LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Barretts winter mixed sale got under way with a quick six-figure price Monday in Pomona, Calif.
Hip No. 3, The Thoroughbred Corp.'s Grade 3-placed stakes winner Regiment, brought a $100,000 final bid. California-based bloodstock agent Bruno de Berdt signed the ticket for the 4-year-old colt, who was the opening session's early leader as of 5 p.m. Eastern time.
LAS VEGAS - This is the sixth and final part of a series on the 2003 freshman stallions, with particular emphasis on how to bet their offspring.
Tactical Cat (Storm Cat). This year should be the Year of the Cat. Storm Cat, the world's most expensive stallion, has at least nine sons (including Exploit, Forestry, and Scatmandu) whose first foals race this year at 2. While his sons Exploit and Forestry were bred to high-quality mares and should battle for supremacy this year, Storm Cat's other sons should also fare well.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Farda Amiga, an Eclipse Award finalist in the 3-year-old filly division, will be bred to Gone West this year.
Farda Amiga, 4, retired from the races in 2002 and currently is at the Taylor family's Taylor Made Farm in Nicholasville, Ky. Steve Castagnola, a Taylor Made official, confirmed that the filly's Brazilian-based owners had selected Gone West for her first mating.
Farda Amiga is a daughter of Broad Brush and the Pleasant Colony stakes winner Fly North. She is a half-sister to stakes-placed Wingover.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Midway, Ky., veterinarian Dr. Dave Lambert has filed suit in Lexington against the Allen Paulson Living Trust, claiming that the trust reneged on a deal to give Lambert 50-percent ownership in Horse of the Year candidate Azeri and Grade 1 winner Startac.
The Lexington Herald-Leader reported Friday that Lambert claims the late Allen Paulson, who died in 2000, promised Lambert and his company, Twin Spires, a half-interest in each horse "in exchange for unspecified services."
Mary Knight cannot wait to get her 2-year-olds started this year.
While many consignors wait until February or later to sell 2-year-olds at in training sales, Knight is one of the exceptions. When the two-day Barretts January Mixed Sale in Pomona starts on Tuesday, Knight will have 28 juveniles ready for an auction full of broodmares, yearlings, and horses of racing age as well.
Unlike the March or May 2-year-olds in training sales at Barretts, the focus of selling 2-year-olds in January is different, Knight said.
The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's winter mixed sale, held Jan. 13 through Jan. 15, produced mixed results. On the one hand, those with good-looking yearlings and young broodmares in foal to commercially attractive stallions were in a bull market. But older broodmares and subpar yearlings were in a bear market.
New York's breeding industry showed growth in several areas in 2002, according to figures compiled by the New York State Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund.
The number of mares bred to New York stallions last year was 2,548, a 17.1 percent jump from 2001. Since 1994, the number of mares bred to resident stallions has soared 44 percent.
In 2002, the number of registered New York stallions increased by 10.2 percent to 151.