The Keeneland January sale, which runs through Jan. 15 in Lexington, ended its third session Wednesday night with more total income than it achieved for its entire run in 2005. On Thursday, it added even more to that flood of money, ending day four with cumulative gross revenue of $62,641,400.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Keeneland January all-ages sale entered its third day Wednesday with just a single million-dollar lot to its credit. But the auction's dramatic financial gains across the board revealed a market that was strong overall and not reliant on a few spectacular horses selling at the top.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - A day after its opening session produced strong prices but no million-dollar bids, the Keeneland January all-ages sale got its seven-figure mare on Tuesday.
Girl Warrior, selling as Hip No. 598, brought a $1 million bid from Jere Paxton of Yakima, Wash., exceeding the expectations of selling agent Paramount Sales.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Keeneland January all-ages auction, which cataloged a sale-record 2,508 horses this year, began in workmanlike fashion on Monday.
After a heated 2005 auction season that saw Ashado sell for a world-record $9 million, 2006 opened on a cooler note. But prices for mares in particular remained strong as buyers outbid at earlier sales returned to shop the January market.
Ashado, the 2004 champion filly who was sold for $9 million at the Keeneland November sale, will be bred to Storm Cat in 2006, according to Michael Banahan, the director of farm operations at Darley at Jonabell in Lexington, Ky., where Ashado resides.
Ashado, by Saint Ballado out of the Mari's Book mare Goulash, was purchased at the November sale by John Ferguson Bloodstock, acting as agent for Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum, the owner of Darley operations worldwide. Storm Cat, the sire of 143 stakes winners, has a stud fee of $500,000, the highest of any stallion in the world.
Keeneland has cataloged a record 2,508 horses to its January sale of horses of all ages, which begins Monday and runs seven consecutive days through Jan. 15. Sale sessions start at 10 a.m. Eastern daily.
More than half the horses in the sale are broodmares or broodmare prospects, numbering 1,290 in the catalog, including Island Fashion, the winner of three Grade 1 races lifetime. Island Fashion, 6, is being sold as a racing or broodmare prospect.
New York-bred 3-year-old J'ray strengthened her status as a leading turf filly by winning the Tropical Park Oaks at Calder Race Course on New Year's Day.
With her customary late surge, J'ray won her third straight open stakes race, adding the Tropical Park Oaks to earlier scores in the Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland and the Selima Stakes at Laurel Park.
Owned by her breeder, Lawrence Goichman, J'ray is unbeaten in four turf starts since being put on the surface by trainer Todd Pletcher after her debut last summer at Belmont Park.
Maryland-bred 2-year-olds had a tough act to follow in 2005, trying to fill the shoes of Eclipse Award winner Declan's Moon. While that lofty perch wasn't reached, there is no denying that last year's crop was a diverse and ambitious group.
Ten Maryland-bred 2-year-olds were stakes winners in 2005. Voters selecting the state-bred champions will have many things to consider when contemplating the leaders of the 2-year-old divisions.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The story of Danzig is more than the riveting tale of an unbeaten colt who doesn't win a stakes but nonetheless ascends into the pantheon of the great sires in history.
It is also the story of a great trainer, a great farm, of good owners and breeders who believed in a young man and backed his decisions, and the growth of a great sport into a business of international proportions. But the story started with a yearling sale at the Saratoga in 1977.
The year 2005 was a vintage one for Charlotte Weber and Live Oak Plantation. Her racing stable, usually numbering 35 or so, produced eight stakes winners: In the Gold, Revved Up, My Typhoon, Seeking Slew, Lemon Maid, Hide and Chic, Elle Runaway, and the Florida Derby 1 winner, High Fly, who has entered stud at Live Oak Stud in Ocala, Fla., for the 2006 breeding season. The overall success of the stable placed Live Oak third on the 2005 North American money-winning roster with $4.9 million.
