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.
Business for the first half of 2005 was good in Florida. New farms are being constructed all over Marion County. Real estate values are soaring, up by some 24 percent in the past year, according to real estate surveys.
The 2005 2-year-old sales so far have held their own; the gross was up, while the averages and medians were down a bit off a record year.
Pennsylvania's Day at the Races, July 23 at Philadelphia Park, boosted the fortunes of many state-breds. But it was a special boon to the connections of the 4-year-old gelding Nittany Express.
Nittany Express put an exciting finish on the 1 1/16-mile Iroquois Handicap, one of six stakes restricted to Pennsylvania-breds on the card. Bet down to near even-money in the field of five, Nittany Express rallied furiously from off the pace under jockey Thomas Clifton and nipped multiple stakes winner Yo by a head at the wire.
DEL MAR, Calif. - The stallion One Man Army has a perfect record with his first crop - one stakes winner from one foal.
Last weekend, Soldier's Kiss, a filly by One Man Army, won her fourth consecutive start in the $100,000 Fleet Treat Stakes at Del Mar, a sprint for California-bred 3-year-old fillies. She is the only filly that One Man Army produced in 2002.
The win was particularly gratifying to owner-breeder-trainer Bruce Headley, who raced One Man Army and bought him as a yearling.
"I've always wanted to breed my own," Headley said.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has introduced a bill designed to encourage investment in the horse industry and give horse owners access to programs that other livestock owners already can use.
The legislation would reduce the capital gains holding period for horses from 24 months to 12 months, reduce the depreciation period from seven years to three years, and make horses eligible for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's livestock disaster-assistance programs.
