The four-day Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.'s spring sale of 2-year-olds in training ended Thursday with a modest dip in the gross, the average, and the median. The number of horses sold, 774, was the same as were sold at the 2004 auction. The gross of $21.9 million was $1.2 million less than last year. The average of $28,337 and the median of $17,000 were down about 5 percent from a year ago. The buyback rate climbed from 19.9 to 28.6 percent
Ascot Knight has sired more than 50 stakes horses in 16 years at stud at Windfields Farm in Oshawa, Ontario, but the 21-year-old stallion could have his highest achievement should grandson Greeley's Galaxy win the May 7 Kentucky Derby.
Greeley's Galaxy, who was not nominated to the Triple Crown, is expected to be supplemented to the Derby for $200,000 as the 20th and final entrant.
Greeley's Galaxy is a son of the winning mare Ascot Starre, who is from Ascot Knight's 1996 crop.
Early returns for first-crop sire Desert Warrior, who stands at McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds, are making his connections happy.
"They are the best foals of any stallion I have ever stood," said Joe McMahon.
That is a sweeping statement from one of New York's most experienced breeders.
McMahon has handled dozens of stallions, including leaders such as Personal Flag, D'Accord, and Regal Classic, and currently stands eight sires at the family-owned farm near Saratoga Lake.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - More than 700 yearlings have been nominated to the Barretts October yearling sale on Oct. 4, which will mark the merger of the defunct Del Mar yearling sale and Barretts' own October event.
The merger of the two sales is designed to bring together the state's leading yearlings and buyers in one place, according to Doug Burge, the executive director of the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association. The CTBA operated the Del Mar sale.
Maryland's newest brush with Hollywood definitely isn't "Seabiscuit."
Explosions, commandos storming about, and Ice Cube are featured in the movie "XXX State of the Union," which had many scenes filmed around the Baltimore area. And don't be fooled by references to the "Virginia farm." The production company spent a couple of weeks at Allen and Audrey Murray's Murmur Farm in Darlington, Md., last September.
The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's spring juvenile sale hit the brakes in its two later sessions after enjoying gains during its first two days.
On Thursday, the fourth and final day of the sale, a handful of horses brought six-figure prices, but about 26 percent of the session's first 225 horses were withdrawn, a sign that a number of sellers expected to face poor bidding for their stock.
The Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.'s spring juvenile sale entered its next-to-last session Wednesday off two days of healthy returns.
The top seller by 5 p.m. was Hip No. 769, a $250,000 Sweetsouthernsaint colt that Evelyn Pollard bought from Danzel Brendemuehl's Classic Bloodstock agency. The colt is out of the Two Punch mare Blazing Punch.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Dear Birdie, the dam of Grade 1 winners Bird Town and Birdstone, has been named broodmare of the year by the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders.
Dear Birdie's owner, Marylou Whitney, bred both Bird Town, the 2003 champion 3-year-old filly and Kentucky Oaks winner, and Birdstone, the 2004 Belmont and Travers stakes winner.
Dear Birdie, a Storm Bird mare, has produced 10 winners from 10 starters so far, all by different sires. Her most successful matings have been with stallions from the late W.T. Young's Overbrook Farm.
Last year's leading freshman sire, Successful Appeal, underwent colic surgery in Lexington, Ky., on Monday for a rare intestinal problem but is expected to recover fully, according to officials of Walmac Farm, where Successful Appeal stands at stud.
Successful Appeal, a 9-year-old son of Valid Appeal, began showing signs of colic Monday morning, according to a farm spokesman, Steve Sharp, and was taken to the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital, where he underwent surgery at about 4:30 Monday afternoon.
