A smaller catalog and optimism over Aqueduct’s long-awaited gaming machines could help Fasig-Tipton’s Saratoga select yearling sale edge upward this year. But the Aug. 8-9 auction probably will continue two familiar trends: highly selective buyers and conservative spending at the top of the market. And stock market jitters over a possible double-dip recession and European debt problems might put some buyers in a bearish mood.
DEL MAR, Calif. – It was a deal that George Papaprodromou thought he had to make.
When Papaprodromou, the trainer of a small stable at Santa Anita, saw Ruler of Dubai gallop for the first time in May, he was determined to reach a private deal with breeder and fellow trainer Julio Canani for the 2-year-old California-bred son of Tribal Rule.
“I liked the way he trained, the way he was bred, and the way he moved,” Papaprodromou recalled.
A private deal for $25,000 was finalized, Papaprodromou said.
Prized, winner of the 1989 Breeders’ Cup Turf and sire of record-setting Grade 1 winner Brass Hat, has been pensioned to the Old Friends equine retirement facility in Georgetown, Ky.
A 25-year-old Kris S. horse, Prized last stood at Randy and John Funkhouser’s O’Sullivan Farms near Charles Town, W. Va.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Team Valor International, the public syndicate that campaigns 2011 Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom, has hired Bradley Weisbord as its chief operating officer.
Weisbord, the son of Thoroughbred Daily News publisher and bloodstock agent Barry Weisbord, most recently has worked as the business and racing manager for racehorse owner Ahmed Zayat as Zayat’s stable worked through and emerged from bankruptcy last year. Zayat’s Nehro finished second to Animal Kingdom in the Derby.
WinStar Farm in Versailles, Ky., has acquired interests in the four stallions standing at Pauls Mill farm and will relocate them to WinStar’s property for the 2012 breeding season, the farms announced on Friday.
The stallions include Bellamy Road, Artie Schiller, Summer Bird, and US Ranger. The first crops of both Bellamy Road and Artie Schiller hit the track last year. Summer Bird covered his first mares last year, and US Ranger stood his first year in 2011.
Amazombie needs a win in Sunday’s $250,000 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar to remain in the argument for the 2011 California-bred Horse of the Year title.
With nearly seven months of the season completed, the prize seems firmly in the grasp of Acclamation, who has had an outstanding summer with three consecutive graded stakes wins, the most recent of which was the Grade 1 Eddie Read Stakes at Del Mar on July 24. A 5-year-old horse by Unusual Heat, Acclamation will attempt to stretch that streak to four stakes wins in the $200,000 Del Mar Handicap on Aug. 28.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Fasig-Tipton’s July select yearling sale on Tuesday offered reassurance that the select yearling market is stabilizing, but it also hinted that the upper market will continue to be thin and highly selective.
