DEL MAR, Calif. - The upset win by Dave the Dude in the $100,000 I'm Smokin Stakes at Del Mar last Monday pushed the young California stallion Swiss Yodeler past the $1 million mark in 2003 progeny earnings.
For Swiss Yodeler, a Grade 1 winner and multiple stakes winner in 1996, the seven-figure mark is the latest milestone in a developing stud career.
Last year, Swiss Yodeler led California's freshman stallions with earnings of $748,718, placing him seventh on the national list.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The sales leaders at the first two days of the Keeneland September yearling sale showed how strongly the market values superior examples of select yearlings. The first day's top lot, a bay colt by Danzig out of champion Queena, by Mr. Prospector, brought $3.6 million, and the overall sale leader, who sold for $3.8 million late Tuesday, is a bay filly by Gone West out of Touch of Greatness, by Hero's Honor.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Keeneland September yearling sale is known for its numbers. The world's largest Thoroughbred yearling sale, it offers more than 4,000 horses in 12 days this year, a giant marketplace that leaves the sale grounds flush with horses. One might think that would work against small consignments, but Keeneland's select-session results on Monday and Tuesday prove otherwise.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - outpaced all expectations at its Monday and Tuesday select sessions, and the flood of money they produced appeared to be trickling down to at least the first open session on Wednesday.
The 12-day auction's first two sessions drew buyers from around the world, and they bid with such abandon that even Keeneland officials were surprised. The two select sessions produced a staggering 27 seven-figure yearlings, including a $3.8 million Gone West filly and a $3.6 million Danzig colt.
LAS VEGAS - There are many 2-year-old stakes races with the name Futurity, but the oldest and most prestigious is The Futurity Stakes, to be run at Belmont Sunday and originally run at the old Sheepshead Bay Racetrack. The race has been run at varying distances since its inaugural running in 1888, and has been contested at one mile since 1994.
Multiple Grade 1 winner and Brazilian champion Sandpit died on Sept. 4 at Lexington's Hagyard Davidson McGee veterinary clinic in Lexington, Ky. A 14-year-old stallion at Spendthrift Farm, Sandpit had a malignant liver tumor.
"He had been in good condition and finished the breeding season well," Suzie Picou-Oldham, a Spendthrift representative, said Tuesday.
The stallion went off his feed and began to show discomfort, prompting Spendthrift to send him to the clinic five days before his death.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The 12-day Keeneland September yearling sale, Keeneland's first yearling sale since its July sale was canceled until next year, got under way Monday with some contentious bidding and million-dollar fireworks, headed by a $3.6 million Danzig colt.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - With the epic Keeneland September yearling sale set to open Monday, Keeneland officials and many consignors have reason to be optimistic - but also realistic - in their expectations.
The auction runs from Sept. 8 to Sept. 20, with a dark day on Sept. 12, and is Keeneland's only major yearling sale this year. The company canceled its 2003 July select sale, partly because of a diminished foal crop caused by mare reproductive loss syndrome two years ago.
