All Equine All The Time

Curlin's Stellar Wind On Saturday the Road to the Breeders’ Cup gets interesting with the second of three big weekends full of prep races. Santa Anita, the host of this year’s Breeders’ Cup, has five graded stakes carded for Saturday while Belmont also has five graded stakes during its first of two “Super Saturdays.” With 82 horses entered as of Wednesday, it left more than enough chances for a variety of stallions to pick up some valuable stakes placings for their resumes heading into the final months before breeding season. In all, 65 stallions have horses running in the major graded stakes on Saturday with 14 sires represented by two or more horses. Interestingly, North America’s top two sires don’t have any entries in these races with both Tapit and Uncle Mo sitting this “Super Saturday” out (Uncle Mo does have an entry in the ungraded Unzip Me Stakes taking place as Santa Anita’s finale on Saturday.) However, the nation’s other top sires have a chance to make ...

Saturday evening, the first two Books of Keeneland’s September Yearling sale wrapped up after a week that included a history making offering at the end of Book 1 when Beholder’s half-brother brought $3-million, the highest price at the sale since 2010. With a mixed bag of numbers in both books, the sale had both buyers and consignors on their toes.  But outside the numbers, there were also a number of interesting things going on over the past week. Read on to find out which sires hit it big and which buyers made big splashes during the first five sessions of the sale. Scat Daddy – When Scat Daddy (Johannesburg) died suddenly in December, it was a major loss to the industry. Leaving behind eight crops, Scat Daddy had hit his best stride in the last few years and has the two best 2-year-olds in Europe this year with Caravaggio and Lady Aurelia in addition to Grade 1 U.S. runners like Dacita and Harmonize. That success made Scat Daddy a popular sire at Keeneland September this ...

Hip 37 - Galileo x Society Selection In a sale that routinely attracts international buyers, it’s not a surprise to see internationals of another sort represented at the Keeneland September sale Sept. 12 through 25. Yearlings by nine stallions standing in England, France, Ireland and Japan are scheduled to go through the ring over the next two weeks. As seems to be the case every time he is mentioned, Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) is again a leader here. The stallion’s seven yearlings lead all the foreign stallions with all seven in the first three sessions (Book 1) of the sale. Last year at this sale, Galileo had four go through the ring and while none hammered for lower than $290,000 only a filly out of Anne of Kiev, who brought $320,000, sold. The previous year, of the five to go through the ring three sold with Galileo’s most expensive offering bringing $425,000. Galileo isn’t only a sire with yearling offerings at this sale, three of his European sons also have horses in ...

Into Mischief had multiple winners at both tracks. Known as the traditional unveiling places of some of the best 2-year-olds in the nation, Del Mar and Saratoga’s 2-year-old races are closely watched every July and August as people try to find the next rising stars of the sport. But there’s more to the racing than just the names of the winners and the times they win in. Keep reading to find out 15 facts about this year’s 2-year-old races at the premiere summer tracks in North America. Del Mar ran 73 2-year-old races with Saratoga running 80 2-year-old races. At Del Mar, five 2-year-olds won two races each. They include Klimt (Quality Road), who won both the Best Pal Stakes and Del Mar Futurity and With Honors (War Front), who broke her maiden in late July at the track before winning the Del Mar Juvenile fillies Turf on closing day. In Saratoga, four 2-year-olds won two races each. Coasted (Tizway) broke her maiden on turf on Aug. 7 then won the P.G. Johnson on Sep...

Every year, the Keeneland September sale provides the racing industry with a view of the progeny of hundreds of different sires during its two week sale. This year, over 4,475 horses are cataloged for the Lexington, Ky. sale taking place Sept. 12 through 25 and for a variety of reasons, the final U.S. conceived yearlings by multiple stallions will be going through the ring at the September sale this year. Below are six stallions who have at least two yearlings from their final U.S. crop cataloged in the sale. Disclaimer: In the case of stallions who have been sold to other countries, there is no guarantee that they will not return to the United States. This piece is noting their disappearance from the U.S. stallion ranks at this time. Dunkirk The leading North American freshman sire in 2013, when Dunkirk (Unbridled’s Song) was sold to Japan in mid-2014, he had five stakes winners including the Grade 1 winning Havana. Dunkirk finished sixth on the second-crop list in 20...

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 ...