Rachel Alexandra's family represented at Keeneland September
Horse of the Year and Hall of Fame racemare Rachel Alexandra produced just one son and one daughter before being retired from broodmare duty – and that small family line has a small bit of representation at the Keeneland September yearling sale.
Rachel Alexandra retired to Stonestreet Farm after a career in which she put together a record of 19-13-5-0 and earnings of more than $3.5 million. In her 2009 championship season, she won five Grade 1 events, defeating males in the Preakness Stakes, Woodward Stakes, and Haskell Invitational and decimating her own sex in the Kentucky Oaks and Mother Goose Stakes.
Rachel Alexandra delivered her first foal, the Curlin colt Jess’s Dream, in 2012, followed by the Bernardini filly Rachel’s Valentina in 2013. Complications following the delivery of the filly resulted in emergency surgery and an extended stay in a veterinary hospital for Rachel Alexandra, while her filly was raised on a nurse mare. Stonestreet owner Barbara Banke elected not to breed Rachel Alexandra again.
Rachel’s Valentina won the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes in 2015 and finished second in both the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, to champion Songbird, and the following spring’s Grade 1 Ashland Stakes, ahead of that year’s eventual Kentucky Oaks winner Cathryn Sophia. Meanwhile, Jess’s Dream, who was plagued throughout his career by injuries, won his only career start in 2015 at Saratoga.
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Rachel’s Valentina retired to the broodmare band at Stonestreet and delivered her first foal, a Curlin colt, last year. The colt, bred on the same cross as Jess’s Dream, was entered in the Keeneland September sale, but was scratched by Banke to eventually run in Stonestreet’s colors instead.
“He’s a special, sentimental favorite, shall we say,” Banke said. “After the ordeal we had with Rachel, we want to preserve that line at home.”
Meanwhile, Jess’s Dream retired to Ocala Stud in Florida, where he covered 122 mares in his first season, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred. Following outs, he was to be represented by one colt from his resulting first crop during Keeneland September’s penultimate session on Saturday. The colt, consigned by Select Sales, as agent, is from the immediate family of classic-placed Grade 1 winner Battle of Midway.
“We’ve been standing stallions for a long time, and there hasn’t been a better-pedigreed horse in Florida than Jess’s Dream,” Ocala Stud’s J. Michael O’Farrell said at the time of the horse’s retirement.
Final Air France foal sells
The final foal for the multiple graded stakes producer Air France, whose family has made headlines again this year thanks to her Grade 1-performing granddaughter Got Stormy, was sold for $50,000 at the Keeneland September yearling sale.
Bob Grayson purchased the yearling Bernardini colt out of Air France from the consignment of Crestwood Farm, as agent, where the late French Deputy mare spent the majority of her career as a broodmare. Air France produced the Bernardini colt in May 2018 at age 19, but was subsequently euthanized due to foaling complications. Her colt was raised on a nurse mare.
Air France, a homebred for Mount Joy Stables, won 2 of 11 career starts. Of her 11 starters, nine won, led by Grade 2 winners Smooth Air and Overdriven. Smooth Air, by Smooth Jazz, became a millionaire with victories in the 2008 Ohio Derby and Hutcheson Stakes and 2009 Gulfstream Park Handicap. He placed in four other graded stakes, highlighted by runner-up efforts in the Grade 1 in the Florida Derby and Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap. Overdriven, by Tale of the Cat, won two of his three career starts, highlighted by a win in the Sanford Stakes.
Two of Air France’s daughters are stakes producers – Super Phoebe, the dam of Got Stormy, and Air Guitar, dam of stakes winner Flying Falynn.
Super Phoebe, a Malabar Gold mare who won 9 of 22 career starts, is the dam of four winners from five starters, and before Got Stormy hit the scene, she was already represented by the stakes-placed Sky Gold, by Successful Appeal. Got Stormy, by Crestwood stallion Get Stormy, picked up her first Grade 1 victory in the Fourstardave in August at Saratoga, adding it to four other stakes victories, including the Grade 3 Ontario Colleen. The filly shattered a course record while defeating males in the Fourstardave, just a week after winning the De La Rose at Saratoga. She returned to the races with a second in the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile.
Paper ‘papers’ a thing of past
The thousands of yearlings on offer during the Keeneland September yearling sale – members of the 2018 foal crop – are members of the first crop for which The Jockey Club has required every step of the registration process and the subsequent transfer of each horse’s official identification document – colloquially called “papers” – to be done online.
Those selling yearlings at the September sale used The Jockey Club’s interactive registration tools online to transfer digital foal certificates to Keeneland, which means they no longer had to mail, overnight, or hand-deliver printed registration papers to the sales company. Keeneland no longer had to handle each set of papers and enter information from them into its own computer sales system.
Keeneland’s buyer registration form includes a place for the buyer to indicate his or her certificate manager, the person or entity who will work with the buyer’s interactive registration account online. Once a yearling sells and Keeneland receives payment for the horse, Keeneland will assign the digital certificate to the designated manager.
“Digital certificates have many advantages,” said Sidney Boots of Keeneland’s sales team, who handles The Jockey Club certificates services. “You know where a horse’s papers are at all times, and they can’t get lost in the mail. They can be easily and quickly transferred from consignor to sales company to buyer and eventually to the race track. Digital certificates have made Keeneland’s life easier, and our hope is they will be easier for the entire industry.”