LEXINGTON, Ky. - As the massive Keeneland November sale drew to a close Friday, the amount of six-figure lots dwindled, but interest in the sale continued.
Geoffrey Russell, director of sales at Keeneland, said the sales market was strong because "central Kentucky is the commercial capital of the Thoroughbred worldwide."
"What makes Kentucky so special is that we supply bloodstock to the whole world," he said. "We have sold to people from 38 countries and 47 states."
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Keeneland's November sale benefited from a bullish yearling sale season, ending its 12-day run Friday with gains across the board and records for average and median.
The 12-day auction, headed by Ashado's world-record $9 million sale to Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum, grossed $289,602,900 for 2,816 horses. That was well up from last year's $279,680,200 total for 2,873 horses. The 2005 average price rose 6 percent to $102,842, and median climbed from $32,000 to $35,000.
New York sire Regal Classic got his 47th stakes winner last week when his son Thinking Out Loud won the $214,434 Coronation Futurity at Woodbine.
Regal Classic, a 20-year-old son of Vice Regent, hails from the distinguished family of champion Dance Smartly and stands at McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbred Farm near Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Thinking Out Loud was conceived at Joe and Anne McMahon's farm, where Regal Classic has stood since the 2001 breeding season.
Strive, purchased for $180,000 at Keeneland last Monday, will enter stud in 2006 at Pepper Oaks Farm in Santa Ynez, Calif., according to farm manager Jim Wilson.
Strive was purchased by Patricia Youngman, who operates Pepper Oaks Farm.
Raced and bred by Marty and Pam Wygod and trained by Bill Mott, Strive won 4 of 24 starts and $287,910 in a career that ended earlier this year after a victory in an allowance race at Belmont Park.
A look at the list of the 50 leading sires in North America shows that every one of them is a graded stakes winner, giving currency to those who require performance as well as pedigree when patronizing a stallion. This list, however, may soon include Tiger Ridge, whose abbreviated racing career was limited to a second and a third as a 4-year-old in maiden special company at Delaware Park.
Two stakes winners for a young sire within a 24-hour period would send many stallion owners dancing in the streets. But when this happened to Disco Rico, his owner, Joe DiRico was quick to note that Disco Rico could be having an even bigger year.
English classic winner Shadeed, a sire of European champions, has died at age 23 of complications from an undisclosed illness.
Gainsborough Stud manager Allen Kershaw said the stallion died Nov. 13 and has been buried at the farm near Lexington, Ky., where he resided for 19 years.
On Wednesday, when most horses were selling between $15,000 and $40,000 at the Keeneland November mixed sale, a connection to recent Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Stevie Wonderboy helped one mare achieve a $600,000 price.
Summer Scene, a 5-year-old Belong to Me mare who is a half-sister to Stevie Wonderboy, brought that price from Winchell Thoroughbreds. Offered by Mill Ridge Sales, she was cataloged in foal to Mizzen Mast.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - International buyers, racehorse trainers, and mid-market commercial breeders were helping the Keeneland November sale's prices to remain robust on Tuesday as the auction continued its second week.
Tuesday afternoon's highest prices went for horses from the WinStar Racing program, which Keeneland had arranged to sell on a Churchill dark day in order to draw as many trainers as possible.
"It was important that people be able to come out and look at the horses on the Monday and bid on them on Tuesday," Keeneland's director of sales, Geoffrey Russell, said.
