LEXINGTON, Ky. − Kentucky’s Thoroughbred auction houses had more rooting interests than usual at the Breeders’ Cup this year: 19 Breeders’ Cup runners also were entered in Lexington’s November mixed sales, which started at Fasig-Tipton on Sunday, the day after the Breeders’ Cup ended. The Breeders’ Cup’s effect on a runner’s sale price became obvious Tuesday, when 2011 Ladies’ Classic winner Royal Delta brought a stunning $8.5 million at Keeneland’s November auction.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm here will raise the fees of two stallions, Stormy Atlantic and Indygo Shiner, for 2012, but also is trimming fees for three of its stallions, including champion Midnight Lute.

LEXINGTON – With a string of sensational late purchases, the Keeneland November sale continued to churn out impressive gains on Wednesday, the sale’s third session.

Bidding throughout the brunt of the nine-hour session was workmanlike but brisk until the last hour, when Seth Hancock of Claiborne Farm went to $1.85 million to buy Quiet Now, a 6-year-old half-sister of Horse of the Year Saint Liam, and Coolmore shelled out $700,000 for a 9-month-old Tapit filly who is a half-sister to a filly Coolmore raced.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Millionaire Courageous Cat has retired from racing and will stand for a $10,000 during his initial year at Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky, the Versailles, Ky., farm announced Wednesday.

Lane’s End’s owner, William Farish, bought an unspecified interest in the 5-year-old Storm Cat colt earlier this year from Courageous Cat’s owners and breeders, Pam and Marty Wygod.

Courageous Cat will stand on stands-and-nurses terms.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Ladies’ Classic winner Royal Delta, the only 2011 Breeders’ Cup winner to be offered at Kentucky’s November sales, came from Churchill Downs to Keeneland’s auction ring Tuesday and blew the roof off the market, selling for $8.5 million to Benjamin Leon’s Besilu Stables.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Gio Ponti, the three-time champion who finished fourth in Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Mile, has been retired and will stand at Castleton Lyons, the Lexington farm that also raced him. He will have a fee of $20,000 in his first stud season.

Castleton Lyons will make Gio Ponti, a 6-year-old, available for inspection between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. during the Keeneland November sale, which is to run through Nov. 17.

Gio Ponti’s fee will be payable Nov. 1.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Three Chimneys has announced it will raise 2001 Horse of the Year Point Given’s stud fee from $7,500 to $20,000 for the 2012 breeding season, a move that comes after an unidentified private investor committed 25 classy mares to him.

“The son of Thunder Gulch is poised to enjoy an increase in the quality of mares that will be bred to him, thanks in part to the commitment of 25 top-quality mares, including a number of stakes and graded stakes winners and producers, by a private investor,” according to a Three Chimneys release issued Tuesday.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Fillies and mares from the late Ned Evans’s Spring Hill dispersal set the Keeneland November breeding stock market alight Monday and produced the highest broodmare price that auction has seen since 2007.

The session-topper was Christmas Kid, a Grade 1-winning mare who cost Coolmore Stud $4.2 million, one of 14 horses to bring seven figures Monday.