LEXINGTON, Ky. - When Bless walked into the sales ring at the Keeneland November sale on Tuesday, there was no more question about her than there was about her brother Fusaichi Pegasus when he stood in the same ring at the Keeneland July select yearling sale in 1998. Bred and raised by Arthur Hancock and Stonerside Stable and quartered in the same Keeneland stall that her older brother had used, Bless brought the identical sum, $4 million, as a broodmare that Fusaichi Pegasus sold for as a yearling.
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DRF Past Performances
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Keeneland November mixed sale rolled into its third of 10 sessions on Wednesday with an early top price of $500,000 for the mare Smokey Mirage.
Audley Farm acquired the Prairie Gold Lassie Stakes winner, who is in foal to Giant's Causeway. Taylor Made Sales, agent, sold Smokey Mirage. She is a daughter of Holy Bull and the Grade 1-placed Slewpy mare Verbasle.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - ClassicStar partnership president David Plummer, who bought champion Xtra Heat privately for $1.5 million on Monday, has been on a shopping spree. By his own estimation, Plummer has spent about $20 million for about 20 broodmares at the Fasig-Tipton and Keeneland November sales. The capstone came Tuesday when he spent $4 million to acquire 2000 Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus's full sister Bless, in foal to Storm Cat.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Xtra Heat, who brought a $1.7 million bid but failed to reach her reserve at Fasig-Tipton's November sale Sunday night, has been sold privately to David Plummer of ClassicStar for $1.5 million. A 4-year-old filly, Xtra Heat won an Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old filly last year.
The deal stipulates that Xtra Heat will remain in training in 2003 and will continue to be trained by John Salzman, who previously owned the Dixieland Heat filly with partners Ken Taylor and Harry Deitchman.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Orientate has retired from the racetrack to begin his stud career at Graham Beck's Gainesway in Lexington. Gainesway will stand the 4-year-old Mt. Livermore colt for a $25,000 fee.
Orientate will stand as the property of Gainesway and Arrowfield Stud, an Australian stallion operation owned by John Messara. Orientate will shuttle to the Southern Hemisphere in 2003, but his fee there hasn't been announced yet.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Champagne Stakes winner Officer has been retired to stand at Gainesway Farm. The Grade 1 winner will stand as the property of Gainesway and Dennis Narlinger, who purchased the colt privately from the Thoroughbred Corp. of the late Ahmed Salman. The stud fee for Officer will be $12,500 live foal, payable Nov. 1.
Salman raced Officer at 2 and 3, and the colt won 6 of 9 starts. Officer won his first five starts by a combined 26 1/4 lengths. He capped his streak with victories in the Del Mar Futurity and the Grade 1 Champagne, going 1 1/16 miles at Belmont.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - A pair of champions made most of the news at the November selected mixed sales in Lexington on Sunday and Monday.
Monday afternoon at Keeneland, 1988 champion grass mare Fiji made headlines when Brushwood Stable's Betty Moran bid $3.1 million for her. That sale, almost certainly the session-topping price at the first of Keeneland's 10 sessions, more than made up for spectators' disappointment when 2001 champion 3-year-old filly Xtra Heat failed to reach her reserve on a $1.7 million bid Sunday night at Fasig-Tipton's November auction.
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.