A rapidly changing landscape for yearling sales in California has given Tuesday's northern California yearling sale at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton a boost in catalog size.
This year, the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association is not holding a yearling sale at Del Mar, but has merged that sale with the Barretts October yearling sale. To avoid a conflict with the October sale, Tuesday's Pleasanton sale has been moved forward six weeks from its position on the 2004 calendar.
Ten years ago, a filly named Secret Prospect launched a 2-year-old campaign at Monmouth Park that resulted in a Maryland-bred championship. On Aug. 6 at the beautiful resort track, her 2-year-old daughter, Livermore Valley, made strides toward her own title.
Phil Hronec has passed a time marker: It' has been 40 months since he became the general manager for Eugene and Laura Melnyk's Ocala breeding and farm operation. The Melnyk's Winding Oaks Farm has a storied past. It was initially developed in the 1960's by John Nerud for the McKnight family, who named it Tartan Farms. When the McKnight family divested in the late l980's, Harry T. Mangurian Jr. bought most of the acreage and renamed it Mockingbird Farm.
Mike Lakow, the former New York Racing Association racing secretary who was fired with three other people last month in a NYRA shake-up, has joined John Sikura's Hill 'n' Dale Farms as its general manager.
Lakow, who served at NYRA for 10 years, will start in his new position at the Lexington, Ky., stud farm on Aug. 22.
Sikura cited horsemen's support for Lakow after his firing as a positive factor that caught his attention.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Heading into the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale, many auction participants openly wondered whether such "boutique" sales were becoming anachronistic. Keeneland has dropped its select July sale and Fasig-Tipton trimmed the Saratoga sale from three days to two this year, even as Walmart-style auctions such as Keeneland September and Fasig-Tipton July have grown. But if highly select summer yearling sales are going out of style, someone forgot to tell the buyers.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - A Storm Cat colt out of Grade 1 winner Rings a Chime brought sizzle to the final session of Fasig-Tipton's Saratoga selected yearling sale Wednesday night when he sold for $3.1 million to top the two-night auction.
Demi O'Byrne, the regular agent for Coolmore associate Michael Tabor, prevailed after a long bidding war with Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum's representative John Ferguson. The Taylor Made sales agency consigned the colt on behalf of Stonerside Stables.
LAS VEGAS - At 1 1/4 miles on the turf for 3-year-olds, the Secretariat Stakes has been a showcase for developing turf stars. Kitten's Joy won last year en route to his turf championship, and other prominent grass runners have won this increasingly popular Grade 1 fixture, such as Ciro (2000), Honor Glide (1997), Marlin (1996), Awad (1993), Hawkster (1989), and Mac Diarmida (1978).
The field for this year's Secretariat, to be run Saturday at Arlington Park, consists of some promising colts with pedigrees that are perfectly suited for 1 1/4 miles on grass.
Pollard's Vision, a millionaire and multiple graded stakes winner, has been retired after being injured in the Aug. 6 Whitney Handicap, owner Edgewood Farm announced Monday.
Stud plans for Pollard's Vision, a 4-year-old Carson City colt, have not been announced.
finished eighth in the Whitney. His last victory came in the Grade 3 National Jockey Cub Handicap at Hawthorne on April 23, and he headed into the Whitney off a second-place finish in the Grade 1 Pimlico Special and a third-place finish in the Grade 1 Suburban.
Wando, Canada's Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old in 2003, will enter stud next year at Lane's End Farm in Kentucky.
Wando, a 5-year-old horse owned and bred by Gustav Schickedanz, won the Canadian Triple Crown of the Queen's Plate, Prince of Wales, and Breeders' Stakes in his award-winning campaign.
