Through 10 days of the giant Keeneland September yearling sale, Canadian horsepeople have been busy buying and selling.
But it is the folks from western Canada, not Ontario, who have been making the most noise from standpoint of bidding through the first 3,700 yearlings sold.
Leading the group are Jim and Susan Hill of Calgary, Alberta, who bought half a dozen yearlings for $855,000 through the first eight sessions.
Stallions with South American connections generally have a tough time making it in the Northern Hemisphere. The last stallion to plant his roots in Florida and do well commercially was the Venezuelan sire Petare.
He stood at Joe LaCroix's Meadowbrook Farm in the 1960s. The late Fred W. Hooper, along with Arnie Winick (Del Ray Training Center), also attempted to catch some hybrid vigor through their South American stallion imports, but each met with limited success at best.
After receiving offers from farms in other states, owner Roddy J. Valente decided to keep Bustin Stones home.
Valente, who bred the Grade 1-winning Bustin Stones in New York, announced last week that the horse will enter stud at Dr. Jerry Bilinski's Waldorf Farm in North Chatham, N.Y., upon the completion of his racing career, standing for a fee of $6,500.
Valente is syndicating Bustin Stones, a 5-year-old son of former state sire City Zip.
According to Valente, Bustin Stones is likely to race only once more, in the Breeders' Cup Sprint at Santa Anita on Oct. 25.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Legends Racing, the partnership group founded earlier this year by Olin Gentry, Thomas Gaines, and Tripp Hardy, struck again late Wednesday on Day 9 of the Keeneland September yearling sale, paying $400,000 for the session-leader.
The immediate beneficiary was Overbrook Farm, which consigned the Tiznow filly through the Eaton Sales agency. Sold as Hip No. 3238, the dark bay or brown filly is out of Grade 2 winner Katz Me If You Can, who earned $410,947. The filly is a half-sister to the mare's first runner, the three-time winner Unkatzable.
LEXINGTON - A colt by Indian Charlie out of the Touch Gold mare Touched brought $400,000 on Monday at the Keeneland September yearling sale to top the session by late afternoon.
The colt, who was consigned by Mulholland Springs and purchased by Hoods Up Stable, was the only yearling to sell for more than $300,000 through late afternoon, and the price equaled the session-topping price a day earlier. Six horses had sold for $200,000 or more by late afternoon, and 47 yearlings had sold for $100,000 or more.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Racing stables, resellers, and foreign buyers combined to shore up the top of Keenelands open September yearling market on Sunday. But even with strong selling in the higher price brackets the auctions sixth session suffered losses.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - After taking a day off on Friday, Keeneland's September yearling sale opened its second week Saturday, but its lively early trade was overshadowed by the surprising resale of Thursday's session topper, a $1.1 million Medaglia d'Oro filly. The filly's buyer, Karen Sanderson, defaulted on the purchase after failing to establish credit before bidding.
Chef Bobby Flay privately purchased the Medaglia d'Oro filly, a daughter of Amizette, for an undisclosed price on Saturday afternoon. Flay intends to race the filly, who currently is at Denali Stud near Lexington.
Keeneland September yearling sale resumed Saturday after its Friday dark day with
Saturdays session-topper was a $500,000 Medaglia dOro-Game Trick colt that Zayat Stables purchased from Eaton Sales, agent. He is from the family of champion sprinter and sire Langfuhr.
The session sold 280 yearlings for $30,677,000, down four percent from the fifth session last season, when 267 yearlings sold. The average price of $109,561 was down by nine percent, and the $90,000 median represented a drop of 10 percent from last year.
New York Thoroughbred breeding has lost one of its anchors with the death of John Hettinger at age 74.
He died last Saturday at his Akindale Farm in Pawling, N.Y.
An example of his contribution to New York involved the stallion Personal Flag. Hettinger, in partnership with Howard Kaskel of Sugar Maple Farm and others, brought Personal Flag to the Empire State stallion ranks in 1989.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - With the first two books of the Keeneland September sale complete, one of the success stories of the first part of the sale has been Liberation Farm and its partners, which have sold a pair of yearlings for more than $1 million apiece.
The first was Hip No. 317, a dark brown colt by El Prado out of the Clever Trick mare Swift and Classy, who brought $1 million on Tuesday from Legends Racing.