Category Archives: Bloodstock

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.

Saturday, September 9, was officially Spendthrift Farm Day. Missed the memo? Not to worry – Spendthrift goes on innovating, with its fabulous cast of young stallions and its ways of getting breeders involved with them, getting them large books of mares to make them competitive and commercial. Mr. Hughes, the owner of Spendthrift, has done more for the little guy breeder than any other farm owner, so it’s only right that he should reap the rewards. And the rewards were plentiful on September 9.

Sophomore sire Orb didn’t make many waves as a freshman sire, but his career has now made a big splash with his first graded stakes winner, two-year-old Sippican Harbor, becoming the longshot winner of the Spinaway S.-G1 at Saratoga on Saturday, September 1. With only 83 starters, Orb now boasts 33 winners, but clearly Sippican Harbor is the belle of this ball, moving her sire up to number 12 on the second crop sires list. Sippican Harbor’s record is now three starts and two wins, for earnings of $242,650.

It’s Bob Baffert’s and Mike Smith’s world – the rest of us are just lucky to be citizens of it. On Travers S.-G1 day, August 25, the so-called undercard featured two grade one races for fillies and mares, the Personal Ensign S. and the Ballerina S., and both were won by the dynamic duo who might as well be Batman and Robin given their unbeatable heroism.

If you are a race horse owner, you know that the highs make you feel like your brain is going to explode, and the lows break your heart, over and over. My own race filly just broke her maiden, and made me the happiest person on earth for a day. August 18, the low happened – millionaire, champion, and multiple grade one winning four-year-old Unique Bella fractured a sesamoid in training and was retired.

In a weekend full of racing action, one colt stood out – Instagrand, winner of August 11th’s Best Pal S.- G2 at Del Mar. Frequently cynical racing commentators felt their blood pressure rise, and utilized the ultimate compliment when describing him -“freak.” Indeed, he had that man among boys look to him that we’ve become accustomed to seeing in Justify, that aura of professionalism one rarely sees in two-year-olds and that very masculine handsomeness.

North America has a new leading freshman sire: Uncaptured. Who? The unlikely leader is by Lion Heart (who?), a son of Tale of the Cat, not exactly a famed branch of the Storm Cat line in terms of producing sires. Millionaire earner Uncaptured was Canadian Horse of the Year and Two-Year Old Champion, the first horse since Deputy Minister to have that distinction, and was a multiple graded stakes winner at two. But no one expected this relatively unheralded young stud to surpass Goldencents on the leading freshman sires list.

Revolutionary’s two-year old daughter Maiden Beauty lived up to her name on Sunday, July 15, when, in her debut start, she won the Lynnbrook S. for New York-breds at Belmont by 3 ¼ lengths. A $15,000 weanling at Fasig Tipton November and a $40,000 two-year old buy back at OBS April (though she worked 10 3/5), she defeated the favorite, Tossup, a $230,000 Keeneland September yearling by star sire Pioneer of the Nile.