Keeneland January: Sweeter Still to Chadds Ford Stable for $750,000

Sweeter Still, a Grade 3-winning Rock of Gibraltar mare, made for some late-session commotion on Tuesday, selling to Phyllis Wyeth’s Chadds Ford Stable for $750,000 at the Keeneland January horses of all ages sale.

The 9-year-old was the only mare offered in the sale pregnant to world-class Irish stallion Galileo. It will be her second foal after delivering a Giant’s Causeway filly in 2013.

“That’s the ballpark we had her in,” said bloodstock agent Braxton Lynch, commenting on the price after signing the ticket. “She stands out in the catalog, being in foal to Galileo. We’re excited and we’re going to breed her to Union Rags. Our primary objective is to get him the best and hope he can make it as a stallion.”

Wyeth campaigned Union Rags, who stands at Lane's End, to win the 2012 Belmont Stakes. The stallion's first foals arrive this year.

Bred in Ireland by Ann Marie O’Brien, Sweeter Still won five of 19 career starts for earnings of $311,603 racing in Ireland, Canada, and the U.S. She was a four-time stakes winner, highlighted by a victory in the Grade 3 Senorita Stakes in 2008.

Sweeter Still is out of the French-bred Belmez mare Beltisaal, whose eight winners from nine foals to race includes Group 1 winner Kingsbarns - by Galileo - Group 3 winner Belle Artiste and steeplechase stakes winner Gimli’s Rock.

Sweeter Still improved her price from the 2013 Keeneland November breeding stock sale, where she hammered for $725,000, but did not meet her reserve.