WinStar, Stonewall horses lead Keeneland session

LEXINGTON, Ky. - WinStar Racing and the Stonewall Farm horses now in receivership provided a batch of six-figure horses that lit up a rainy day at Keeneland's November breeding stock sale.

Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm picked up WinStar's juvenile Sharp Humor filly Funny Sunny for $380,000, the highest price at 3 p.m. Funny Sunny won her first start, a Hoosier Park maiden race, by 2 1/4 lengths on Oct. 13 for WinStar and trainer Richard Budge. She is a half-sister to stakes-placed Awesome Launch.

Another WinStar Racing graduate, the 3-year-old Storm Cat mare Tabby, went for the second-highest price of $200,000. She is out of multiple Grade 1 winner Affluent, by Affirmed. Affluent's breeder, Janis Whitham, purchased Tabby, using Frank Penn as agent. Tabby is a winner this year and sold as a racing or broodmare prospect. She's a great-granddaughter of Whitham's great racemare Bayakoa.

Another Storm Cat mare, 8-year-old Cat Dancer, was the third horse to bring six figures by that hour. Glen Hill Farm paid $120,000 her from the Bluewater Sales agency, which is acting as receiver for the horses being sold because of the bankruptcy of a number Stonewall Farm entities. Cat Dancer, a winner, was cataloged in foal to Strong Contender.

At Monday's eighth session, Grade 2-placed stakes winner Get Ready Bertie brought a $170,000 bid from Vin Cox Bloodstock as the day's top horse. The Taylor Made Sales agency consigned the 6-year-old More Than Ready mare, who was cataloged in foal to Majestic Warrior. She is a daughter of Grade 2 winner De Bertie, by De Niro, and is a half-sister to Grade 3 winner Whirlie Bertie. She was runner-up in the 2006 Demoiselle and third in the Grade 3 Silverbulletday the following season, when she secured her only stakes win in the Tiffany Lass Stakes. She earned $222,602.

Get Ready Bertie has no racing-age foals yet.

Through Monday, the cumulative gross for 1,924 horses was down 9 percent to $136,145,600 as compared with last year's aggregate for 1,786 horses. The $70,762 eight-day average was down 16 percent, and the median fell 23 percent.
The sale was to continue through Nov. 20. Sessions begin daily at 10 a.m. in Keeneland's sale pavilion.