DEL MAR, Calif. - George Schwary is making up for lost time this summer.
After decades of following horse racing as a fan, Schwary, 75, had his first stakes winner as an owner and breeder in Wednesday's $140,050 Graduation Stakes for statebred 2-year-olds at Del Mar with Georgie Boy, who entered the race as a maiden.
Saratoga is a venue for the rich and famous, and this applies to horses as well as people. So, it is somewhat unusual for a $3,000 yearling purchase to make Saratoga's opening-day headline. But, that's what the filly Subtle Aly, bred by David and Teresa Palmer, did Wednesday when she won the Grade 3 Schuylerville Stakes for her second win in as many starts.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July sale of select yearlings this week began the annual cycle of premium auctions for young athletes, but the marketplace there and elsewhere is offering a mixed message to breeders and consignors. The bright spots have been seen in the headlines of newspapers and trade journals, which rightly detailed the success stories of practically perfect yearlings well sold, but there are other promising youngsters - many of whom were ever so slightly less than perfect on their veterinary exams - that found little reception at the sales.
A pair of yearlings at $200,000 topped the contingent of New York-breds at last week's Fasig-Tipton Kentucky yearling sale.
Twelve of the 15 offered were sold, and they averaged $98,667, a bit below the overall sale average of $102,941.
Mike Ryan as agent purchased Hip No. 516, a filly by Mr. Greeley, for $200,000 from the consignment of Peacock Ridge, agent. Out of the Devil's Bag mare Black Foot Beauty, she is a half-sister to stakes-placed runners Hotspur and Mystical Beauty.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Lewis Cenicola has found a way to keep a steady supply of top California-breds for his small stable.
Grow your own.
In Sunday's $100,000 Fleet Treat Stakes at Del Mar, Cenicola starts Cathrine's Hope, a 3-year-old filly who represents the fourth generation of his involvement in the family.
Cenicola trained Cathrine's Hope's third dam, Charmarita; her second dam, Dad's Penelope; and her dam, the graded stakes-placed Cookin Vickie. He even recalls riding Charmarita at the end of his jockey days in the late 1970s.
When Grade 1 winner Sky Conqueror eventually retires to stud duty, it is reasonable to ask if the classy, handsome colt will get the attention owed him from North American broodmare owners, because he is a turf horse.
A decade ago, the answer might be a resounding "no," but with the landscape of North American racing changing with the introduction of synthetic track surfaces (more conducive to horses who prefer to run on turf or are bred for turf), mare owners may start to change their tune.
If last week's Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July yearling sale is any indication, Maryland continues to produce its share of top-quality racing prospects.
A Maryland-bred colt by the highly regarded freshman sire Lion Heart made national news on the first day of the auction, selling for $300,000 on a bid by agent Buzz Chace.
There are more than 350 Thoroughbred farms in the Ocala, Fla., area and they range from a couple of acres to several thousand acres. Most of the small farms are family operations where the ownership of the horses and the work done is family business.
Cathy Rountree is such an owner. She owns the 20-acre Seven Gables Farm. She is a licensed trainer and her homebreds are not bred to sell in the commercial market; they are bred to supply horsepower for her public stable.
Questroyal Stud has acquired the breeding rights to the 5-year-old A.P. Indy horse Patriot Act.
Bred and owned by William S. Farish, the stakes winner Patriot Act will continue to run for Farish through Oct. 31.
Patriot Act, who finished second the Grade 1 Breeders' Futurity as a 2-year-old maiden, has placed in the New Orleans and Cornhusker handicaps this season, sending his earnings to $452,252.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Breeders anticipate the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July sale of select yearlings, to be held Monday and Tuesday, not only because it is the start of the annual yearling sales cycle that might pay them dividends on 2 1/2 years' investment, from the conception of the current yearlings to their sale at 16 to 20 months of age.
Breeders and all those associated with them also anticipate the first sale of the new auction season because it offers the new sire showcase of young, relatively unexposed stallions with their first offspring age 2 or younger.