Sharing with you my fascinating discoveries about Thoroughbred racing, sales, fashion, food, beverage, tips and more.
This Friday is for the fillies! The very long awaited Kentucky Oaks will finally race on September, 4th. The 2020 Kentucky Oaks is already unique in so many ways. The 146th edition will go down as an Oaks to remember. These 3 year-olds have long awaited this opportunity to show off their star power. We are longing for the Longines Kentucky Oaks.
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Prepare yourselves! Kentucky Derby is coming. Saturday, May 4th, we will celebrate the longest continually held sport in America. There is a lot to know before you witness the “Most Exciting Two Minutes In Sports”. Reference this post for the 145th Run For The Roses.
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It is time to see who will slam The Sham? Santa Anita Park in California is hosting the next race on The Road To The Kentucky Derby. Seven contenders make their 3 year-old debuts in the Sham Stakes this. Four will pick up KY Derby points. Only, one will win. Continue on to learn more about today’s race…
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As the Road to the Kentucky Derby winds its way through Europe this week I’m taking a moment to evaluate the top of the leaderboard to look for patterns and new talent. I must say, I am overjoyed to have trainer D. Wayne Lukas, with Bravazo and Sporting Chance, back in the running. Also, I am struck by the presence of second-crop sires Poseidon’s Warrior, Violence and Graydar. It is refreshing to see the new breath of young sire power blowing into Thoroughbred racing. Graydar is the leading second-crop sire in North America by winners. Watch out for his offspring in the Kentucky Derby and other Classic races.
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These summer sales were certainly sizzling. This week Fasig-Tipton in Lexington, KY hosted two sales. On back-to-back hot and humid days the Summer Selected Horses of Racing Age Sale and The July Sale of Selected Yearlings took place. I attended the later and I saw plenty of fantastic bloodstock.
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The first American Thoroughbred Auction results are in! Premier auction house, Keeneland, wrapped its annual January Horses of All Ages sale (#KeeJan) this past Friday evening. It was Friday the 13th and the results were a little spooky.
The 59th edition of the sale had catalogued 1,893 horses. 961 head sold with across-the-board declines. Nearly 500 horses were withdrawn and over 400 more did not meet the reserve prices, set by the sellers. Some speculated reasons included, harsh winter weather, the equine herpes quarantines and no farm dispersals. A dispersal is when an owner sells off all or many of their horses to reduce inventory for various reasons. The most likely factor is the increasing desire by the buyers to only purchase the most select of pedigrees. One of my favorite take away quotes was by Bob Elliston, Keeneland’s Vice President of Racing and Sales, “Breeders need to take note moving forward.” That is a responsible statement. This sale grossed over $28 million dollars with an average sales price of nearly $30 thousand dollars.
On the bright side. Some Thoroughbreds were found very desirable. The highest price horse in the sale was Siren Serenade. She sold for $1,025,000! She is a 11 year-old mare born to Unbridled’s Song and Versailles Treaty. Siren Serenade is in foal by Tapit, the gorgeous grey number one sire for over 3 years and the leading sire and covering sire of the #KeeJan sale. Covering sire is another name for a sire when the mare is believed to be pregnant but the foal is yet to be born. The breeding of Tapit with another Unbridled’s Song daughter, Unrivaled Belle, led to the birth of Unique Bella in 2014. Unique Bella is turning heads after her romp in the G2 Santa Ynez Stakes, at Santa Anita, earlier this month. Put this filly in your virtual barn!
Keeping the bloodlines of Tapit and Unbridled’s Song in mind, feel free to search my webpage for former Tapit posts while I spend more of this post focusing on Unbridled’s Song and perhaps his most promising son as a stallion, Graydar. Tapit was the sire to 10 horses in #KeeJan, right behind him was Unbridled’s Song with 9 Thoroughbreds that sold. Much further down the list was Graydar whom sired 2 horses that sold. Unfortunately, you won’t find a listing for Unbridled’s Song as a covering sire. He was euthanized at 20 years-old due to an inoperable mass. He crossed the rainbow bridge too soon in July of 2013. Graydar was the covering sire for 5 horses that sold in the sale.
Both Unbridled’s Song and Graydar are Taylor Made Farm stallions. Taylor Made Sales Agency was the leading consignor at #KeeJan and they typically are. This year they sold 100 horses, in this one sale. Unbridled’s Song was a stallion on their farm, in Kentucky, for 17 seasons. Before that, this grey horse was born in February of 1993 to Unbridled, the winner of the 1990 Kentucky Derby and Trolley Song. Unbridled’s Song had a nice racing career. He won 5 of 12 starts including the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, the Florida Derby, the Wood Memorial and the Olympic Handicap. The Olympic was his last race due to a broken cannon bone. He was training to go on to the Donn Handicap. For racing fans, it is probably best that he made it to the breeding shed as quick as he did. He has created so many powerful stakes winners. Names like Arrogate, Midshipman, Will Take Charge and so many more winners are his offspring. Unbridled’s Song was credited with siring his 100th stakes winner the day his son, Graydar, won the Donn Handicap.
Fortunately, not only can Unbridled’s Song’s offspring race, they are doing well as sires and broodmares themselves. His lineage lives on and there is a lot of hope that his grey son, Graydar, may be the best to carry on those great genes. Graydar was born to Sweetest Smile in May of 2009. He won 5 of 6 starts including the Donn, the New Orleans and the Kelso Handicaps. He went to stud in 2014 and he has had 2 crops of offspirng thus far. His first crop is eligible to race this year. He has produced 157 foals and 99 of those just became of racing age. The other 58 are yearlings. His fee is a mere $12,500 for a live foal. His next crops will sell at the Fasig-Tipton 2017 Winter Mixed Sale and the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company 2017 Winter Mixed Sale. I expect great things of his 2 year-olds and I think his price will sky rocket once he is proven. I feel very lucky for those who are buying into Graydar now. He is a beautiful and sweet horse. He lives in the same two stall barn as California Chrome. I had the pleasure of meeting Graydar twice when I visited Chrome while he was recovering from a cannon bone bruise. I also, briefly part owned a colt by Graydar and Heavenly Ghost. I am looking forward to following that colt’s racing career.
Please, enjoy the pictures I took while I was visiting Graydar at Taylor Made Farm. He has a tale to tell with a swish of his tail. I hope his progeny sweep the races this year and he keeps on bringing us more of that great Unbridled’s Song legacy. Between these two and Tapit the whole industry may be turning up grey!
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The official start of the yearling sales season kicked off yesterday, 7/12/16, at Fasig-Tipton in Lexington, KY. This sale came one day after the Summer Selected Horses of Racing Age Sale. I was especially excited to attend day 2 because it marked the first time I part owned a Thoroughbred at an auction.
I was not on hand, due to my day job, for the horses of racing age sale. That sale was quite a success. Compared to last year, more horses were sold fetching a higher overall price, a higher average price and far fewer unsold horses. 72 horses sold versus 65 the prior year. The total sale brought in over $5 million dollars compared to less than $4 million in 2015. The average price per horse rose by over $8.5 thousand dollars. Finally, only 19 horses did not get sold this July, where as last year 31 did not sell. The sale topper was the 7-year-old mare, Storm Lucy at $575,000. Malibu Moon and War Front sired 5 Thoroughbreds each in that sale making them the top sires by numbers in the sale. Taylor Made Sales Agency was the top consignor.
The July Selected Yearling sale did not exceed 2015’s results. The number of horses sold declined, as did the total price as well as the average price while the number of horses that failed to meet the reserved price increased. The 2016 sale sold 183 Thoroughbreds versus 205 the year before. Last year’s sale made over $20 million dollars while this year brought just over $17.6. On average horses dropped from $97 thousand dollars to $86 thousand each. This year 110 horses were not sold versus only 83 the prior Summer sale. Seen above is the sales ring screen showing an Uncle Mo filly bringing in $250,000. A colt sired by Curlin, hip 222, was the sale topper at a price of $475,000.
Wearing hip 235, pictured above, is a horse that I part owned thru a pinhook partnership I bought into last Fall. He came in with a 4 way tie of top selling horses. This colt, sired by Graydar, brought a price of $200,000. He sold to Twin Creeks Racing Stable, LLC. I loved his unique coloring, best seen in the sunlight. I can not wait to see how well he does on the track later in life!
Hips 338 seen at top left was sired by Speightstown and sold for $350,000. On the right is hip 326, another horse sired by Curlin, who sold for just $90,000. He is in front of the walking ring screens as hip 324 by Stay Thirsty who sold for $260,000.
Touring the grounds a bit I saw some interesting reminders of the exciting sales graduates that Fasig-Tipton has sold before. On July 19, 1975 the Lexington location of this great auction company sold the amazing Seattle Slew for just $17,500. He went on to win the Triple Crown in 1977. He has a whole building complete with art named for him as seen above. Below, we see a reminder of American Pharaoh, our last Triple Crown winner. He was featured as a yearling at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale in New York in 2013 and bought back by his owner. This is where the next major yearling sale will take place on August 8 and 9th, The Saratoga Sale. My group has several horses in that auction so I will be following it closely.
I hope you all enjoy the yearling auctions. Check back with me weekly for more Thoroughbred news or adventures.
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I would certainly love to hop on a plane and head to some place warmer with live racing right now. Perhaps I would go to Santa Anita, Gulfstream Park, maybe even Dubai? While I may be dreaming of a snowbird get away it is a busy time at Blue Grass Airport for arrivals too. This coming Monday and Tuesday, February 8 and 9, 2016, Fasig-Tipton will hold it’s Kentucky Winter Mixed sale here in Lexington, KY.
When you build an airport in the horse capital of the world you don’t just design any ordinary airport but rather it is a special airport worthy to handle the needs of regular passengers, world wide equestrians and of course, horses! The Army began using this airport in 1942 and by 1946 the airport went commercial. Blue Grass Airport sits right in the middle of horse country. Many flight patterns go directly over Keeneland race track which is across the street and nearby Calumet Farm. In 2008 the bronze equine sculptures featured in the 2 pictures above and 1 photo below were put on the grounds at the doors to the terminal. Gwen Reardon designed this paddock scene. She is the same artist that created the works at Thoroughbred Park, which I featured in an earlier story. The Kentucky Horse Park has a life sized piece of her art too. My favorite bronze is the piece below. It looks like James E. “Ted” Bassett III playing groom. He is a former chairmen of the board at Keeneland and former president of the Breeders’ Cup. I like to eat my breakfast with him at Keeneland’s track kitchen, on special occasions, and I read his biography from cover to cover. I have watched his story played over and again on KET (Kentucky Educational Television). I own his autographed book too!
Other lovely pieces of equine art are found inside and on the grounds of the airport. The floor of the terminal lobby has a concentric designed chart depicting the lineage of 800 Thoroughbreds over 300 years. There is also a nice stained glass piece depicting Big Lex created by John F. “Zig” Zeigler. Big Lex is a blue horse who is the mascot for the Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau. He is blue from grazing on Kentucky bluegrass. He can be seen all over Lexington, even on my refrigerator and my car.
One of my favorite works, at the airport, is the enormous trompe l’oeil mural painted by Eric Henn. It is painted on the retaining wall on the edge of the runway facing Keeneland. I have a print which I have yet to get framed seen below.
It is nice that all of this beauty is at the airport for the travelers. I hope as all the visitors make their way into Lexington this weekend to prepare for the Winter Mixed Sale they take time to appreciate the art. The sale has horses foaled in France, Great Britain, Ireland, Argentina, Ontario, Louisiana, Virginia, New York, Ohio, Maryland, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, West Virginia, Indiana, Texas, California, New Jersey, Michigan, Minnesota and of course, Kentucky! H.E. Sutton Forwarding Company, also known as Tex Sutton or I prefer the name, Air Horse One, can help them ship here. They have a specially equipped Boeing 727-200 that holds 21 horses loaded 3 wide and 7 deep. The company’s symbol features Pegasus, a winged horse. The plane is labeled “First Class Equine Air Travel”. The individual stalls have seat belts and each horse is served hay and water. Human attendants accompany the horses in the aisles. The horses fly faced forward and the tallest horses are placed in the center stalls. See American Pharoah fly here: Air Horse One
I’m pretty excited thinking about the horses that will be shipping in for the sale. There are 528 entries cataloged. Hips 1 thru 296 will show on Monday and 297 thru 528 will be featured on Tuesday. The sale starts at 11 a.m. EST each day. See the catalog here: Fasig Tipton KY Winter Mixed 2016. The sale will feature a nice variety including horses of racing age, in-foal mares, 1 or more mares with foals, short yearlings and broodmare prospects, some with graded stakes credentials. Hip 255 is Trojenna, a mare by Lawyer Ron with a brand new Mucho Macho Man filly, so cute! Fasig-Tipton held it’s Midlantic Winter Sale last month. In that sale a yearling colt by Curlin was the sale topper at a price of $76,000. The KY Winter Mixed sale has 4 horses sired by Curlin. These are Naked Watch (hip 98), Princess Rocket (136), Split It (213) and Charismata (362). There are 4 yearlings by Grade 1 winning, Graydar in the sale. I met him at Taylor Made Farm this summer, so handsome. Check out some of Graydar’s 1st crop; hips 140, 149, 274 and 454. Look how sweet Graydar is below.
I hope the KY Winter Mixed sale is a big success. I would love to watch this sale’s grads race or breed new champs in the future. I can’t attend myself, due to my job, so if you make it out please tell me all about it. Who do you think will fetch the best price?
Here’s a You Tube from one of my favorite movies, “Evita”. When I think about Air Horse One, I think of this song. I love dreaming about all of favorite horses high flying around the world and how they are truly adored!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7b_p00PiXE
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TGIF! I have been one busy equestrian fan since the last post. I have never gone a week without blogging, so I am not going to miss my chance now, but it was not for lacking material this week. Since my last post I went to live racing at Churchill Downs, attended Keeneland’s September Yearling Sales again and went to the 1st of Taylor Made Farm’s California Chrome Fan Day!
Churchill Downs had just one night for Downs After Dark this September meet. I went this past Saturday, 9/19/15. I placed some of my best bets ever just going by names that I liked, mostly anything with a cat or kitten in its own name or pedigree. Starship Zeus came in 1st in the 7th race, bringing me the most money. He was sired by Bluegrass Cat. I also found Posture, who ran for Motley Crew Stables in race 2. He made me money with a nice win. I chose him because I love the rock band, Motley Crue. I enjoy night racing, the cooler summer temperatures, the sunset the lighting and the live bands make it a little extra special.
The sale at Keeneland was a good time as usual. This September Yearling sale is rather long. It began on September 14th and I went that day. It concludes tomorrow, 9/26/15. I was just there again on Wednesday, 9/23. The crowds were a lot smaller than the first day but there were still many great Thoroughbreds for sale. 280 horses were sold Wednesday, to be exact. I sat in the sales pavilion, rather stunned, as a buyer for Bridlewood Farm had bought hip #3056 for $300,000, while communicating as a person in the pavilion to a person on the other end of his cell phone. In some strange miscommunication the buyer rejected his offer of 300K which put the horse back into auction right on the spot and thus the same buyer had to pay an additional 30K for the debacle as other bidders wildly sprung into action. I must say that the auctioneer warned him. This $330,000 bay filly by Blame and 1/2 sister to Nyquist was the top seller of the day.
Today, I made it to Taylor Made Farm in Kentucky for California Chrome Fan Day! I met and petted several horses including; Graydar, Old Fashioned, Eskendereya, Astrology, Northern Afleet and California Chrome. Chrome got a little more than a petting, I gave him a quick smooch! Duncan Taylor, president, did most of the talking. I was impressed with the stories he told of hard work, a tight knit family, Christian values and a love of people and horses that he accredited to Taylor Made’s success. I was pleased when he recited the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi. He is the patron saint of animals and it comforted me to know that the farm’s animals here are loved by their owners. I thought that Pope Francis would have liked to have experienced this moment if traveling to the Horse Capital of the World was part of his United States visit. I would have be thrilled to have seen the Pope this week. I am going back to see Chrome again this Sunday and I will give you a full Fan Day story following that. Have a great weekend and enjoy a few Chrome photos!
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