Auction results prove that the sport is alive and well

Havre De Grace after her final bid (Photo: Melissa Bauer-Herzog)

 Monday’s Fasig-Tipton event not only had excitement fill the ring when reigning Horse of the Year Havre De Grace went for $10 million, it also proved that no matter the issues that surround racing, people are still spending money on the sport.

The buyers at Fasig-Tipton spent $60,220,000 to take home 87 horses, including 15 that went for $1 million or more on Monday night. The sale lasted for more than five hours, starting at 5 p.m. and not ending until after 10, but even the final horse, a half-sister to this year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner George Washington, didn’t stop the bidding until she hit $545,000. She didn’t sell but the final bid topped off a night that saw the cheapest horse sold go for $20,000.

Some of those sold on Monday night were Grade 1 winners or producers, Breeders’ Cup winners, or Eclipse Champions. Others were young horses who haven’t yet had a chance to prove that they are a name to remember but with 134 of the 180 horses cataloged going through the ring and 87 of those horses selling, it is evident that no matter what the prestige of the animal in the ring, buyers are willing to spend their money.

Even though the final auction of the season at Fasig-Tipton’s Lexington grounds is over, Keeneland's 10 day finale is currently in progress. The Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale started less than 12 hours after the end of Fasig-Tipton and from the results of the first session, it is obvious that some buyers have moved across town to the other pavilion.

Switch on her way to selling for $4.3 million at Fasig-Tipton's Monday night sale.
Some notable horses are still to come in the next week and the excitement that was felt in the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion Monday night is sure to stay alive until the last horse leaves the ring. In the first day of the sale, five horses sold for over $1 million with last year's Kentucky Oaks winner Plum Pretty topping the session at $4.2 million.

After Keeneland's sale ends on the 16th, buyers will be given a little over a month off before focus turns to breeding season and the next round of sales. If those sales bring the results that have been seen in the ring the first full week of November, fans can be assured that the future of racing is bright.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bargain Sire: Tale of the Cat

Image
Tale of the Cat in 2014 A Grade 2 winner at seven furlongs and Grade 1 placed at nine furlongs, Tale of the Cat (Storm Cat) was more than useful as a racehorse. His successful racing career turned out to be a foreshadowing of his stud career when he joined the stallion ranks in 1999, retiring to Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky for $25,000.  By a top sire in Storm Cat and from a strong female family that includes champion Johannesburg (Hennessy) (out of Tale of the Cat’s half-sister) and Pulpit (A.P. Indy), Tale of the Cat has constantly ranked in the top 30 on the General Sires list since graduating from the crop-specific lists (where he was ranked in the top five on the first, second and third crop sires lists). While never a leading General Sire, Tale of the Cat is more often than not seen in the top 15 with his best ranking on that list being a seventh. The stallion has also done well enough with his 2-year-olds to lead the Two-Year-Old Sires list in 2003 and to rank second o
Read more

The Impact of El Prado

Image
When El Prado (Sadler’s Wells) was imported to the United States after being purchased from Coolmore by Frank Stronach in the early 1990s, very few breeders were willing to give El Prado a shot.  "No one wanted a son of Sadler’s Wells in America,” Dermot Carty, who bought the horse for Stronach, told Blood-Horse when the stallion died. “Everyone saw him as just a grass horse, but now he’s a broodmare sire, a sire of sires, and he’s made history. It was a gamble … to buy a son of Sadler’s Wells was a major move, but it paid off." But over 20 years later, El Prado has made a major impact on the breed in North America. El Prado started his breeding career at Airdrie Stud in Kentucky for Stronach, who didn’t have a stallion operation at the time. Within a few years, Stronach’s opened up Adena Springs stallion facility and El Prado became one of the cornerstones of the operation.   Video courtesy of Thoroughbred Horses in Kentucky "He put us on the map,&q
Read more

New Stallion: Honor Code

Image
Honor Code One of the best-bred stallions to retire to stud anywhere in the world in 2016, Honor Code made A.P. Indy’s (Seattle Slew) final crop a truly memorable one.  Racing for the partnership of Lane’s End Racing and Dell Ridge Farm, Honor Code made his debut at Saratoga in late August of his 2-year-old year. Racing from what would become his customary back-of-the-pack position, he made easy work of the field when winning by 4 ½ lengths for trainer Shug McGaughey with John Velazquez aboard.  Honor Code earned a Grade 1 placing in his second start finishing only a neck behind Havana (Dunkirk) in the Grade 1 Foxwoods Champagne Stakes with Javier Castellano, who would be come his regular jockey, aboard . The Grade 2 Remsen really showed Honor Code’s mettle when the colt went head-to-head with Cairo Prince (Pioneerof the Nile) in the stretch, who passed him at one point . Honor Code battl ed back to win by a nose to put both horses in Kentucky Derby conversations. But McGa
Read more