LEXINGTON, Ky. - Sunday Silence, Japan's leading sire and the 1989 Horse of the Year in North America, remains in poor condition as he fights a life-threatening case of laminitis.
A 16-year-old Halo stallion, Sunday Silence stands at the Yoshida family's Shadai Stallion Farm in Hokkaido, Japan, he developed the hoof disease after undergoing three surgeries since to combat an infection in his right front leg.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - New York-breds were well received at the first session of Fasig-Tipton's preferred sale on Sunday, with eight yearlings bringing six-figure bids. The sales topper at $170,000 was a filly from the first crop of champion sprinter and Kentucky sire Artax.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Sunday Silence, Japan's most influential sire and North America's 1989 Kentucky Derby winner and Horse of the Year, is in peril after developing laminitis.
The 16-year-old Halo horse has undergone three surgeries since late spring to treat a bacterial infection in a tendon in his right front leg. He began showing signs of laminitis early last week, and his condition has deteriorated, though he was still able to stand as of Saturday, according to a manager at Teruya Yoshida's Shadai Stallion Station.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Fasig-Tipton's Saratoga selected yearling sale ended with substantial declines Thursday night, indicating that the select yearling auction ring has become a buyer's market. The heady days of multi-million-dollar summer yearlings might be gone for now, but Saratoga's American-dominated Thoroughbred economy showed signs of health even without those eye-popping fireworks.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The Storm Cat mystique hurtles on without regard to economic indicators or political uncertainties, and the most commercially accepted stallion in the world today sired the highest-priced lot at Fasig-Tipton's Saratoga select yearling sale this week. Not only is Storm Cat the sire of the highest-selling lot, a chestnut filly out of champion racemare Sacahuista, who went for $1.3 million, but he also is the sire of the $3.8 million colt who was bought back at the chic auction held in New York's upstate spa.
The sales spotlight shifts to Florida next week for the four-day Ocala Breeders' Sales Company auction, which has cataloged 1,322 yearlings.
The selected session Monday, Aug. 19, opens the sale with 216 horses cataloged. This group will immediately be followed by 88 yearlings bred by four-time Eclipse Award winner John Franks. The remaining 1,018 yearlings are apportioned over the next three sessions, all of which begin at 11 a.m.
DEL MAR, Calif. - In 1999, Free House and Event of the Year finished one-two in the Santa Anita Handicap, the only time they met on the racetrack.
In a way, their rematch is Sunday, when they will be represented by their first yearlings in the California Thoroughbred Breeders' Association's Del Mar yearling sale.
DEL MAR, Calif. - After a sale in 2001 that established records for gross, average, and median prices, the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association Del Mar yearling sale on Sunday and Monday evenings carries significant expectations from organizers and consignors.
Last year's sale saw 104 horses sell for $4,541,000, an average of $43,663 and a median of $31,500. Those figures have raised hopes that this year's event can be strong despite disappointing results for the yearling sales in Kentucky and New York.
For the first time since Fasig-Tipton introduced a one-day sale of New York-breds at Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in 1989, the preferred yearling auction, which begins Sunday, will be held over a two-day period.
The Sunday and Monday sessions will begin each evening at 7:30 at the Humphrey S. Finney sales pavilion.
The auction was expanded to two days this year to accommodate the 182 yearlings consigned to the sale. Last year, a record 141 yearlings were offered and the sale concluded late in the evening.