Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Keeneland sale starts strong
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Lady Eli, the popular champion who captivated the racing world with her fiery spirit and triumph over laminitis, drew one last public round of applause as she lit up the bid board at $4.2 million at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale, which was off to a solid start early this week.
Lady Eli, who sold to Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm, and Grade 2 winner My Miss Sophia, purchased for $4 million by bloodstock agent Steve Young, highlighted robust trade during Monday’s singlesession Book 1 portion at Keeneland November. A total of 120 horses sold for gross receipts of $56,429,000. The average price finished at $470,242, while the median was $350,000.
Keeneland tweaked the format of its November mixed sale this year, becoming more selective with the marquee Book 1 offerings by cutting this portion of the sale from two days down to the single session. The two sessions that made up Book 1 last year closed with 201 horses sold for revenues of $83,996,000. The average price finished at $417,891, and the median was $300,000, meaning 2018’s single session showed gains in those figures for this portion of the market.
Keeneland opened its twosession Book 2 portion on Tuesday with comparable market gains as well. A total of 223 horses sold for gross receipts of $34,942,000, resulting in an average price of $156,691 and median of $125,000. In the first of the two Book 2 sessions in last year’s renewal of Keeneland November – which was the third of the sale overall – a total of 229 horses sold for $31,774,000. The average was $138,751 and the median was $120,000, meaning this year’s comparable Book 2 opener showed gains of 13 percent and 4 percent, respectively, in those categories. Tuesday’s buyback rate remained steady at 27 percent.
A total of eight horses had changed hands for seven figures at Keeneland through Tuesday, led by Lady Eli who will return to the farm she shipped to the sale grounds from. Hill ‘n’ Dale has been boarding Lady Eli for the last year, since her retirement from the racetrack following the 2017 Breeders’ Cup, and consigned her on behalf of the Sheep Pond Partners of Jay Hanley and Sol Kumin, who do not have breeding operations. Hill ‘n’ Dale’s John Sikura ultimately decided to add the Divine Park mare to his broodmare band. She is carrying her first foal, which is believed to be a colt, to the cover of successful international sire War Front.
“We’re thrilled to add her to our broodmare band,” Sikura said. “We try to keep adding elite-quality mares and keep upping the competition and looking to the future, and she’s a mare who really is everything that one could ask for. Courage, heart, class, ability, physicality, in foal to a great horse, carrying a colt. It’s a lot of money for a horse, but it’s extremely good value, and we’re thrilled to own her.”
Accelerate’s fee set at $20,000
Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Accelerate will debut for a stud fee of $20,000 at Lane’s End Farm in 2019, the farm has announced.
Accelerate keys a strong incoming trio for Lane’s End, which will also welcome Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner City of Light and champion West Coast, both for $35,000. All three are from sirelines Lane’s End has cultivated. City of Light is by current Lane’s End stallion Quality Road; West Coast, by Flatter, is a grandson of the pensioned leading sire A.P. Indy; and Accelerate, by Lookin At Lucky, is a grandson of the late leading sire Smart Strike.
Accelerate won five Grade 1 events during a 2018 campaign that is certain to earn him an Eclipse Award as champion older dirt male. Those awards are presented in late January, the same week as the $9 million Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park, in which Accelerate and City of Light are expected to meet in their final career starts. Accelerate and West Coast – who finished seventh in the Breeders’ Cup Classic in his final start – both were vanned from Churchill Downs to Lane’s End on Sunday in order to show to breeders in town for the major Kentucky breeding stock sales. Accelerate, who was accompanied by a groom, was then to return to trainer John Sadler in California.
I’ll Have Another back to U.S.
Dual classic winner and champion I’ll Have Another, who has spent his entire stud career in Japan, will relocate to stand at Ballena Vista Farm in California for the 2019 season, a major coup for the regional program.
“I truly consider bringing champion I’ll Have Another back to the States as one of the most satisfying and one of the best things I’ve ever done in the Thoroughbred industry,” Ballena Vista owner Donald Cohn said. “He is a magnificent specimen and a true champion racehorse, the likes of what we in California have never had the opportunity to stand.”
I’ll Have Another, by Flower Alley, won the 2012 Robert B. Lewis Stakes, Santa Anita Derby, Kentucky Derby, and Preakness Stakes in succession. However, he was scratched from the Belmont Stakes the day before the race with an injury and retired, bringing his Triple Crown quest to a shocking end. He still was voted the Eclipse Award champion 3-year-old male for the season.
I’ll Have Another was purchased from owner J. Paul Reddam by Japanese interests and exported to stand at Big Red Farm beginning in 2013. I’ll Have Another, whose oldest foals are 4, is the sire of 118 winners to date, led by Group 3 placed Sigrun and Win Gerbera and stakes-placed Hypernova.
Ballena Vista, located in Ramona, Calif., has made major moves to bolster its stallion roster in recent years, bringing in proven regional sire Bluegrass Cat from New York and acquiring Eddington from Claiborne Farm. The operation added Grade 2 winner Texas Ryano this year, and next season will debut multiple stakes winner Conquest Fahrenheit, a son of the late Scat Daddy.