A $77,000 colt by first-year sire Cat's at Home headed the preferred sessions of the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society's 2005 Canadian-bred yearling sale at the Woodbine Sales Pavilion on Friday and Saturday.
The partnership of Bob Tiller and Frank DiGiulio Jr. purchased the sale-topper, who was consigned by Windfields Farm, agent. The colt is the second foal of an unraced mare, High Arch, who is a half-sister to stakes winners Touchnow and Timetobewild.
The marathon Keeneland September yearling sale that begins on Monday and continues through Sept. 26 includes 42 California-breds, including a filly who is a half-sister to the 1994 champion older male, The Wicked North.
The sale, which includes more than 5,000 horses, has several California-bred yearlings out of stakes-winning dams, or yearlings that are full or half-siblings to stakes runners.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The clerically disconnected now have a racehorse to root for. Claiborne Farm's homebred Laity, whose name denotes those who are not clergy, crushed his opposition by nearly a dozen lengths in the Cradle Stakes at River Downs on Labor Day, and the bay son of Claiborne stallion Pulpit has shown strong improvement in form as he comes to race at longer distances.
In his debut at Churchill Downs in June, Laity was unplaced at 5 1/2 furlongs. Trainer Frank Brothers stretched the colt out to a mile for his second start, when he won his maiden on Aug. 5 at Arlington.
Keeneland's two-week September yearling sale, the world's largest auction with a record 5,110 yearlings in its catalog, opens Monday in Lexington, Ky. Once again, the mammoth horse sale will offer something for everyone - and provide the best gauge of the yearling market's overall health.
The sale runs from Sept. 12-26 with a dark day on Friday, Sept. 16, and will showcase first-year sires, old-guard stallions, early-maturing yearlings, and late-blooming distance prospects.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - When Keeneland opens the first session of its September yearling sale on Monday, the yearlings aren't the only things attendees will notice. The auction is the first that Keeneland will conduct in its newly remodeled sale pavilion.
Phil Capuano's homebred Dale's Prospect, trained by Capuano's son Dale, capped off an eventful week with a rousing victory in the Taking Risks Stakes on Labor Day at the Timonium State Fair.
The first stakes victory for Dale's Prospect came just seven days after the 4-year-old chestnut gelding finished fourth in an overnight stakes at Delaware Park. But the chart of that race doesn't tell the whole story. Dale's Prospect lost a shoe and slipped, nearly going down.
With sires Gold Fever, Gold Token, and Tomorrows Cat having a fine year with their progeny, Questroyal Stud's Barry R. Ostrager is optimistic about the future.
Each of the three, all owned by Questroyal, rank high among New York stallions in progeny earnings through Sept. 7.
"We're bullish on the New York program," said Ostrager. "Even with the uncertainties related to the franchise, most thoughtful people would agree that the VLT's will result in increased purses for New York-breds and for open company."
Florida's stallion ranks will have at least eight newcomers for the 2006 breeding season. Satish Sanan's Padua Stables is welcoming two of them, and each is a Grade 1 winner.
"Proud Accolade has already arrived," says Bruce Hill, Padua's stallion manager. "Pico Central still has some racing to do, and I expect he'll be here after the October Breeders' Cup."
Proud Accolade, winner of last year's Grade 1 Champagne Stakes, is by the former Padua resident sire Yes It's True, who relocated to Kentucky for the 2005 season.
Pebbles, winner of the 1985 Breeders' Cup Turf at Aqueduct, has died in Japan at the age of 24.
Retired from the breeding shed three years ago, she was euthanized at Darley Stud's Fukumitsu Farm, where she had been living since 1996.
While none of her 12 foals ever amounted to much, Pebbles made a name for herself as one of racing's best fillies in the latter part of the 20th century.
The North American members of the Society of International Thoroughbred Auctioneers have ratified two changes to the guidelines for North American black-type races in 2006.
Starting next season, the auctioneers' group and the International Cataloguing Standards Committee will implement the following guidelines:
Races containing preference clauses based on criteria other than the quality of the horse in the race will be considered restricted races.