October, 2021 | Horse Racing Free Tips

First-Crop Catalina Cruiser Filly Leads Record Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Fall Sale Return

The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Fall Sale returned Monday to Saratoga Springs, N.Y., after a hiatus in 2020 to establish new sale records for gross and top price paid for a weanling.

A filly from the first crop of multiple Grade 2 winner Catalina Cruiser topped the sale when sold for a record $195,000 to Reeves Thoroughbred Racing (video).

The chestnut filly was consigned as Hip 215 by Sequel New York, agent. The filly is the third foal out of the stakes winning Red Giant mare Catcha Rising Star, from the immediate family of Grade 2 winners Ten Below and Fortnightly. Hip 215 was bred in New York by Gentry Stable LLC. She is now the most expensive weanling ever sold at The Saratoga Fall Sale, and the highest since a colt by Into Mischief out of Darling Mambo sold for $170,000 in 2017.

A pair of weanling colts sold for $120,000 to round out the top three:

Hip 199, a colt by Kantharos, purchased by St Elias Stables for $120,000 from the consignment of Vinery Sales, agent. Out of Bella Cara, a half-sister to the dam of multiple graded stakes-winning millionaire Fear the Cowboy, Hip 199 was bred in New York by SGO Thoroughbred LLC.
Hip 265, a colt from the second crop of multiple Grade 1 winner Bolt d'Oro, purchased by Willow Brook Stables, agent for $120,000 from the consignment of Summerfield, agent. The second foal out of Judge Lee, a winning Street Cry (IRE) half-sister to multiple stakes winner Euro Platnum, Hip 265 was bred in New York by Matthew Nestor.

The session's top broodmare came in the form of Nice Smile, carrying her first foal by multiple Grade 1 winner Vekoma, which sold for $70,000 to Goose Wickes.

The 5-year-old daughter of Smiling Tiger was offered as Hip 12 by Stuart Morris, agent for Tocky Top Racing and Highclere Inc., et al. Nice Smile is a half-sister to Grade 1 placed stakes winner Red Vine (Candy Ride), who earned more than $775,000 on the track. Her dam, Murky Waters, is a half-sister to multiple graded stakes winning millionaire Fort Prado and stakes winner Cammack.

Overall, 163 horses sold for $3,657,800, a sale record gross and an 8.1 percent increase over the 2019 total, when 134 sold for $3,384,000. The average was $22,440. Seven weanlings sold for six figures.

Results are available online.

The post First-Crop Catalina Cruiser Filly Leads Record Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Fall Sale Return appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Does Your Horse Have Cushing’s? Researchers Need To Hear From You

Scientists at the University of Kentucky's Gluck Equine Research Center and the University College Dublin have partnered to create a large-scale, 12-month study to determine if blue light can be used to help horses suffering from pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID or Cushing's Disease).

Dr. Barbara Anne Murphy, head of equine science at the School of Agriculture and Food Science at University College Dublin, and Dr. Amanda Adams of the Gluck Center are looking for horses to take part in the study to determine if exposure to blue light would minimize the development of the long, thick haircoat that is a hallmark of horses with PPID. Each participant will receive an Equilume light mask for their participation, whether their horse wears the mask or is a control horse.

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Owners or managers of horses with diagnosed PPID and that have a long, curly hair coat are invited to complete a short questionnaire by October 22 to see if they are eligible to participate. Medicated and unmedicated horses can apply.

The study will require monthly hair sample collection, as well as the completion of bi-monthly questionnaires and the provision of images.

Click here to complete the questionnaire

Catalina Cruiser Filly Tops Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale

The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Fall Sale, canceled last year due to the pandemic, returned to the Humphrey S. Pavilion Monday with a weanling filly from the first crop of multiple graded stakes winner Catalina Cruiser (Union Rags) (hip 215) bringing top price of $195,000. The filly, bred by Robert Chasanoff's Gentry Stable and consigned by Sequel New York, was purchased by Dean and Patti Reeves, in partnership with Steven Rocco.

“That's as balanced and as solid a looking filly as I've seen in a long time,” Dean Reeves said of the weanling. “She seems to be pretty special. We can just imagine what she'll look like as a 2-year-old when we get her back up here to New York to run.”

The sale-topper is out of stakes winner Catcha Rising Star (Red Giant), who was purchased by Chasanoff for $85,000 at the 2017 Keeneland November sale.

The Reeveses also purchased the weanling's half-sister by Liam's Map for $260,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-bred Yearling Sale in August.

“We really like that mare,” Reeves said. “We are excited to have this family, we think it's going to be a pretty solid family.”

Catcha Rising Star, in foal to Honest Mischief, also sold Monday. She was acquired by Thorndale Farm for $53,000.

The Reeveses will be heading to the Breeders' Cup with another graduate of the Saratoga Fall Sale. The couple purchased Dakota Gold (Freud) for $83,000 at the auction's 2019 renewal. The juvenile is now two-for-two and punched his ticket to championship weekend with a win in the Nownownow S. at Monmouth Park Sept. 26.

“I think it's a great value sale and I think when you look at it, the really superlative horses stand out,” Reeves said. “I have found that that translates into a nice runner and you get a really great bang for your buck. We are up here in the summers and we like racing in the New York program and having these runners. Then sometimes you get one like Dakota Gold that steps outside of the New York-bred program that shows he's got some talent and here we are with him in the Breeders' Cup.”

Reeves Thoroughbred Racing purchased four weanlings at the Fall sale Monday. In addition to the sale topper, the operation also acquired a colt by Freud (hip 256) for $100,000, a colt by Malibu Moon (hip 159) for $95,000 and a filly by Mucho Macho Man (hip 92) for $40,000.

“I have to give a lot of credit to Jimmy Gladwell who helped me look at these horses,” Reeves said. “He's got a great eye. He's been up here helping Patti and me look at the horses and talked about what we need in the stable to try to be competitive in the next couple of years.”

The weanling purchases weren't the only successes for the Reeveses in upstate New York Monday. The couple was represented by Senbei (Candy Ride {Arg}), impressive winner of the New York Breeders' Futurity at Finger Lakes.

“I love him,” Reeves, who watched the race between bidding in the upstairs lounge in the sales pavilion, said of the two-time stakes winning juvenile. “He's just a really competitive young horse.”

The sale-topper was one of seven weanlings to bring six figures at the Fall sale. Vinnie Viola's St Elias Stables purchased three of those seven lots, led by a colt by Kantharos (hip 199) who sold for $120,000 and a pair of colts by the operation's GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner Vino Rosso (hip 292 and hip 214) who each sold for $100,000. St Elias also purchased a filly by Connect (hip 185) for $95,000.

The 5-year-old Nice Smile (Smiling Tiger), in foal to multiple Grade I winner Vekoma, was the auction's top-priced mare when selling for $70,000 to Goose Wickes.

In all, 163 head sold for $3,657,800 for an average of $22,440 and a median of $10,000. With 69 horses reported not sold, the buy-back rate was 29.7%.

“As usual, it's a competitive market for those horses who are pretty good standouts,” Reeves said of the market in Saratoga Monday.

During the 2019 Fall sale, 134 lots grossed $3,384,700 for an average of $25,259 and a median of $15,000. The buy-back rate was 38% and six horses sold for six figures.

The post Catalina Cruiser Filly Tops Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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WinStar Stallions Distorted Humor, Congrats Retired From Stud Duty

The upcoming breeding season marks a departure from WinStar Farm's stallion ranks for long-standing cornerstones Distorted Humor and Congrats as both are being retired from stud duty, the farm announced today.

Distorted Humor, a champion freshman sire and a champion general sire, served an instrumental role in helping WinStar scale new heights as a breeding operation, and the esteemed stallion has sired a plethora of big-name horses in a spectacular career at stud. Numbered among his top runners are classic winners Drosselmeyer and Funny Cide, and Grade 1 winners Commentator, Any Given Saturday, Flower Alley, Hystericalady, Boisterous, Awesome Humor, Restless Rider, and many others.

“We all owe Distorted Humor a debt of gratitude for all he has done for WinStar Farm, my family, and the many breeders who supported him from his humble beginnings,” said Elliott Walden, WinStar's president, CEO, and racing manager. “He will be missed in the breeding shed this year, but we are so grateful that we can continue to see him at WinStar for the foreseeable future. What a horse.”

Over the last decade, Distorted Humor has also emerged as one of the leading and most influential broodmare sires in recent memory, being represented by such horses as racing's all-time leading earner Arrogate ($17,422,600), Elate, Practical Joke, New Money Honey, and Constitution. This year, he is represented as a broodmare sire by Grade 1 Woodward Stakes winner Art Collector, a leading candidate for next month's $6 million Breeders' Cup Classic.

Distorted Humor entered stud in 1999 and has provided many seminal moments during his remarkable and lengthy career as a stallion. He topped all freshman sires in 2002 and he was North America's leading general sire in 2011, the same year, his son and leading earner, Drosselmeyer ($3,728.170) captured the Breeders' Cup Classic. Drosselmeyer was also a classic winner, having won the 2010 Belmont Stakes. In 2003, Distorted Humor's Funny Cide, bred by WinStar and campaigned by Sackatoga Stable, won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes on his way to a career bankroll of $3,529,412.

A son of champion Forty Niner out of Danzig's Beauty, by Danzig, Distorted Humor is the sire of 163 black-type winners and 71 graded stakes winners with more than $152 million in total progeny earnings.

While he has made an indelible imprint on the breed as a stallion, Distorted Humor, bred in Kentucky by Charles Nuckols Jr. and sons, was also an accomplished racehorse.

Trained by Elliott Walden and owned by R.L. Renieman and Prestonwood Farms, Distorted Humor won the 1998 G2 Commonwealth Breeders' Cup Stakes at Keeneland, where he set a stakes record that still stands, getting the seven furlongs in 1:20.50. He also annexed the G2 Churchill Downs Handicap; the G3 Ack Ack Handicap, and the G3 Salvator Mile Handicap en route to earnings of $769,964.

Congrats, a top 10 sire by winners for the last six years (top 5 in three of those years) has been a perennial producer of top-class runners during his remarkably consistent career at stud and is once again among the leading sires of winners in 2021.

This year Congrats is represented by 122 winners and boasts progeny earnings of $4,843,399. His top runner this season is two-time graded stakes winner Last Judgment, winner of the G3 Pimlico Special Match Series Stakes at Pimlico and the G3 Challenger Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.

The only champion freshman sire by the legendary sire of sires, A.P. Indy, Congrats is the sire of such Grade 1 horses as Turbulent Descent, Haveyougoneaway, Wickedly Perfect, and Emma's Encore. Congrats has total progeny earnings of $71,982,417 and is the sire of 44 black-type winners. He is being retired to John Sykes' Woodford Thoroughbreds in Reddick, Fla.

“Congrats helped me get started in this business and has meant so much to Woodford Thoroughbreds,” said John Sykes. “We are happy to be bringing him home for his retirement.”

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