Thoroughbred breeding activity declined in 2011, continuing a recent trend that has led to smaller foal crops, according to statistics The Jockey Club released Friday.
Japanese-based breeder Nagako Fujita gave the 2012 Keeneland September yearling sale its seventh millionaire – and consignor Peter O’Callaghan his first –Thursday when her Empire Maker colt out of Lu Ravi sold to Japan’s Big Red Farm, home of I’ll Have Another, for $1.1 million.
A $750,000 Giant’s Causeway colt led Thursday’s session of the Keeneland September sale on a final bid from Todd Pletcher, who signed as agent for a partnership.
A Giant’s Causeway colt out of an Unbridled’s Song mare who sold for $750,000 was the early session topper at the Keeneland September yearling sale on Thursday, the final day of selling yearlings out of the sale’s second book.
Led by a $1.55 million Bernardini colt that Coolmore bought, the Keeneland September sale’s third session (the second session of auction’s four-day Book 2 segment) rang up across-the-board gains.
Catherine Parke’s 10-horse Keeneland September consignment produced a millionaire Wednesday at the second Book 2 session when Coolmore went to $1.55 million for a Bernardini-Wilshewed colt from her Valkyre Stud agency.
Bruce McMillin isn’t a full-time horse breeder, but you wouldn’t have known it by looking at the Tapit colt he sold for $700,000 to top Tuesday’s session.
The average price for a yearling at the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society’s annual yearling and mixed sale rose by close to 10 percent over last year.
A colt by Bernardini caught the international eye of Coolmore Stud on Wednesday at the Keeneland September yearling sale, and the result was an outsized payout for the colt’s breeder, the California-based trainer Bill Currin and his wife, Betty.
A $700,000 Tapit colt lit up the board late in the session Tuesday to top the Keeneland September yearling auction’s second -- and first non-select -- day.
