for both years being $3,200.

"It was the same sale through and through," said T. Mason Grasty, executive vice president of Fasig-Tipton Midlantic, the sales company in Elkton. "We just didn't have the top-end mares this year."

On the success of the weanlings, Grasty said: "The weanlings are always higher than the mares. We had better stock this year - more and better weanlings on the top end."