Soaring Free will be the focus of attention in Sunday's $1 million Atto Mile. The Sam-Son Farm homebred 5-year-old narrowly missed winning last year's Atto and has been dominant on the Woodbine turf in 2004.
As a gelding, Soaring Free, a son of Smart Strike out of the mare Dancing With Wings, won't enhance his value for stud duty if he wins. But aside from breeders, there will be some very interested onlookers watching him on Sunday.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Padua Stables owner Satish Sanan, who was notably absent at the Keeneland September yearling sale this week, will step down as head of the Alliance for Industry Reform to concentrate on his position as an owner representative on the new Sales Integrity Task Force. Sanan's announcement came three days after the sale of an auction-record $8 million Storm Cat colt to an unnamed buyer, a situation that highlighted AIR's proposal that selling and buying agents be required to disclose their clients' names in transactions.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - For the shootout at the Keeneland corral, Storm Cat had all the big guns. Not only did a powerful chestnut son of Storm Cat, the world's leading commercial sire, become the highest-priced yearling at the Keeneland September sale, but this year's leader was also the most expensive yearling ever sold at the September sale.
At the sale's second select session, held Tuesday, Japanese trainer Hideyuki Mori, acting as agent, bid $8 million for a Storm Cat colt out of a graded-stakes-winning half-sister to the classic winners and top sires A.P. Indy and Summer Squall.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - In light of the mystery over a sale-record $8 million purchase Tuesday at the Keeneland September yearling sale, should agents who buy and sell be required to disclose their clients at auction?
Japanese trainer Hideyuki Mori signed as agent for Tuesday's $8 million Storm Cat-Welcome Surprise colt, the fourth-highest-priced yearling ever sold at a North American auction. But he declined to name his client, and so has Keeneland. Satish Sanan's Alliance for Industry Reform has called for requiring client disclosures under a bloodstock industry code of ethics.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Twenty-four hours after an $8 million Storm Cat colt sent the market into the stratosphere, the bullish Keeneland September yearling sale rolled on. At 5:33 p.m., the market was still flexing its muscles with flashy prices, most notably the $750,000 that B. Wayne Hughes bid for a Giant's Causeway colt. But people at the auction were still talking about Tuesday's explosive session and the chestnut colt from Lane's End who harked them back to the massive price inflation of the mid-1980's.
Yes It's True, the millionaire sprinter who is now at stud in Florida, will be moved to Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky for the 2005 breeding season, Three Chimneys and the horse's majority owners, Satish and Anne Sanan, said Wednesday.
Yes It's True has stood at the Sanans' Padua Stables in Florida for his first four years at stud. His stud fee in 2004 was $10,000 live foal.
Three Chimneys Farm has purchased a minority interest in Yes It's True as part of the deal. A stud fee for 2005 will be set after the September yearling sale at Keeneland ends on Sept. 27.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Coolmore Stud spent much of cutting a swath through Keeneland's select yearling market without much trouble, except for occasional $1 million-plus purchases by other bidders.
But all that changed when a Storm Cat colt sold for $8 million to Japanese interests, shattering the auction record and leading a bullish session that featured 18 millionaire yearlings. Coolmore principal John Magnier, accompanied by agent Demi O'Byrne and Coolmore finance chief Clem Murphy, suddenly found themselves in the unusual position of underbidders.
LAS VEGAS - Just as there are overlays in handicapping, there are also overlays at the sales. While the big players go after the obvious standouts every year, paying anywhere from $400,000 to $4 million for high-profile pedigrees, mid-range buyers have a smorgasbord of well-bred horses whose pedigrees fall under the radar.
Heritage of Gold is a prime example of a stakes winner purchased at a bargain-basement price.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Keeneland's September yearling sale opened Monday with a bang, reassuring high-end sellers that the market ceiling they saw at Saratoga might be considerably higher in Kentucky.
Eight yearlings brought $1 million or more, including a $3.1 million A.P. Indy ridgling that led Monday's selling and the day's second-highest-priced lot, a $2.8 million Unbridled's Song-Cruising Haven colt that Demi O'Byrne, Coolmore's agent, bought from Paramount Sales, agent.
