Padua goes to market near home

Padua Stable's home base is located roughly a dozen miles southwest of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company. Yet the Padua presence there was limited to showing up to see one of the Padua horses compete at the Ocala Breeders' intertrack wagering facility. There was little presence, till now, of Team Padua at sales time.

This year, Nadia Sanan, daughter of Padua principals Satish and Anne Sanan, and Bruce Hill, Padua's farm manager, came to the 2001 OBS yearling sales intent on shopping. The first day of the five-day OBS yearling sale is the selected session, and Padua was quick off the mark in its first OBS foray.

"We're looking for athletes," said Hill. "Of course we'd like to have some pedigree behind the yearling purchases, but when an athlete comes into the ring and he looks the part, we're going to give that yearling every consideration."

This does not mean that Padua is scrapping its game plan of going for the cream of the yearling sales and bidding on top of the line yearlings. "The program calls for fillies with strong pedigrees," continued Hill. "We are in the breeding business, too, and we will need fillies who suit our stallions."

Asked if the game plan was limited to just yearlings and homebreds, Hill replied, "We'll be going to the 2 year-old sales as well. We will be looking for 2 year-olds that have all the traits we want in a racing prospect. We may skimp on pedigree if the colt looks and acts the part."

The Padua Stable purchases in the selected session - five for a total of $624,000 - included Hip No. 195, the sales-topper at $305,000. A dark bay colt by Valid Expectations out of Dame's Rocket, by Timeless Native, he is a half-brother to a pair of stakes-placed runners and two other winners. His sire is the leading sire in North America of 2 year-old winners, and the colt was graded by the OBS inspection team as a potential sales-topper.

Hip No. 44 was on the shopping list, and Padua went to $160,000 for this filly, a daughter of Grand Slam out of Leo Laria, by Leo Castelli. The bay/brown filly is a half-sister to the current 2-year-old Rightbyu (Flying Cheveron) winner of two of her first three starts. These were the only $100,000-plus purchases. The remaining three Padua purchases out of the opening session averaged $59,000.

o Exchange Rate, a graded stakes-winning son of Danzig, will arrive at Padua Stables around the first of the month, said Hill. "We are working on a stud fee for him and should be able to announce one soon. It looks like we'll stand him along the same lines that we stood Yes It's True. The demand for Yes It's True's seasons gave us the opportunity to select the kind of mares and breeders who will benefit the horse in the long run, and that's what we want to do with Exchange Rate."

o Francis and Barbara Vanlangendonck's Summerfield Sales consignment, 37 cataloged, represented about 20 percent of the horses sold in the OBS selected session. "Overall," Francis Vanlangendonck commented, "I'd have to say pretty darn solid sale. The pinhookers were all over the horses. This year the pinhooker range is in the $20,000 to $50,000 category and they are busy."

o The average price of $44,076 was a 5 percent increase over the 2000 selected session. The median price of $35,000 was the same as last year. Another 2000-2001 constant is the relationship of advertised stud fee to yearling sales price. Last year 74 percent of the horses sold in the selected session were sired by stallions who stood for $10,000 or less. The average yearling price of these stallions was almost eight times the fee, another figure largely unchanged this year.