A colt by the successful young sire War Front sold for $190,000 at Keeneland’s November sale on Wednesday, a record auction price for a West Virginia-bred weanling. The previous high was $185,000 for a Vin Nistelroy colt at the 2007 Keeneland sale.Kingsbury Stables bought the colt from 84-year-old West Virginia breeder Buck Woodson.Woodson said he felt confident enough in the colt, based on a number of private offers before the sale, to set a reserve price of $99,000.War Front, a top freshman sire of 2010, currently ranks third on the 2011 second-crop sire list, thanks to the success of Grade 1 winners The Factor and Summer Soiree, along with Grade 2 winner Soldat. As a result, War Front’s stud fee has been raised from $15,000 in 2011 to $60,000 for 2012.“People have told me he looks like The Factor,” said Woodson of the colt, who is a product of War Factor and Dancing Trieste. “I just loved the Danzig line with my mare and he [War Front] was in the price range I was looking at, so we decided on that mating. If his book wasn’t full for the coming year, I’d have still bred to him for the $60,000.”The colt’s dam, Dancing Trieste by Old Trieste, raced six times and never won. The second dam, La Promenade, was an Argentinian-bred by Southern Halo who was Group 1-placed in South America. It was the potential cross Woodson saw with a stallion he stands, Ghostly Minister, that led him to purchase her.“We originally bought the mare for $20,000 to breed to the stallion we have,” Woodson said. “Two of the best horses Old Trieste had were Minister Eric, who was out of a Deputy Minister mare, and Sinister Minister, whose dam’s sire was a son of Deputy Minister. I thought it could work if we flipped the mating and bred our Deputy Minister stallion to an Old Trieste mare. That’s really why we bought her.”Woodson said Dancing Trieste produced a yearling and 2-year-old by Ghostly Minister he currently has on his farm.– Joe DeVivo