LAS VEGAS - The real 2-year-old season began this month with the 4 1/2-furlong baby races at Keene-land, and it seems an appropriate time to look at the first crop of 2-year-olds by this year's marquee freshman sire, Fusaichi Pegasus. His 41 sales yearlings last year averaged $336,878, but that was nothing compared to what happened Feb. 24 at the Fasig-Tipton 2-year-olds in training sale.
The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's April 2-year-old sale got underway Monday with a $210,000 Tiger Ridge colt the session leader as of 5 p.m.
Narvick International bought the colt from Hartley/de Renzo Thoroughbreds, agent, who consigned the colt. Sold as Hip No. 138, the colt is out of the Tri Jet mare Jet n' Tune, whose other foals include the winners All the Loot, End Tune, Jet n' Expectation, and Line Tune.
The 1,210-horse auction at the OBS pavilion in Ocala, Fla., was to run through Thursday.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Farish family's Lane's End Farm got a bittersweet accolade Thursday afternoon, when the late Prospectors Delite received the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Award as 2003 Broodmare of the Year.
"For a Kentucky breeder, there's no bigger compliment to your program than to have a Broodmare of the Year award," said Bill Farish, who is running the farm while his father serves in England as the United States Ambassador to the Court of St. James. "It's a tough, tough thing to get, because there are so many great broodmares in central Kentucky."
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Tapit, a son of Claiborne Farm stallion Pulpit, won the Wood Memorial last weekend with the most impressive finish among the day's Kentucky Derby preps. As a result, the good-looking gray colt will surely be one of the favorites for the Kentucky Derby on May 1. Beaten only in the Florida Derby, when he was later found to have a lung infection, Tapit showed the courage and strong finish in the Wood that are necessary for any horse going 10 furlongs.
The Maryland Thoroughbred breeding industry is bracing itself for hard times now that it's apparent slots won't be coming to the state any time soon.
"It's a bitter blow, but it means that Maryland's breeding industry has to come up with extremely innovative ways to entice people to stay and breed their horses in Maryland," said Tom Bowman, president of the Maryland Horse Breeders Association.
Wilhelmine Waller, among the first breeders to support New York's breeding and racing program when it was launched in the early 1970's, died April 7 at the age of 90.
Waller, whose late husband was trainer Thomas Waller, owned Tanrackin Farm in Bedford Hills, N.Y. She bred more than a dozen New York-bred stakes winners, and many of those winners carried Waller's Tanrackin Farm silks.
The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company promotes its spring sale of 2-year-olds in training as the biggest of its kind anywhere. And there is truth in its advertising, as an estimated thousand or more 2-year-olds out of the 1,210 originally cataloged will sell at this year's auction. The four-day sale begins Monday and continues daily through Thursday, with a 10:30 a.m. starting time.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Ringaskiddy scored a 10-1 upset in the 2002 San Juan Capistrano Invitational Handicap, becoming the first California-bred in 29 years to win the marathon turf race.
Despite a tendon injury that threatened his racing career last year and prevented a chance for a title defense, Ringaskiddy returns in Sunday's San Juan Capistrano. He is the lone California-bred in the field of nine.
Trainer and co-owner Juan Garcia is predicting victory for Ringaskiddy, an 8-year-old gelding whom he claimed with co-owner Leonard Scofield for $50,000 in January 2001.
The Inglis auction house's Australian Easter yearling sale ended Thursday with new sale records for top price, gross, average, and median.
Led by a record $2.2 million (Australian) Danehill colt, the three-day auction sold 368 yearlings for $75,477,500, or about $55,936,380 U.S. That gross easily shattered the previous Easter sale record of $67.5 million (Australian). The average price of $205,102 and median of $125,000 (both Australian) were also records. In U.S. dollars, the average price was about $152,001 and the median was approximately $92,638.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Select 2-year-olds have become an especially hot commodity this year, and the Keeneland April 2-year-old sale proved the point yet again when it achieved a sale-record top price of $3.3 million Tuesday evening. The auction also set new marks for gross, average, and median.