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Once the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile races have been run, an assessment of the leading freshman sires can finally be made, and this year, as usual, those results have skewed the leading freshman sires ranks, as Cross Traffic, with his filly Jaywalk (who also won the Frizette S.-G1) winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies-G1, making her a millionaire in the process, and bringing his first crop earnings to $1,942,157.

When Leofric, by Candy Ride, won the Grade Two Hagyard Fayette S. at Keeneland on October 27, many things were at work to guide him to victory, among them weather and mud, because the favorite, Hofburg, clearly labored. Owned by Landers Racing, LLC, bred by Peter E. Blum, trained by Brad Cox, and ridden smartly by Florent Geroux, Leofric inherited his sire’s proclivity for getting mudders, as well as having a pedigree that in so many ways mimics that of Candy Ride’s very best runner, the magnificent Horse of the Year Gun Runner, who is out of a Giant’s Causeway mare, and whose second dam is by Quiet American, making him 4 x 4 Fappiano.

A 70/1 long shot winning the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity S. at Keeneland on October 6 created a frisson of excitement for the crowd, trainer Ben Colebrook winning his first graded stakes, jockey Albin Jiminez ditto, and especially second crop sire Paynter, whose first two crops had not been setting the world on fire—until now. The colt, Knicks Go, took the Futurity with ease, full of run, eventually winning by 5 ½ in a win that was never in question.

When Parx has its biggest race day, with two million-dollar grade one races on the card, the Cotillion S. and the Pennsylvania Derby, the biggest guns come out. No surprise, then, that the jockey known by the nickname Big Money won both, on September 22, 2018, within the space of a single hour. Smith is certainly one of the greats of all time, and his brilliant ride on Midnight Bisou, which resulted in the disqualification of the previously unbeaten Monomoy Girl, and his confident, chilly hand ride on McKinzie, proved you can have no one better at the controls. Smith is simply the Master. Whether he’s riding for Baffert or Asmussen, betting on Big Money Mike is the ultimate no brainer in racing.

The 2018 Keeneland September Sale represented change in more ways than the obvious maximizing of book one to four days, the entire first week of the sale, in reality putting book one and book two together, shortening the number of entries sold per day, and even beginning the sale at one o’clock because of the torrential rain in the weekend preceding the sale, which inhibited buyers’ ability to examine the select yearlings. It would appear that 2018 reveals a shift in the tectonic plates of the yearling market, with new stars emerging and energizing both the averages and the total amount of receipts to Keeneland.

The history of the Triple Crown can be traced to 1919, when horse racing writers took note of the first winner of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes, the great Sir Barton. However, 1930 was the year when the phrase became common parlance, when Gallant Fox won the Triple Crown for his breeder, Belair Stud, and then, five years later, his son Omaha also won the Triple Crown, the only father/son duo to complete such a feat, and for the same breeder.

The 2018 Keeneland September Sale represented change in more ways than the obvious maximizing of book one to four days, the entire first week of the sale, in reality putting book one and book two together, shortening the number of entries sold per day, and even beginning the sale at one o’clock because of the torrential rain in the weekend preceding the sale, which inhibited buyers’ ability to examine the select yearlings. It would appear that 2018 reveals a shift in the tectonic plates of the yearling market, with new stars emerging and energizing both the averages and the total amount of receipts to Keeneland.

The first day of Keeneland September usually demonstrates that nobody knows anything. Consignors, unsure about the market, set reserves too high and end up bringing yearlings home, no doubt to unhappy owners. Buyers know just as little, and wait to put their hands up in the pavilion, thinking the market will stabilize, find its own comfort zone, after day one, so that they will get their dollar’s worth. With a 35% buy back rate (25% is considered high), the first day of the epic Keeneland September Sale of 2018 demonstrates that the usual suspects with the deepest pockets – Godolphin, Coolmore, Don Alberto Stables – fear not, and plunge right into the competition for the best. There is much to be learned from day one, however.