Noel Hickey of Irish Acres Farm has been keeping a low profile lately.
"Did not want to say anything definitive until I had something to say," he said.
Now that he is settled in at his relocated Irish Acres, Hickey is ready to talk.
The original Irish Acres Farm, a 300-plus-acre farm and training complex, is gone - sold for subdivision. The creep of urban development was steadily advancing, and Hickey thought the time had come, after some 35 years, to sell and move on.
Over 400 New York-bred yearlings are cataloged in three sales this coming week, beginning with the two-day Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select yearling sale Tuesday.
The New York Breeders Sales Company's first yearling sale follows on Aug. 11-12, and the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred yearling sale is on Aug. 14-15.
Twelve statebreds are entered in the annual Saratoga select yearling sale, which is being conducted for the 85th time in Saratoga Springs at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion.
The opening of the Pimlico summer meeting on Aug. 12 will be the beginning of a new era for the Maryland-bred Fund. Distribution of bonus checks has been speeded up. From now on, breeders, owners, and stallion owners will receive their checks within weeks of a race. And the owner bonus program has been expanded to include all maiden races.
The changes were based on suggestions from a Maryland Horse Breeders Association general membership meeting held last fall.
The way that California-breds are performing in major stakes this summer, Tucked Away and Valentine Dancer deserve extra attention in Sunday's $300,000 Clement Hirsch Handicap at Del Mar.
Tucked Away and Valentine Dancer are trying to win their first graded stakes and produce the latest in a string of impressive performances from statebreds.
Jambalaya and Stephen's Gift, two of the leading contender's in Sunday's $500,000 Breeders' Stakes at Woodbine, have a lot more in common than simply being possible winners of the third jewel of Canada's Triple Crown.
The Ontario-bred 3-year-olds both found their way down to the Keeneland September yearling sale in 2003, both were sold on the ninth day of the 12-day auction, and each was picked up by Ontario horse people for not much money.
The second annual northern California yearling sale is following the current trend toward increasing numbers in regional market catalogs. The Aug. 16 auction, to be conducted by the California Thoroughbred Breeders' Association at the Alameda County Fairgrounds, has cataloged 249 yearlings, up from 195 at last year's inaugural event.
The CTBA said that its catalog features 18 lots from stakes-winning dams, and 15 with stakes-winning siblings.
The auction begins at 11 a.m. at the fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif.
Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum's Darley organization has purchased Grade 1 winner Offlee Wild privately and will stand him at Darley's Kentucky base of Jonabell Farm starting in 2006.
Offlee Wild, a 5-year-old Wild Again Horse, is the winner of this year's Grade 1 Suburban Handicap and three other graded stakes. He is expected to compete through the rest of this year for his current owner AZ Azalea Stables. He is entered for the Whitney on Saturday and ultimately is being pointed for the Breeders' Cup Classic.
The New York Breeders Sales Co. makes its initial venture into the yearling market on Aug. 11-12 in Saratoga Springs.
The Saratoga premier yearling sale will take place each evening at 7:30 at the Yaddo Show Grounds on Union Avenue, across the street from the main track at Saratoga Race Course.
The new company's sale will be the second of three yearling auctions at the Spa, during a week that opens with the 85th edition of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling sale on Aug. 9-10, and concludes with that company's New York-bred yearling sale on Aug. 14-15.
