LEXINGTON, Ky. - A final bid of $1.7 million wasn't enough to convince her owners to part with champion 3-year-old filly Xtra Heat Sunday night at Fasig-Tipton's November selected mixed sale, and the gallant filly probably will return to the races.
John Salzman, who trains the Dixieland Heat filly and also owns her in partnership with Ken Taylor and Harry Deitchman, said Sunday night that he wasn't sure where Xtra Heat would race next.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The November breeding stock auctions get under way Sunday night in Lexington. In the course of 11 days, Fasig-Tipton and Keeneland will offer more than 3,850 lots, most of which are broodmares and broodmare prospects. Fasig-Tipton holds a one-night selected sale on Nov. 3 at 7 p.m., followed by Keeneland's long run from Nov. 4 to 13, with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m.
Less than a year after buying Magness Farms in Santa Ynez, Calif., and renaming it Magali Farms, Rich and Gaby Sulpizio are making an impact on the California breeding market.
Earlier this week, the Sulpizios were the leading buyers at the two-day Barretts October Mixed Sale in Pomona, acquiring three broodmares for $181,000.
This year's Breeders' Cup Sprint nearly gave Florida its sixth Sprint winner in 19 tries. Thunderello, a 3-year-old colt by Montbrook out of On the Square (by In Reality) set the pace and lost in the final yards.
Thunderello is one of those horses who changes hands, and rewards each new owner. He was bred by the Four Horsemen's Ranch, managed and co-owned by Jeff Schwietert, and his story begins with D. Wayne Lukas, who also trains Orientate, the horse that beat Thunderello in the Sprint.
The victory by Cherokee's Boy in the Tri-State Futurity on Oct. 26 was the kind of stunning performance rarely seen in a stakes. In the seven-furlong race run at Charles Town's six-furlong oval, Cherokee's Boy, a 2-year-old son of Citidancer, broke quickly in the eight-horse field and proceeded to gallop away under Ryan Fogelsonger, finishing 21 3/4 lengths ahead of Forever Joe.
"He looked like he was having fun," said co-owner Foard Wilgis, who with partner Dave Picarello campaigns the homebred colt under the ZWP Stable banner. "I was happily shocked."
ARCADIA, Calif. - None of it really makes sense.
Thoroughbred breeding centers like Malibu Valley Farms are not supposed to be located at the intersection of Las Virgenes and Mulholland Highway in Calabasas, Calif., near Malibu.
Breeding farms are based in towns such as Creston, Atascadero, Ramona, Temecula, Fresno, and Santa Ynez, and scores of other small towns up and down the state.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Ashford Stud, the North American division of Irish-based Coolmore Stud, will trim stud fees for Fusaichi Pegasus, Giant's Causeway, and Thunder Gulch in 2003. Johannesburg, last year's North American juvenile champion, will debut at the Versailles, Ky., farm with a $30,000 fee.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Grade 2 winner E Dubai has retired from racing and is expected to arrive on Nov. 1 at Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum's Jonabell Farm in Kentucky.
E Dubai, a 4-year-old Mr. Prospector colt, will stand for a fee of $15,000. The winner of the Grade 2 Suburban Handicap at Belmont this year last ran in the Breeders' Cup Classic on Oct. 26, finishing 11th of 12. His last win was in the Suburban at Belmont Park on July 6.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Starine, winner of the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf last Saturday, could become the first Breeders' Cup winner sold at auction the year of her victory. Listed at Hip No. 407 in the Keeneland November sale, which begins Tuesday, and consigned through the Mill Ridge Farm of John and Alice Chandler, Starine is cataloged as a broodmare prospect, but she also still has significant potential as a racehorse.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - If someone made a movie about Siberian Summer's stallion career, it could be called "Sire, Interrupted." But two relocations have not prevented this young sire from getting four stakes winners from his first two crops at the racetrack.