Following are horses to watch during Book 1 of the Keeneland September yearling sale, which comprises the first three sessions. Horses were selected based on their pedigrees and past auction results of notable family members. Conformation, veterinarian records, and pedigree updates after deadline were not taken into consideration.
Kentucky Downs will add three races to each of its last two programs Sept. 16 and 19 to make up for some of the races lost Thursday to yet another cancellation at the turf-only track in south-central Kentucky. Each of those cards will feature 13 races, and first post will be 12:05 p.m. Central, 90 minutes earlier than usual.
Giving closest chase to Runhappy in the Grade 1 King’s Bishop at Saratoga was another 3-year-old colt whose most recent start had come at Ellis Park.
The day after a tremendous Irish Champions card at Leopardstown, there is more high-class racing in Ireland on Sunday at The Curragh, which hosts a pair of important 2-year-old races as well as the Irish St. Leger.
Of the 25 stallions to enter stud in Kentucky in 2013, 16 (or about three-fifths of the group) were Grade 1/Group 1 winners – and, rightfully, they attracted stellar books. Two years later, the resulting foals are adding spice to a resurgent yearling market. Among that standout group of Kentucky’s first-year yearling sires, The Factor was the breakout success story of the August Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale, the first boutique auction of the yearling calendar. The stallion now gets another chance to prove himself at the bellwether Keeneland September yearling sale, which tests a wide swath of the market across two weeks.
Almost nothing went right in 2014 for the super-mare Treve until she won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe for the second time last fall, but so far this year, as Treve bids to become the first three-time Arc winner, everything has gone right. The season-long plan laid out by her connections makes a stop Sunday at Longchamp, where Treve has her final start before the Arc de Triomphe in the Group 1 Prix Vermeille, one of three Arc de Triomphe preps on an outstanding card that also includes the Group 1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp over one mile.
The arrival of yearlings by first-year stallions to the marketplace is annually among the highlights of the sales season. But it’s rare for those first-year stallions to include an unbeaten champion hailed among the greatest racehorses of all time, whose foals are eagerly anticipated on both sides of the Atlantic. Thus is the case with two-time European Horse of the Year Frankel, whose first yearlings offered in the U.S. market are five colts at the Keeneland September yearling sale.
Stryker Phd, hero of the Grade 3 Longacres Mile in his last start, will try to cap a second consecutive perfect season at Emerald Downs with a victory in the $60,000 Muckleshoot Tribal Classic during the Washington Cup Day festivities Sunday.
By the end of the annual Keeneland September yearling sale, buyers sometimes feel like it’s déjà vu all over again, that this must be the 100th yearling they have looked at by some popular sire. It’s not that bad. … No really, it’s not that bad.It has, however, gotten worse – much worse – over the past 25 years.
Silvestre de Sousa, the leading jockey in Europe, is planning to move his tack to New York in late October, according to Seth Benzel, the former trainer who will serve as de Sousa’s agent.
