Juddmonte Farms’ international superstar Frankel, who on Tuesday received his second consecutive Cartier Award as Europe’s Horse of the Year, will stand his first season at stud for 125,000 pounds, or approximately $198,000, in 2013.
The 4-year-old Galileo colt, who concluded his undefeated racing career with a dominant win on soft turf in the Champion Stakes on Oct. 20, headlines a seven-horse roster at Juddmonte Farms’ Banstead Manor Stud near Newmarket, Suffolk, England.
Champion Summer Bird has been purchased by the Japan Bloodhorse Breeders’ Association and will stand at stud in Japan in 2013. The sales price was not disclosed.
Summer Bird began his stud career at WinStar Farm in Versailles, Ky., in 2011 and stood for $15,000 in 2012. The 6-year-old by Birdstone will go into quarantine before leaving for Japan in early December, and he will join such prominent JBBA stallions as Empire Maker and Johannesburg.
Six-figure horses get harder to come by as the Keeneland November breeding stock sale makes its way into its second week, but a juvenile filly with an impressive maiden win helped propel the sale’s eighth session to finish with gains.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Fueled by the exciting 2-year-old filly Flashy Gray, who sold for $775,000, the Keeneland November breeding stock sale appeared on its way to gains early in Tuesday’s eighth session.
Through 137 horses sold as of 3 p.m., receipts totaled $3,228,000 for an average sale price of $23,562 and a median of $15,000. The average as of midday Tuesday outpaced the overall average of $18,610 from the eighth session in 2011 by 26.6 percent, while median held steady.
Flashy Gray parlayed an impressive recent victory into a high price tag at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale on Tuesday, with Erin Finley of West Point Thoroughbreds in partnership with Tom Keithley signing the $775,000 ticket for the filly early in the eighth session.
Afleet Again, winner of the 2011 Breeders' Cup Marathon, was the final horse to go through the ring at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale Monday, with Yoon Heung Yul of Korea signing the $30,000 ticket for the stallion prospect.
The 5-year-old Afleet Alex horse was consigned by Three Chimneys Sales, agent.
"They liked the pedigree very much, and we knew that we were going to buy a prospect anyway, for a stallion," Yoonie Choi said on behalf of the KOID group, which purchased the horse for a private client.
Average price declined but median rose as the Keeneland November breeding stock sale concluded its seventh session on Monday.
Keeneland reported 271 horses sold during Monday's session for total receipts of $5,584,700. The 2012 totals declined 19 percent compared with last year’s seventh session, when 284 horses sold for $6,892,600. However, that session included 13 horses from the record-setting dispersal of the late Edward P. Evans' Spring Hill Farm.
Top miler Jersey Town will retire after his planned start in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile Handicap at Aqueduct on Nov. 24 and will stand at Darby Dan Farm in Lexington, Ky. A 6-year-old son of Speightstown, he will stand for a fee of $10,000 when the foal stands and nurses and will also participate in Darby Dan's "Share the Upside" program, which grants a lifetime breeding right to the stallion for an additional fee.
As Monday’s seventh session of the Keeneland November breeding stock sale rolled into the afternoon, the average and median sale prices painted different pictures.
A total of 148 horses sold for $3,334,500 through the first five hours of Monday’s session. The average sale price was $22,530, down 7.2 percent from last year’s final seventh session average. The median of $20,000 is up 29 percent.