Keeneland November: Well-bred Stanwyck fetches $2.4 million

Regally-bred Grade 3 winner Stanwyck became the third horse to reach the seven-figure threshold during Tuesday’s opening session of the Keeneland November breeding stock sale, selling for $2.4 million to Steven Young, as agent for an undisclosed client.

The 5-year-old Empire Maker mare was consigned as a broodmare prospect by Lane’s End, as agent. Stanwyck, who raced for breeders Jerry and Ann Moss, entered the Keeneland sale off a seventh-place finish in last Friday’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

"She’s got pretty much everything you want in a broodmare prospect," Allaire Ryan of Lane's End said. "She’s a beautiful physical and that’s a pretty neat family to tap in to. There really aren’t many opportunities like that to buy a sister to a classic winner and classic performers. The Empire Makers are getting few and far between here."

Stanwyck won three of 18 career starts, highlighted by a victory in the Grade 3 Turnback the Alarm Handicap last year, for earnings of $474,250. Her six additional stakes placings included third-place efforts in this year’s Personal Ensign Stakes and Santa Margarita Stakes, both Grade 1 events.

Out of the stakes winning Stop the Music mare Set Them Free, Stanwyck is a half sister to Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo, who bankrolled more than $2.5 million; multiple Grade 1 winner Tiago, who earned more than $2.3 million; and multiple graded stakes placed Sea Jewel. Stanwyck and all three of her stakes-competing half-siblings were bred by and raced for the Mosses, who purchased Set Them Free prior to her racing career.

"When you sit there and you've got a shot to buy her, she's a half sister to a Kentucky Derby winner," Young said. "I have a great respect for the Moss family and their operation. Jerry's done great with Set Them Free. I think if he was maybe a few years younger, [Stanwyck] would never hit the market. She's a standout mare. All she has to do is produce herself one time. There's no ceiling to what she might throw."