DEL MAR, Calif. - Centerofattention may be more than a winner of two minor stakes by the end of the Labor Day weekend.
Already this year, Centerofattention has won the Sun City Handicap at Turf Paradise in May and the Luther Burbank Handicap at Santa Rosa in July. Those wins have owners Dennis and Norine Grenier and trainer Eric Kruljac expecting further improvement when Centerofattention starts in Monday's $125,000 Solana Beach Handicap for California-bred fillies and mares at Del Mar.
Breeders and buyers in southern Ontario are anxiously waiting for this week's Fasig-Tipton sale of Canadian-bred yearlings, which begins Tuesday with a select session and continues with open sessions on Friday and Saturday.
Fasig-Tipton is fresh off a strong Saratoga summer sale, and locals hope the trend will continue at Woodbine's annual auction. The selected portion gets under way at 1 p.m.
On Monday, six yearlings sales stakes, worth $125,000 each, will showcase bloodlines that will be found in the 463-horse catalog.
When bloodstock agent Jeff Minton made the decision to conduct a mixed sale at Saratoga Race Course this fall, he would have been delighted to have attracted 125 horses for the auction.
When the catalog for the one-day sale on Oct. 11 is released this week, it will contain 190 horses, including weanlings, yearlings, mares, and horses of racing age.
"I'm very, very pleased," Minton said. "I really couldn't have expected it to be any better. I didn't imagine the first year would have these many horses. It's a very good first start."
There's more than just buying and selling going on when it's sales time in Ocala. The sales are often a forum and a way of giving and getting industry news. When a familiar face is conspicuous by its absence, questions get asked. One familiar face that had not been seen for some time was that of Celestino "Charlie" DiLibero. Charlie had a stroke a while back and, consequently, had dropped out of sight.
"I'm okay," he said from his wheelchair at last week's yearling sales. "I'm okay."
In the breeding business, says longtime horsewoman Cynthia McGinnes, "If you don't give up, eventually things go right."
To back up her belief, McGinnes need look no further than Perfect Blue, the rapidly improving 3-year-old filly who rallied to defeat six Maryland-bred rivals when winning the Pearl Necklace Stakes on Aug. 16 at Laurel Park.
Expect Wings, a half-brother to Grade 3 Maryland Breeders’ Cup Handicap winner Pioneer Boy, topped the Fasig-Tipton Texas summer yearling sale at Lone Star Park on Monday with a bid of $125,000.
Mark Casse, agent, signed the ticket on the colt, who was consigned by Stoneview Farm, agent for Ruth Brightbill and Ann M. Jones.
Overall, 219 yearlings were sold for $2,694,000 during the one-day sale for an average of $12,301. Last year, 261 yearlings sold over two days for an average of $10,354. As for buybacks, 71 horses were not sold this year, compared to 120 in 2002.
The news was fairly bright for select sellers at the first two sessions of the five-day Deauville yearling sale in Deauville, France. The two select days, Saturday and Sunday, sold 79 yearlings for $13,957,772, for an average price of $176,681. Gross fell 13 percent, while average rose 4 percent. But the select sessions' buyback figure was 24 percent, suggesting sellers were largely content with prices.
Sunday Break, the Japanese-bred winner of the Peter Pan Stakes last year, has been retired to stud at Graham Beck's Gainesway Farm in Lexington, Ky.
In a deal brokered by California agent Bruno de Berdt, owner Koji Maeda has privately sold Sunday Break, a 4-year-old Forty Niner colt, to Gainesway and Dennis Narlinger, who will stand him at the farm in 2004. Gainesway has not yet announced a stud fee.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Too Chic, Grade 1 winner and a foundation mare for Emory Alexander Hamilton's successful breeding program, was euthanized Thursday at Middlebrook Farm because of the infirmities of old age. A Blushing Groom mare, she was 24 years old.