1. Playfellow attracted huge attention because he was a son of Fair Play out of Mahubah, making him a full brother to Man o' War.
As a 3-year-old in 1921, Playfellow finally rattled off two wins within four days in one-mile races at Belmont Park. In the second win, his time was a blistering 1:36.80.
The superlatives began to flow and offers for the horse came in fast and furious. The Rancocas Stud of Harry Sinclair purchased Big Red's full brother from Fred Johnson for $100,000.
In 1909, legendary racing official and historian Walter S. Vosburgh wrote, "The breeding of racehorses may yield to science, but I fear it will be when sunbeams are extracted from cucumbers."
In 1924, John E. Madden, who bred five Kentucky Derby winners, said, "Soundness has been sacrificed for speed to some extent. The horse of great speed belonging to an unsound family and unsound himself is ever a great attraction to some breeders."
LEXINGTON, Ky. - As the Thoroughbred marketplace has changed over the last few decades, so has the information that buyers and agents use to assist them in choosing the most likely athletes at the sales. The current edge for buyers is the catalog supplement, which was introduced nearly two decades ago and has blossomed commercially in the last few years with the Thoroughbred Times Buyer's Guide. Now The Blood-Horse has joined the competition by producing a supplement called Auction Edge.
There are 73 yearlings with Florida-bred connections cataloged to sell at the Kentucky yearling markets this week. Two of these will be offered at Keeneland and the remaining 71 are headed for Fasig-Tipton's selected sale.
"I think prices will be about what they were last year," said agent Beth Bayer, who will take 19 of the 20 she nominated to the Fasig-Tipton sale. "I know that the pinhookers did not have a great year last year, but the demand for horses, I believe, will continue to be strong."
The culmination of years of planning, tons of hard work, and a lot of luck gets packed into a precious few moments this week as yearlings go through the sales ring in Kentucky in the first of the major sales.
Keeneland July, the pinnacle of the select sales, offers three Maryland-bred yearlings, each with strong Free State roots. Quality and quantity mark the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky sale, with no fewer than 16 Maryland-bred yearlings cataloged.
On three successive weekends in June, New York-breds won graded races at Belmont Park. The impact of this success may be felt beyond the track and into the sales ring.
Say Florida Sandy, who at 7 is enjoying the best season of his career, won the Grade 2 True North Handicap at Belmont Park on June 9 and then came within a head of winning the Grade 2 Tom Fool on July 4.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The first major changes to the California Cup program in four years will take place this fall when two of the three races for claimers are switched from dirt to turf.
The $50,000 Starter Handicap has been reduced in distance from 1 1/2 miles to 1 1/4 miles, while the $50,000 Distaff Starter Handicap will remain at 1 1/8 miles but switch surfaces. The races are run for 3-year-olds and up who have started for a claiming price of $40,000 or less in the current year.
A Sunday Silence colt sold for $1.5 million Tuesday to top the Japan Racing Horse Association's two-day select foal sale in Hokkaido, Japan. The buyer was John Ferguson Bloodstock, the regular purchasing agent for Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum. The colt was one of two by Sunday Silence to sell for seven figures.
The topper is out of Lotta Lace, an unraced daughter of Nureyev and the Buckpasser mare Sex Appeal. Sex Appeal is the dam of two-time English champion El Gran Senor and English and Irish champion Try My Best.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Grade 1 winner Demons Begone, sire of graded stakes winners and major earners Danville and Flitch, died on July 4 at Ron and Nina Hagen's El Dorado Farm in Enumclaw, Wash., after a ruptured abdominal aorta. He was 17.
Demons Begone (Elocutionist-Rowdy Angel, by Halo), was a half-brother to Preakness Stakes winner Pine Bluff and to Angel Fever, dam of Fusaichi Pegasus. He covered about 45 mares this year.
"We heard a noise from the stallion barn and ran in, and he took his last breath right in front of us," said Nina Hagen. "It was a shock."