All Equine All The Time

Tapit controlled the Saratoga Selected Yearlings sale Though they attract different groups of buyers, Saratoga’s Selected Yearlings and New York-bred Preferred Yearlings sales had similarities besides just using the same sales grounds when they took place over the past week. Read on to see some interesting tidbits about both sales. Big money horses – While the numbers were slightly down at the Selected Yearlings sale, the sale didn’t see that big of a hit on horses who brought $500,000 or more with 23 selling in that price range vs. 24 in 2015. At the New York-bred Preferred sale, the sale topper was actually $100,000 more expensive this year and the same amount of horses (seven) sold for $250,000 or more as last year. Orb, standing at Claiborne, had a $450,000 yearling at the Select sale Kentucky Sires – Even though there were a variety of sires at both sales with sires from abroad represented in both sales (in some cases, moving out of the country after this crop was...

If one wants to find a successful Mr. Prospector son, they need to look no farther than multiple Group 1 Machiavellian. Bred in Kentucky, Machiavellian was the first foal out of the impressive and blueblooded group stakes winning Halo mare Coup de Folie. Raced in Europe for Stavros Niarchos after selling as a yearling for $825,000, Coup de Folie returned to the United States at the end of 1985 for her first breeding season. Bred in the spring of 1986 she delivered a dark bay colt, later named Machiavellian, in January 1987. Machiavellian was sent to France as a yearling and joined Francois Boutin’s string for his racing career.  Debuting in early August 1989, he won his first start by two lengths over another Mr. Prospect son in Jade Robbery. Machiavellian then reeled off two straight Group 1 wins in three weeks when winning the Prix Morny Agence Francaise on Aug. 20 followed by the Sept. 10 Prix de la Salamandre. His season ended after the second victory but it was still ...

Northern Dancer ( WikiMedia Commons photo) On July 16, attention turns to fillies in Ireland when the 2016 Darley Irish Oaks takes place at the Curragh. Twelve fillies from seven different barns will line up to join a winner’s list that has seen names such as Ouija Board, Alexandrova, Peeping Fawn, Snow Fairy, Blue Bunting and Chicquita join it in recent years. International breeders will be paying close attention to this race as during the 2016 season, the eight sires represented in the entries stood in three different countries (Ireland, France, Germany) with no grandsire represented by more than one son. Not surprisingly, Galileo leads all sires by the number of runners with four in addition to being the grandsire of the Teofilo daughter Ajman Princess. As has been on prominent display in 2016, Galileo is turning into just as important a broodmare sire as a sire and he has two chances to pick up another classic win in that category here (Red Stars and Turret Rocks). ...

Donegal Moon The first yearling sale of the season is behind us with the Fasig-Tipton holding a two day sale on Monday and Tuesday that kicked off with a special evening session for a Horses of Racing Age sale with the yearling session the following day. After taking a day to dive into the sales results, here are a few observations from the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July Sale. Testing the waters with Donegal Moon – Every year a handful of stallion prospects who still have some racing left to do go through the ring. But not many go through the ring in July of their 3-year-old year off a victory that makes it look like they can make a lot of noise the second half of this year. It was unknown how a type like Donegal Moon would go over in the ring but he proved that there is money out there for types like him if owners want to take it. He drew a final bid of $1.6-million, which wasn’t enough to get him sold but does open doors for this sale in the future if they want to try and recru...

An Animal Kingdom filly at Keeneland January The first major yearling sale in the United States every year, this year’s Fasig Tipton July Sale has 347 yearlings by 115 sires entered before outs. Sires with first yearlings are in the spotlight here with 32 freshmen represented but they aren’t the only stars people will be watching on July 12. Here are five sires (or group of sires in one case), both new and old, to be aware of when you flip through the catalog this week. Animal Kingdom - Of the 12 Animal Kingdom weanlings who went through the ring last year in the U.S., 11 sold with his most expensive being a $210,000 filly out of a daughter of multiple Grade 1 winner Precious Kitten and his most expensive colt being a $180,000 half-brother to Grade 1 winner Ice Box. Animal Kingdom started his stud career in Australia for the 2013 southern hemisphere season before shuttling to Darley America in 2014. His first yearlings in Australia hit the sales earlier this year with 46 of t...

The late Scat Daddy had a 100 percent win rate at Royal Ascot When 455 horses entered the gate during the 30 races held over the five days of the 2016 Royal Ascot meet, their owners weren’t the only ones hoping for wins. One hundred and seventy-three stallions standing in 19 countries were represented by at least one runner. While some of those stallions have either died or pensioned in the years between the time their Royal Ascot entries were conceived and the 2016 meet, many of the breeders who stand those who are still active were hoping for a good showing at the meet to add to their stud record. By the end of the five days, the offspring of 24 stallions got their picture taken after passing the winning post first. Standing in six countries, all but three of the winning sires are still active in the shed. Early in the week the late Scat Daddy and Kodiak looked like they may be able to sneak away with the leading sire title when they both had two winners each but in the ...

Tapit The 2016 U.S. Triple Crown season is rapidly disappearing in the rearview mirror, along with the northern hemisphere breeding season. But even though the Triple Crown preps don’t hit high gear until the middle of the breeding season, every result can impact the breeding industry for seasons to come. From first crop sire Uncle Mo making waves with his runners to stalwart stallions having their say in the Triple Crown races, r ead on to learn about some of the more interesting pedigree notes that came out of this year’s Road to the Triple Crown. Seventeen stallions sired Kentucky Derby prep race winners – Eight of those sired one winner on the Road to the Kentucky Derby while Tapit led all sires with six prep winners followed by Uncle Mo with five. The average stud fees of the stallions in 2012 when this crop of 3-year-old were conceived was $43,088 – The lowest stud fee was Holy Bull at $10,000 and the highest was Bernardini at $150,000. The average age of the st...