The stud fee for 2001 Horse of the Year Point Given and four other stallions at Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky will be lowered for 2003, Three Chimneys officials said Thursday, citing weakness in the yearling sale market.
Point Given will stand for $75,000 next year, down from $125,000 for his first year at stud. War Chant will stand for $60,000, down from $75,000, and Rahy will have his fee reduced from $100,000 to $80,000.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Historically, the best horses in Europe have contributed greatly to the competitiveness of the Breeders' Cup races. And this year, the top 2-year-old colt in Europe might come over for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile.
Elusive City is a precocious and very talented colt by leading freshman sire Elusive Quality. Having finished first in each of his three starts, including the Group 1 Prix Morny, Elusive City is scheduled to race next in the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes on Thursday.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Keeneland's September yearling sale, the world's largest Thoroughbred yearling marketplace, ended Saturday with declines of 17 percent in gross and 18 percent in average. But the 12-day auction defied consignors' pre-sale fears of much steeper decreases in revenue.
This year's auction sold 2,933 lots for total receipts of $210,802,500, down from last year's sale of 2,895 yearlings for $254,190,600. Average price this year was $71,873, a drop from $87,803 last year. But median rose by 20 percent, climbing from $25,000 last year to $30,000.
While it looks like Carson Hollow, who won last Saturday's Floral Park Handicap at Belmont Park, is headed to the Breeders' Cup Sprint next month at Arlington Park, her younger half-sister is at Belmont Park preparing for her career debut.
Sovereignoftheseas, a 2-year-old Boston Harbor filly, arrived in trainer Steve Young's barn during the summer. She is owned by her breeders, husband and wife Chris and Patricia Purdy, the breeders of Carson Hollow.
Shopping for a Maryland champion? Looking for a classic winner? Have an itch to find a runner for the Maryland Million? A good place to start is Fasig-Tipton Midlantic's Eastern fall yearling sale, which starts its three-day run on Sept. 30 at the Timonium State Fair grounds.
The largest sale of the year in Maryland, it has 780 yearlings
cataloged, and Mason Grasty, Fasig-Tipton Midlantic's executive vice president, said he has heard numerous comments that this is stronger catalog than in recent years.
Graeme Hall, a millionaire son of Dehere, will become the first stallion to stand at Eugene and Laura Melnyk's Winding Oaks Farm in Ocala. His stud fee has been set at $7,500 live foal.
"He's booked up for 2003," said Winding Oaks manager Phil Hronic. "The first book was set at 50 mares and that's it."
Graeme Hall won seven races from 22 starts, including two Grade 2 stakes, the Arkansas Derby and Jim Dandy, for the Melnyks and trainer Todd Pletcher. The 5-year-old chestnut earned $1,147,441.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Tiny Yellowstone Downs in Billings, Mont., was the site of a big victory last Sunday for breeders Larry and Sheila Ullman. Or, rather, three victories.
Three full siblings that the Ullmans bred from a $4,000 mare won races on Yellowstone's Sunday card.
"I don't care where they do it, it's an exciting thing," Sheila Ullman said. "I doubt that's ever happened before, three full siblings winning on the same day."
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Not all interesting stories about breeding racehorses are about glittering pedigrees and immense auction prices. As the tale of Seabiscuit shows, the successful underdog has dramatic appeal for the public, and the history of Whywhywhy, winner of the Grade 1 Futurity Stakes on Sunday at Belmont, shows why readers and horse breeders delight in and take hope from the unpredictable successes of the sport.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - , which posted session-to-session gains on Monday and Tuesday, continued Wednesday with a $110,000 Souvenir Copy colt as its early leader at 5 p.m.
Centerville Stable purchased the colt from Craig Bandoroff's Denali Stud, agent. The bay colt is out of the unraced Alydar mare Pristine Princess.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Grade 1 winner Millennium Wind has been sold privately to stand at Ro Parra and William Hardin's Millennium Farm near Lexington, Ky., for 2003. His fee has not been set.
A 4-year-old Cryptoclearance colt, he retired from racing in late May after re-injuring a tendon during a workout. David Hofmans trained Millennium Wind.