Sea Salute had the pedigree to be a brilliant runner, but his racing career turned out to be unremarkable. The 11-year-old Sea Salute, however, has proved to be a useful sire for his owner, Roger L. Toffolon.
Much of the success that Toffolon enjoyed last year as a New York breeder is connected to Sea Salute, a son of Danzig who stands for $5,000 at Liberty Stud in Ghent, N.Y.
Will lightning strike two years in a row?
Thunder is already rolling for the recently acquired Maryland stallion Eastern Echo, who has a 3-year-old making rapid progress on the Triple Crown trail.
The cause of all the commotion is Eastern Echo's son Buddy Gil, winner of back-to-back graded stakes in California. Buddy Gil's most recent victory came in last week's Grade 2, 1-1/16-mile San Felipe, in which he overcame a number of serious roadblocks
to score by a nose over Atswhatimtalknbout, who was in receipt of three pounds.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March selected juvenile sale ended Wednesday with an increase in gross revenue from a greater number of lots sold, but the average price dropped 9 percent and the median fell 7 percent from last year.
Topped by a $350,000 American Chance filly, the auction sold a total of 273 horses for gross receipts of $18,196,500, 23 percent above last year's $14,722,000 for 200 lots. The 2003 average price was $66,654, down from last year's record $73,610. The median was $50,000, compared with last year's $53,500.
ARCADIA, Calif. - Good Journey, perhaps the best turf miler based in the United States last year, has been retired and will be sent to stud in Australia this spring.
In the stud arrangement, announced earlier this year, Good Journey was expected to race through May, but the consortium of Australian breeders who will stand him have asked that the 7-year-old be sent to the Southern Hemisphere in May. Good Journey is required to go through a five-week quarantine before he can become an active stallion.
The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's two-day March select sale of 2-year-olds got under way Tuesday with an early high price of $350,000 for an American Chance filly.
Team Valor bought the filly, a daughter of stakes placed Sweet and Lowdown who was among six juveniles to top the March 17-18 work tab with a quarter-mile breeze in 21.40 seconds. The filly sold as Hip No. 81 from the Moonshadow Farm agency. She is the first registered foal for her dam.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Two fillies and a colt posted 10.20-second eighth-miles, the fastest times at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's juvenile under-tack show on March 15 and 16. The two workout sessions preceded the auction house's March select 2-year-old sale on March 18-19.
The two fastest fillies were Hip No. 172, a Roar-Audy's Bird filly, and Hip No. 265, a Storm Boot-Dynamic Broad filly. The colt, Hip No. 351, is a son of Crafty Friend and Island Queen.
Freedom Lane and Coach Jimi Lee, the second and third finishers Feb. 23 in the Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs, head a field of eight for the $100,000 Ocala Breeders' Sales Championship Stakes at the Ocala Training Center, one of six stakes Monday for horses who went through the ring of an OBS sale. The final race on the card, the Championship Stakes is for 3-year-old colts and geldings going 1 1/16 miles.
Russell Woolsey rides Freedom Lane and Pat Day has the mount on Coach Jimi Lee.
ARCADIA, Calif. - John Bassett stays pretty busy at his central California farm in Tulare, near Fresno. Aside from a dairy operation, the 1,000-acre farm grows alfalfa, corn, cotton, pistachios, and wheat.
Bassett and his family have 20 acres set aside for a few broodmares and yearlings, a sporting interest that his late father, George, enjoyed for 60 years.