Fasig-Tipton Kentucky's winter mixed sale, its catalog numbers boosted by about 200 mares from the John Franks estate, ended Monday evening at Newtown Paddocks in Lexington, Ky., with gains in gross and average.
The auction's top price was the $235,000 that Lance Robinson paid for a Grade 3-winning broodmare prospect named Sheila's Prospect. The 6-year-old mare is by Not for Love and sold through the Three Chimneys agency.
LAS VEGAS - With the Kentucky Derby only 11 weeks from this Saturday, the pace is picking up significantly. While the Florida Derby and Louisiana Derby are the major Kentucky Derby prep races at Gulfstream Park and Fair Grounds, respectively, the Fountain of Youth Stakes and the Risen Star Stakes, both at 1 1/16 miles, will be run this weekend and serve as major stepping-stones to the bigger preps ahead.
Risen Star up for grabs
LEXINGTON, Ky. - International bloodstock agent Joss Collins, the man who signed the ticket for a record $13.1 million for the yearling Seattle Dancer in 1985, died Sunday in England. He was 56.
Collins was diagnosed with advanced liver cancer 10 days before his death. He attended the Keeneland January all-ages sale last month but became ill upon returning home in England.
Fasig-Tipton Kentucky's winter mixed sale, bolstered by about 200 horses from the John Franks estate, produced a few six-figure prices as it drew near a close Monday evening.
As of 5:30 p.m., the sale leader, from Sunday's opening session, was the $235,000 broodmare prospect Sheila's Prospect, a 6-year-old Grade 3 winner by Not For Love. Lance Robinson bought the mare from Three Chimneys, agent.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - A $10,000 broodmare nicknamed "Freu" at Claire Reece's Rockwell Farm near Lexington is looking like a million bucks these days. To be precise, she's looking like $1.6 million.
That's the amount her Wild Rush colt brought Tuesday at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's select 2-year-old sale at Calder. The price was a record for the auction, easily outdoing the $1.2 million that Chapel Royal brought there last year.
Tony Ryan's Castleton Lyons Farm in Lexington, Ky., has purchased what it called "a significant breeding interest" in 2003 juvenile champion Action This Day from the colt's owner, B. Wayne Hughes.
Action This Day, a son of Kris S. who was set to make his 3-year-old debut in Sunday's Sham Stakes at Santa Anita, will stand at Castleton Lyons in 2005. Until then, he will run in Hughes's colors.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Joey Franco, a four-time stakes winner in 2003, has been named California-bred champion older male and champion sprinter and is a leading contender for the horse of the year title, which will be announced Monday in Sacramento.
Joey Franco earned the two divisional championships through voting conducted by the members of the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association.
There was some ambivalence going into the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's sale of 2-year-olds in training Tuesday. Mike Gill, last year's leading buyer with 32 purchases for $2.9 million, had served notice that because of a brouhaha with the management of Calder Race Course he would not attend Tuesday's sale, nor the Fasig-Tipton 2-year-old auctions to be held at Calder later this month.
New York's breeding industry is still reeling from the sudden death of breeder and owner Jerry Nielsen, who suffered a heart attack on Feb. 2.
Nielsen, 69, was unanimously elected to a second two-year term as president of the New York Thoroughbred Breeders last month.
Dennis Brida, executive director of the NYTB, said Nielsen was a unique individual.
"He always was steady, nothing upset him," Brida said. "He also was one of the kindest people I knew. He never had an ax to grind with anybody. He's going to be sorely missed."
A blockbuster sale at Timonium in the dead of winter? It had happened in the past, and the numbers sizzled once again at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic winter mixed sale on Monday.
Compared with 2003, which was an off year for this auction, the gross ($1,303,000) soared 175 percent and the average price ($9,871) was up 123 percent. The median ($5,000) increased 67 percent.