With gross receipts up sharply from last year, the average yearling price at the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society's British Columbia division sale on Tuesday was up marginally from last year. The overall average price at the mixed sale, however, was down.
This year, 129 yearlings were sold for a total of $1,783,000, up from last year's total of $1,485,700 for 110 yearlings sold. The average yearling price went from $13,506 to $13,822, an increase of 2.3 percent.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Selling remained strong on Wednesday at the Keeneland September yearling sale's first open session in Lexington. Buyers packed Keeneland's parking lot and the barn area was busy, as was the bidding arena.
As of 5:30 p.m., with the auction still under way, the third of 14 sessions was led by a $950,000 Unbridled's Song colt out of the Storm Cat mare Thiscatsforcaryl. Jess Jackson's Stonestreet Stable purchased the colt, a full brother to stakes winner Be Like Mike, from the Taylor Made agency.
With gross receipts up sharply from last year, the average yearling price at the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society's British Columbia division sale on Tuesday was up marginally from last year. The overall average at the mixed sale, however, was down.
This year, 129 yearlings were sold for a total of $1,783,000, up from last year's total of $1,485,700 for 110 yearlings sold. The average yearling price went from $13,506 to $13,822, an increase of 2.3 percent.
There are 245 yearlings cataloged to an auction that also includes a mixed session to be held at Louisiana Downs in Bossier City, La., on Oct. 15-16.
An additional 200 horses will be part of a mixed session that includes broodmares and horses of racing age. The sale is put on by the Breeders Sales Company of Louisiana.
The catalog is much larger than last year's, which had 149 yearlings for a one-day sale.
LAS VEGAS - With so many tools now available for handicappers, finding value is more difficult than ever. More and more, players are turning to the once-esoteric world of pedigree handicapping to find such value.
Pedigrees are most commonly used in deciphering maiden races, where first-time starters should be evaluated based on the distance and surface of the race through the sire's aptitude for either speed or stamina, dirt or turf.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - For the first time since the 1980's, a bidding war between Coolmore Stud and Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum pushed a Keeneland yearling's price to $9.7 million.
When the hammer fell and applause erupted at Tuesday's second session of the Keeneland September yearling sale, it was Maktoum who held the receipt for a son of top sire Storm Cat and Grade 1-winning millionaire Tranquility Lake that Mill Ridge Sales consigned for Marty and Pam Wygod.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Ken Ramsey, the Kentucky owner, said Tuesday that he plans to enter horses at Turfway Park beginning Friday, ending an informal boycott of the track's entry box since last Wednesday, when new medication rules went into effect in the state.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The epic two-week Keeneland September yearling sale took off with a bang on Monday, starting its long run with a $3.5 million session-topper, a record 21 yearlings selling for $1 million or more, and gains across the board.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Any bidders arriving via plane in Lexington for the two-week Keeneland September yearling sale, which opened Monday, had a pretty good idea about their competition. A pair of massive, double-decker jumbo jets inscribed in Arabic stood at Blue Grass Airport, suggesting that buyers from the United Arab Emirates had arrived in force.
Ghostzapper, the 2004 Horse of the Year, will start his stud career in 2006 with one of the world's most expensive stud fees. Owner Frank Stronach's Adena Springs operation, which will stand Ghostzapper, has announced a $200,000 fee for the 5-year-old Awesome Again horse.
