Confide colt heads Day 10 at Keeneland

A $77,000 Confide colt purchased by pinhooker Becky Thomas was the Day 10 session-leader at Keeneland's September yearling sale as of 4 p.m. Thursday. The colt, out of the unraced Pleasant Tap mare Tapped Twice, came from the consignment of Eaton Sales, agent.

On Wednesday, the 13-day auction's ninth session rang up a $110,000 top price for a Devil's Bag colt out of For Kicks (Topsider). Mike McCarty purchased the colt from Asmussen Horse Center.

Through its ninth day, the auction had sold 2,136 yearlings for $246,282,500, as compared to last year at that point, when 2,397 lots had brought $278,465,800. The nine-day average dropped slightly, from $116,173 last year to $115,301, and median remained level at $45,000.

Sheikh Mohammed donates $5 million to relief fund

Prominent yearling buyer Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum has donated $5 million to a disaster relief fund that Keeneland, its consignors, and buyers established last week to aid victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.

The donation from Sheikh Mohammed, who is the United Arab Emirates' minister of defense and heads Godolphin Racing, brings the fund's total to $5.7 million. Sheikh Mohammed was in Kentucky for the September yearling sale on Sept. 11.

Keeneland will forward the donations to the American Red Cross.