Keeneland, Plenty Of Fireworks
| Keeneland, Plenty Of Fireworks 12 September, 2012 – Lisa Barrett |
The select portion of the Keeneland Yearling sale went off with a bang yesterday as five horses commanded seven figure sums, despite the gross being down almost 34% from 2011. Though buyers were selective, they seemed willing to pay top dollar for good quality stock, and this was reflected in the average and the median which were up 14.3% and 16.7% respectively from the previous year.
Generally vendors were satisfied with the results from the first day, accepting the quirks and idiosyncrasies of the market.
Top seller of the session was the colt by champion sire, Distorted Humor, who was snapped up by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan for $1.65 million. The first produce, his dam, Mushka is the highly regarded Grade One winning daughter of Storm Cat, a winner of the Juddmonte Spinster Stakes (Gr.1), and game runner-up to Life Is Sweet in the Breeders Cup Ladies Classic (Gr.1) in 2009, she was retired to stud after suffering an ankle injury.
The other top yearling in the sale was the $1.3 million half-sister to Bodemeister, winner of the Arkansas Derby (Gr.1) and hapless runner-up to I’ll Have Another in two legs of America’s Triple Crown, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. The elegant daughter of Smart Strike will be sent into training with Hall Of Fame trainer Bob Baffert when she is ready for racing.
Rounding out the top three priced yearlings of the session was the aptly named filly A.P.Sonata, a $1.1 million purchase, from A.P.Indy’s final crop.
Encouraging for many, will be the high turnovers generated by foreign buyers at the sale, apart from His Highness Sheikh Hamdan, the top buyer in the session, with $3.8 million for four lots, and the Florida-based Whisper Hill farm who purchased just three lots for $2.25 million, the Japanese weighed in with $1,975,000 for four lots during the select session of the sale.
Distorted Humor was crowned America’s leading sire in 2011, with 19 Stakes, and 12 Group One winners alone. One of Forty Niner’s best sons at stud, Distorted Humor has the rare distinction of siring a Kentucky Derby winner in Funny Cide (2003), and being the sire of a Kentucky Derby winner, Flower Alley who in turn is the sire of two legs of this year’s American Triple Crown, the (Gr.1) Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes before succumbing to injury which prevented a possible Triple Crown win.
| Lisa Barrett – Guest Writer “Lisa Barrett”, her psuedonym, currently works at a stud farm in the KZN Midlands. She is absolutely and totally crazy about horses and every aspect of them. She is fascinated by every aspect of the racehorse business, especially pedigrees and would like to one day write a book on her favourite sire! |