Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Elusive Quality, leading sire of 2004, euthanized at 25
Elusive Quality, a world record-setting miler and North America’s leading sire of 2004, has been euthanized due to the infirmities of old age, Darley said Wednesday. He was 25.
The son of Gone West was bred in Kentucky by Silver Springs Stud Farm and Marie Costelloe and was purchased privately by Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum. He was placed in the barn of trainer Bill Mott and didn’t debut until May of his 3-year-old season, winning by 11 1/2 lengths at Belmont Park. Later that season, Elusive Quality finished second by a nose in the Grade 2 King’s Bishop at Saratoga.
Elusive Quality’s most lucra- tive season came at age 5 after he switched to grass. He won the Grade 3 Jaipur and Grade 3 Poker handicaps at Belmont Park and set a world record for a mile on turf in the Poker at 1:31.63.
Elusive Quality was retired with nine wins in 20 starts for earnings of $413,284. He entered stud in 1999 at Gainsborough Farm in Versailles, Ky., and moved to Darley’s Jonabell Farm in 2006.
The stallion got off the mark quickly with his first two crops of runners, led by champion and dual classic winner Smarty Jones, Canadian champion sprinter Maryfield, and French Group 1 winner Elusive City. He finished 2004 as North America’s leading sire by progeny earnings with $10,756,659.
“Elusive Quality represented so many things to so many people,” said Dan Pride, chief operating officer of Godolphin in America. “He was one of Sheikh Mohammed’s early racing successes here in the U.S., and he then was the second stallion to stand for him in America, with Quiet American being the first. His son Smarty Jones won the Derby and captured the hearts of a nation. And to the team here at Jonabell, he was just a pleasure to be around, and he’s going to be greatly missed.”
After 2004, his Northern Hemisphere crops were led by European champion Elusive Kate, champion steeplechaser Demonstrative, 2008 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Raven’s Pass, and Grade 1 winner Quality Road.
Elusive Quality was a frequent shuttle stallion to the Southern Hemisphere, standing six seasons in Australia and two in Brazil.
His Australian-sired runners are led by Sepoy, the country’s champion 2-year-old colt of 2011 and champion 3-year-old colt of 2012. In Brazil, he’s led by champion sprinter Sai de Baxio and champion juvenile Ana Luisa.
OBS March down from 2017
The 2018 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. March 2-year-olds in training sale could not keep up with the record gross and average sale price set last year, but figures still compared favorably to recent editions and were led by an $875,000 Scat Daddy filly.
The two-day auction finished with 248 juveniles sold for $42,299,000, down 25 percent from last year’s record gross of $56,510,000 from 301 horses sold. The average sale price also came down from a record high, falling 9 percent to $170,560 from $187,741, while the median rose 16 percent to $110,000 from $95,000.
While the gross and average saw noticeable drops from last year, the average still outperformed the 2016 OBS March sale and tied the 2015 sale.
The buyback rate finished at 30 percent, compared with 27 percent in 2017.
The OBS March sale went without a seven-figure horse for the first time since 2012, after five crossed that threshold last year. The number of horses sold for $500,000 or more fell to 17 from 30, while transactions at or above the $250,000 price point dropped to 63 from 72.
The sale-topper came during Tuesday’s opening session, when Phoenix Thoroughbreds bought a filly from the final crop of the late Scat Daddy for $875,000.
The dark bay or brown filly is out of the unraced Royal Academy mare Accusation, whose eight foals to race are all winners, including Grade 3 winner Sharp Sensation and stakes-placed Edgerin J, True Religion, and Innocent Man. True Religion is also a stakes producer.
Bred in Kentucky by Hunter Valley Farm, the filly is from the family of Epsom Derby winner Benny the Dip and Grade 3/Group 3 winners Cryptic Rascal and Beggarman Thief.
The filly breezed an eighth of a mile in 9 4/5 seconds during the pre-sale under-tack show, tying for the fastest time at the distance for this year’s sale. The horses breezed over the Ocala Training Center’s all-weather Safetrack surface.
Hartley/De Renzo Thoroughbreds consigned the filly at the OBS March sale.