A colt by Blame sold for $485,000 to lead the way as the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.'s June sale of 2-year-olds in training and horses of racing age continued Wednesday.
OBS reported that 200 horses sold for $7,207,700 during Wednesday's session, the second of three overall at the penultimate sale of the North American breeze-up season. During last year's corresponding second session, 234 horses sold for a gross of $9,831,600.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Keeneland September yearling sale comes to a close with its 12th session on Saturday, closing out Book 6.
The following are horses to watch in the finale, selected largely based on their pedigrees, and these selections factor in catalog updates and sale outs through Thursday morning, although that could change rapidly There are a significant number of withdrawals for the Book 6 sessions.
Blame was foaled on May 2, 2006. Exactly 14 years later – and a decade after Blame’s championship season – his son Nadal became his fifth Grade 1/Group 1 winner when capturing a division of the Arkansas Derby.
Blame, bred by Claiborne Farm and longtime partner Adele B. Dilschneider, is a product of Claiborne through and through, as he is by the farm’s late sire Arch and out of the Seeking the Gold mare Liable. Nadal also has deep Claiborne ties on both sides of his pedigree, as he is out of Ascending Angel, by the late Claiborne colorbearer Pulpit.
Claiborne Farm has won the Kentucky Derby only once in its century-plus history, when the star-crossed Swale carried its famous gold silks beneath the twin spires. But that doesn’t mean the farm hasn’t had ties to other Derby winners – or that the Hancock family’s influence isn’t all over this year’s race despite its lack of ownership.
“We have a lot of interest,” said farm president Walker Hancock, the great-grandson of Arthur B. Hancock, who founded Claiborne in 1910.
A big day of racing in the United States became a big day for young sire Blame, as he posted winners at two major tracks.
According to Daily Racing Form’s SirePowered Results, Blame was represented on Saturday by March, winner of the Grade 3 Bay Shore Stakes at Aqueduct with a Beyer Speed Figure of 89; and later, Conquest Archangel, who captured a maiden special weight at Keeneland with a 75.
The two Kentucky mixed sales in November offered buyers their first look at foals from a number of new sires.
Twenty-two first-crop sires had weanlings cataloged at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky selected fall mixed sale and the Keeneland November breeding stock sale, including five champions, three winners of Triple Crown races, and two Breeders’ Cup winners.
While the mixed sales give buyers a chance to get in on the ground floor with a young stallion’s offspring, the potential comes with the risk of the unknown when buying foals of unproven stallions.
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - Blame won the battle, the Breeders’ Cup Classic, but lost the ultimate war when Zenyatta was named Horse of the Year at Monday night’s Eclipse Award ceremonies. Neither Blame’s trainer, Al Stall Jr., or owner, Claiborne Farm’s Seth Hancock, were surprised in the least by the announcement, they said.
