A colt from European champion Sea the Stars’s first crop got top billing Sunday when he sold for 1.2 million euros as the Deauville select yearling sale’s most expensive lot. The sale, conducted by Arqana, took place Saturday and Sunday nights in Deauville, France.
The Deauville auction’s two-night Part 1 ended with big gains in average and median, despite an opening night Saturday that saw median plummet by 21 percent.
Led by a colt who sold for $55,000, the Northern California yearling sale at Pleasanton, Calif., last Tuesday showed a 50 percent increase in average price from 2011.
At the one-day sale, 69 horses sold for $528,200, an average of $7,655 and a median of $4,000. In 2011, 70 horses sold for $357,900, an average of $5,113 and a median of $2,700.
Tuesday’s average was the highest since 2006.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The ability to race as a pacesetter, stalker, or closer is a big reason why Halo Dolly has won 11 of 20 career starts, and why she will be favored to defend her title in Sunday’s $100,000 Solana Beach Handicap at Del Mar.
In 2011, Halo Dolly won the Solana Beach from off the pace. She won two stakes earlier this year from the front. Regardless of how Sunday’s race unfolds, Halo Dolly can adapt, according to Dan Ward, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer’s assistant.
“You used to have to cover her up and get behind horses,” Ward said.
“Now, she’s relaxing.”
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Belmont Stakes winner Union Rags will enter stud at Lane’s End Farm next year, the Versailles, Ky., farm announced Thursday.
Phyllis Wyeth’s homebred retired in July after he developed a small lesion of the high suspensory ligament in his left front leg. Lane’s End will announce a stud fee later.
The 3-year-old colt is by Dixie Union, who stood at Lane’s End until his death in 2010.
Colorspin, the 1986 Irish Oaks winner and dam of European champions Opera House and Kayf Tara, died Aug. 13 at age 29.
The Racing Post reported that the pensioned High Top mare appeared to have had a heart attack. Colorspin was a homebred at Meon Valley Stud in England and produced her last foal, the Montjeu winner Justification, in 2008.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Mike Repole, Ken and Sarah Ramsey, Team Valor, and Zetcher Racing Stable are among owners and breeders that the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association will honor Sept. 7 at its annual National Awards Dinner here.
The dinner will take place at Keeneland’s entertainment center, where TOBA also will name its National Owner of the Year, National Breeder of the Year, and National Small Breeder of the Year. Repole, the Ramseys, Team Valor, and Zetcher are TOBA’s owners of the year in the Eastern, Midwestern, Southern, and Western regions, respectively.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Monarchos, the 2001 Kentucky Derby winner and sire of champion sprinter Informed Decision, returned home Saturday to Nuckols Farm in Midway, Ky.
The 14-year-old Maria’s Mon horse has been at Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Lexington since July 31, when he underwent emergency colic surgery.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Spurred by two $300,000-plus yearlings, the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred sale on Sunday night posted impressive gains in average and median even as sellers scaled back their expectations for the amount of money buyers would be willing to spend.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Despite robust gains in gross, median, and average, sellers of New York-bred yearlings appeared to have seriously misjudged the enthusiasm of buyers for many of their horses during the first session of the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred yearling sale on Saturday night in Saratoga Springs.
