The Tattersalls December foal sale in Newmarket, England, ended its third of four days Friday with impressive gains, despite a generally cool Thoroughbred economy this fall.
Friday's session sold 161 weanlings for about $17,137,171, up 55 percent from last year's gross for 126 weanlings. The average price, approximately $106,442, jumped 21 percent, and the median, about $68,880, gained 14 percent. The buy-back rate also improved, falling from 31 percent last year to 20 percent in 2009.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Dancing in Silks is expected to make his next start at Santa Anita in early 2010, and has the Golden Shaheen Sprint in Dubai in late March as a long-term goal, trainer Carla Gaines said earlier this week.
After Dancing in Silks's upset win in the BC Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 7, Gaines said the Dubai race was a possibility for the 4-year-old California-bred gelding. The race remains firmly in her plans, but he needs a prep first.
"We'd like to get a race into him," she said.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - It was the kind of lucky moment every breeder dreams of. Gerry Aschinger, the owner of War Horse Place here, was leading a weanling colt up to the Keeneland auction ring last Sunday, the last day of the November breeding stock sales, when he got a call from a client. The weanling's older half-brother Twin Sparks had set a six-furlong world record the day before at Turf Paradise, when he won the Caballo del Sol Handicap in 1:06.49.
Suddenly, the weanling on the end of Aschinger's shank looked a lot more expensive than he had 24 hours earlier.
Grade 3 winner Noonmark has been retired from racing and will enter stud in 2010 at Sequel Stallions in New York. Sequel hasn't announced a fee for Noonmark, a 6-year-old Unbridled's Song horse.
Sequel Stallions is located at Keane Stud near Amenia, N.Y.
George Bolton, Joan Corrigan, and Antony Beck campaigned Noonmark. Trained by Steve Asmussen, the horse won last year's Grade 3 Mr. Prospector Handicap and placed in six other stakes, four of them graded. He retires with 4 wins from 19 starts and $354,090 in earnings.
Taylor Made Farm near Nicholasville, Ky., has lowered the stud fees for five of its six stallions for 2010, including dropping Unbridled's Song from $125,000 stand-and-nurse to $115,000 stand-and-nurse.
The only sire to get a fee increase is Northern Afleet, who climbs from $7,500 this year to $10,000.
All of the farm's stallions for 2010 will be available at a 10 percent discount to breeders paying their stud fees by Nov. 1, 2010, rather than on stand-and-nurse terms. Multiple mare discounts also are available.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Keeneland's November breeding stock sale ended its 11th session Friday evening with more precipitous declines, as the 13-day auction headed for its Sunday conclusion.
The Friday session sold 233 horses for $1,778,400, a drop of 41 percent from last year's gross for 230 horses. The session average plummeted 41 percent to $7,633, and the median fell 50 percent to $5,000 for the second consecutive session. Buy-backs held nearly level with last year, falling from 21.2 percent last year to 20.7 percent in 2009.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Keeneland's November breeding stock sale posted declines in revenue again Thursday as the 13-day auction neared its end, confirming sellers' concerns that bloodstock selling on later days would face significantly lower prices than last year.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - A sense of dread pervaded the opening of Keeneland's November breeding stock sales last week as consignors braced for terrible downturns.
There have indeed been more decreases than increases, and through Day 7 of the two-week auction the cumulative average and median were running roughly 20 to 25 percent behind last year's figures. That marked a devastating slide for some consignments, but a surprising number of auction participants said they were relieved the economic climate wasn't worse.
LEXINGTON, Ky.- Wednesday's ninth session at the two-week Keeneland November breeding stock sale continued the trend of declines seen at the previous four sessions.
By the time the day's final lot left the ring Wednesday, the session had sold 236 horses for $3,336,700, down 38 percent from last year's aggregate for 232 horses. The ninth-day average was $14,139, which was 39 percent lower than at last year's equivalent day, and the $10,000 median was down by 33 percent.