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.
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.
