SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - First-crop sire Sky Mesa kicked off Fasig-Tipton's Saratoga select yearling sale in fine fashion Tuesday night as sire of the evening's top-priced yearling. The $1.15-million filly went to John Ferguson, agent for Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum's Darley organization.
Helped by an auction-topping $47,000 Distorted Humor season option, the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation raised more than $500,000 at its annual fund-raising dinner and auction at the Saratoga Golf and Polo Club on Monday.
The sale of 10 stallion-season options at the auction yielded $247,000. Restaurateur Bobby Flay bought the Distorted Humor season option as well as an $11,000 option to More Than Ready. The season options allow the buyer to breed to stallions in 2007 at their 2006 fees. Distorted Humor's 2006 fee was $150,000; More Than Ready's fee this year was $30,000.
LAS VEGAS - Inaugurated in 1974, the Secretariat Stakes, at 1 1/14 miles on turf, has become one of most important races for 3-year-olds, some of whom went on to greater stardom as older grass runners. The roster of winners includes Intrepid Hero, Text, Mac Diarmida, Golden Act, Hawkster, Awad, Vaudeville, Marlin, Honor Glide, Ciro, Startac, Chiselling, Kicken Kris, and Kitten's Joy.
Imperialism, a multiple Grade 2 winner, has been retired and will join Florida's stallion ranks in 2007. Manny Andrade's Get Away Farm in Lowell, Fla., has purchased the 5-year-old Langfuhr horse privately.
The farm has not yet announced a fee.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - After the retirement to stud of Horse of the Year Ghostzapper, his sire, Awesome Again, had every reason to experience a relatively quiet period as a sire. Instead, the handsome bay son of Deputy Minister has carried on admirably, as demonstrated when his daughter Spun Sugar won the Grade 1 Go for Wand Handicap at Saratoga.
In addition to this candidate for leadership of the fillies and mares division, Awesome Again also has the highly regarded stakes winners Dubai Escapade and Round Pond among his premium performers this year.
DEL MAR, Calif. - The shift of Golden Eagle Farms from a racing and breeding operation to primarily a breeding one has been evident in the first two weeks of the Del Mar meeting.
For years, the burgundy and gold silks of the Mabee family's Golden Eagle operation have been a familiar sight in California racing. This summer, though, they have been a rarity.
Through Thursday, a third of the way through the Del Mar meeting, Golden Eagle Farm had run two horses, including Old Man River, the winner of an optional claimer on July 27.
Several top New York families are in the pedigrees of the 19 registered statebreds cataloged to the annual Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select yearling sale Tuesday and Wednesday in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
First through the ring early Tuesday night will be a filly from the consignment of Denali Stud as agent for Gallagher's Stud. She is by champion sprinter Aldebaran out of Appealing Kris, by Kris S. Selling as Hip No. 4, she is a half-sister to New York-bred Rahys' Appeal, winner of the Ticonderoga Handicap.
Richard and Gale Reveley have not stamped a brand on horses bred and raised at their Spring Water Farm in Glen Rock, Pa. But they have found another way to make them instantly recognizable - giving them names that begin with the initials "S W."
Over the past decade, those letters have taken on added meaning at tracks in Pennsylvania and Maryland. They are often the mark of a serious warrior.
Winding Oaks Farm's Graeme Hall, a 9-year-old chestnut stallion by Dehere-Win Crafty Lady, by Crafty Prospector, has moved well to the fore as Florida's leading juvenile sire. Not only does he lead his Florida first-crop peers in number of winners, he has also moved by rival first-crop sire Gibson County in progeny earnings with a little under $200,000.
Twelve from Graeme Hall's first crop of 60 have started and seven have won, including two this past weekend - one at Calder Race Course and the other at Saratoga.
