Broad Brush mare brings $520K

LEXINGTON, Ky. - After posting mixed returns on Thursday, the Keeneland November sale opened its fifth session Friday with international buyers signing top-priced tickets.

The session leader at 5:30 p.m. Eastern was Hip No. 1513, Dhamma, a $520,000 Broad Brush mare out of French Group 1-placed Piquetnol. Epona Bloodstock made the buy from Lane's End, agent.

Dhamma won once in three starts but is from a family with some attractive black type. Her dam, Piquetnol, is a full sister to Chimes of Freedom and also produced Group 3 winner Dietrich, Dhamma's half-sister and a $2 million yearling when Coolmore bought her in 1999. Dietrich has since produced Group 3 winner Beauty Bright.

Dhamma was cataloged in foal to A. P. Indy's son Mingun.

For Thursday's session, Keeneland reported 237 horses sold for $28,188,000 for an average of $118,937. The gross and average were both down, by 11 percent and 3 percent, respectively, from last year's equivalent session. But the $95,000 median was up 6 percent.

Cumulatively, the first four sessions sold 875 horses for $249,325,000 and an average of $284,943, both up 10 percent. Median was down 3 percent to $150,000.

The Keeneland November mixed sale continues through Nov. 19.

Adena Springs prices decline

A pair of six-figure broodmares led the 11th annual Adena Springs broodmare auction Thursday night at Fasig-Tipton Kentucky's Newtown Paddocks in Lexington.

Agent Eugenio Colombo paid the top price of $130,000 for Silent Bull, a 6-year-old Holy Bull mare offered in foal to Awesome Again. Leonard Riggio's My MeadowView operation purchased the night's other six-figure mare, 4-year-old Prom Dancer, in foal to Macho Uno, for $100,000.

The one-night auction sold 101 of 104 horses for a total of $1,726,000, resulting in an average price of $17,089 and a $10,000 median. At last year's edition of this sale, 88 horses brought $2,313,500, for a $26,290 average and an $18,500 median.

This year, Adena Springs changed the auction's format by offering only mares who were in foal for the first time and by dropping its tradition of selling broodmares with return breeding seasons to Adena Springs stallions. Farm officials said that there was less promotional need this year now that such sires as Awesome Again, El Prado, Touch Gold, and Macho Uno have become established, and they cited the complexity of managing the breed-back program in an operation that now stands 18 stallions at farms in Kentucky and Florida.

A.P. Indy's stock on the rise

Through Thursday, the covering sires' top-five list at Keeneland November, as calculated by SireAverages.com, reflected a changing of the guard seen earlier at the Keeneland September yearling sale: A.P. Indy's stock is on the rise in the marketplace, and Storm Cat's has waned somewhat, though he still remains a prime pick.

A.P. Indy led all covering sires by average price during the first four days of the Keeneland sale with six of eight mares sold for an average of $2,491,667. He was followed by Kingmambo with six of seven mares sold for an average of $1,991,667. Both stallions, whose first crops were foaled in 1994 and 1995, respectively, stand at Lane's End.

Third on the list - and top-ranked among first-year covering stallions - was A.P. Indy's champion son Bernardini. The Darley stallion had 11 mares in the ring through Thursday, with 10 selling for an average of $1,152,000. That gave him a clear lead over the next first-year stud on the list, Bluegrass Cat, who had 12 of 15 mares selling for a $323,750 average, ranking him 27th overall.

Rounding out the top five were Storm Cat, with two averaging $1,030,000, and Smart Strike with seven averaging $932,857.

The figures closely reflected results at the Keeneland's September yearling sale. There, A.P. Indy was the top yearling sire by average with 23 horses averaging $858,043; Kingmambo's two averaged $662,500; and Storm Cat's 23 averaged $536,739.

Plans set for Scorpion, Fasliyev

Coolmore Stud has retired Group 1 winner Scorpion and will stand the Montjeu horse as a National Hunt sire at its Castle Hyde Stud in Fermoy, County Cork, in Ireland. The global stallion operation also has sold Fasliyev to a syndicate of Japanese breeders, who will stand the 10-year-old Nureyev horse at Yushun Stud in Hokkaido, the Racing Post reported Friday.

Scorpion's fee hasn't yet been announced. Scorpion won three Group 1 races in England and France. He retires with a record of 4 wins from 15 starts and 6 second-place finishes for total earnings of $1,744,153.

Scorpion is out of the Law Society mare Ardmelody.

Fasliyev, a son of the Mr. Prospector mare Mr. P's Princess, was Europe's champion juvenile in 1999. His runners include Group 1 winner Carry on Katie.