Giant’s Causeway Filly Tops Keeneland Sale At $6 Million

Giant’s Causeway, the sire of Scott Bros’ sire Eightfold Path and the now deceased Await The Dawn from Summerhill Stud, produced the sales topper at Keeneland last night when Take Charge Brandi sold for $6 million. Eightfold Path and Await The Dawn will have their first crop of yearlings on offer in 2016.

Champion Take Charge Brandi became the new Keeneland November breeding stock sale topper when with Hill ‘n’ Dale’s John Sikura signing the ticket. She was consigned by Hill ‘n’ Dale Sales on behalf of owner Willis Horton.

The 3-year-old daughter of Giant’s Causeway was champion 2-year-old filly of 2014 after she won the 14 Hands Winery Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Gr1 for Horton and trainer D. Wayne Lukas.

Lukas and Horton were sitting together at the sale. Lukas said Horton agonized over the decision before opting to sell the filly.

“We’re glad it went the way it did. I had no idea where it’d all end up. She’s special and you just can’t buy that family; it’s a broodmare of the year,” Lukas said. “The horse industry is very good right now.”

Sikura said the price ended up where he expected.

“I thought that mare was a $5 million to $6 million mare,” Sikura said. “She’s a champion, has a unique pedigree, is a beautiful individual, and you saw a weanling filly from the immediate family bring $3.2 million, so it’s a highly coveted family in the marketplace.

“So, top to bottom on any metric of the way you want to measure value, she had it: pedigree, performance, champion, temperament, active family, by the right sire, everything.”

Eightfold Path is a French Gr3 winner of the Prix Eclipse over 1200m. The stallion is producing outstanding foals with great size and substance, as is Await The Dawn whose last crop are being foaled this year – leaving just two crops before his untimely death.

A common denominator amongst the foals from both stallions are their size and substance, with really good bone beneath the knees – a trait from their sire, the “iron horse” Giant’s Causeway, a Champion son of Storm Cat. He is also the sire of a top stallion in Sharmadal.

The first yearlings from Eightfold Path and Await The Dawn will fall under the auction hammer in 2016.

– extract bloodhorse.com