LEXINGTON, Ky. - In a game that is notorious for breaking owners' hearts and bank accounts, Jack and Laurie Wolf have not just won, they have won big - starting with one of their first purchases, three-time Grade 1 winner Harlan's Holiday.
They cashed in their biggest chip at Keeneland November on Monday, selling champion filly Ashado to Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum for $9 million, a world-record price for a mare at auction. But the sale came with mixed feelings.
Meadowlake, the sire of 1990's 2-year-old filly champion, Meadow Star, and 51 other stakes winners, was euthanized Saturday morning at Darby Dan Farm in Lexington, Ky., after suffering a severe case of colic, according to officials at Darby Dan. Meadowlake was 22.
Ryan Norton, bloodstock associate at Darby Dan, said that Meadowlake began showing intense signs of distress on Saturday at 5:30 a.m. Darby Dan officials made the decision to euthanize the stallion one hour later after discovering that he had ruptured his intestines.
Oratorio, winner of the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes and Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes this year, and retired after an 11th-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Classic, will stand for a fee of 30,000 euros, approximately $35,400, at Coolmore Stud's Irish stallion station.
A champion at 2 in France after winning the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at Longchamp in 2004, Oratorio won five stakes over his two-year racing career. His biggest win was an upset over heavily favored Motivator in the Eclipse Stakes. He again beat Motivator in the Irish Champion Stakes.
Fasig-Tipton Kentucky got the November auction season off to a bang-up start Sunday night in Lexington when Riskaverse sold for $5 million to top a parade of seven millionaires.
Eaton Sales, agent, purchased Riskaverse from Peter Schiff, who bred and campaigned her in the name of Fox Ridge Farm. Eaton partner Reiley McDonald made the purchase on behalf of an anonymous partnership.
Mass Media, Unforgettable Max, and Blazonry will all join central Kentucky's stallion population in their first season at stud in 2006.
Hill 'n' Dale Farms in Lexington will stand Mass Media, a Grade 1-winning son of Touch Gold. He will stand as the property of Gary and Mary West, who campaigned him, and will have a $7,500 fee. Mass Media, 4, leaves the racetrack with a 6-1-2 record from 16 starts, $396,420 in earnings, and three stakes victories.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - As buyers and sellers head into Kentucky's November mixed sales this season, the situation looks very much like last year. The question for Fasig-Tipton, which conducts its sale on Nov. 6, and for Keeneland (Nov. 7-18) is whether the market strength will hold up again in 2005. If it does, both companies could see some fireworks: Fasig-Tipton and Keeneland are offering some of the world's most valuable racing and commercial breeding stock this year. Among the chief attractions are 2004 champion 3-year-old filly Ashado, Hip No.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Among the sires of most renown in California, can any stand higher than Bertrando? The star stallion at River Edge Farm, Bertrando has consistently produced fast and competitive racehorses, and his offspring are littered throughout the card of the Cal Cup races.
Among his better runners are such competitors as Bilo and Chief Storm Cloud. None, however, can hold out any higher accomplishments than Bertrando's gelded son Unfurl the Flag, who won the Grade 1 Triple Bend Handicap earlier this season.
Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Silver Train comes from a productive New York family.
His dam is Ridden in Thestars, a daughter of former state leading sire Cormorant, bred in New York by Francis Paolangeli.
Ridden in Thestars placed in the Schenectady and Susan B. Anthony handicaps during her career of 34 starts, earning $178,998.
The breeders of Silver Train, Joe Mulholland Sr., Joe Mulholland Jr. and John Mulholland, purchased Ridden in Thestars for $90,000 at the 1998 Keeneland November mixed sale.
Eight days ago he was the talk of the Big Apple and a presumed legend in the making. Nowadays, Lost in the Fog is getting some quiet R and R at Greg and Karen Dodd's Southern Chase Farm in Williston, Fla. The scenery is familiar to the big brown colt, for it's where his professional career began two years ago.
