Godolphin mares sell well at Keeneland January

LEXINGTON, Ky. – A draft of mares from the powerhouse Godolphin operation – an Eclipse Award finalist for both outstanding breeder and owner – brought a spark to the back half of the Keeneland January catalog.

The unraced young broodmare Crowning Jewel led 26 offerings from Godolphin, as she sold for $480,000 to Adena Springs. Michael Banahan, Godolphin’s director of bloodstock, explained that Godolphin was making strategic cuts to keep its incoming racing population at a certain level, and that it offered mares from families of which it owned other horses.

“We try to keep a broodmare band where we can have about 100 2-year-olds every year,” Banahan said. “We work off that number. The ones that have not raced or not won are the ones that probably will go to a sale. We bought [Crowning Jewel’s dam, Bedazzle] early in her broodmare career, so we have daughters from her at home.”

Crowning Jewel sold carrying her second foal, to the cover of Street Boss, who stands for the Godolphin operation under the Darley stallions banner. The Into Mischief mare is out of the winning Dixieland Band mare Bedazzle, dam of Street Sense, who won the 2006 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to secure a divisional Eclipse Award and went on to take the 2007 Kentucky Derby, becoming the first horse to pull that double. He is now a successful sire for Darley. This also is the family of Grade 3 winner and sire Mr. Greeley.

“The pedigree is everything,” said Dan Hall, who made the purchase on behalf of Frank Stronach’s Adena Springs. “She’s by Into Mischief and a half to Street Sense – a great family. She was a typical-looking Into Mischief mare and is a family Frank wanted to get into.”

Godolphin’s other top lots were Pacify, a Tapit mare in foal to Violence, sold for $110,000 to Shannondoe Farm, as agent for Robert Marzilli; and Elude, a Medaglia d’Oro mare in foal to Street Sense, sold for $105,000 to International Equities Holdings. Unraced Pacify is a half-sister to, among others, Grade 1 winner and prominent sire Sky Mesa and Velvety, dam of Grade 1 winner Maxfield. Elude, a winner on the track, is out of Argentinian champion Forty Marchanta.