Kalanisi, U.S. champion turf male of 2000 after winning that year's Breeders' Cup Turf (G1), died Friday at the age of 27 at Boardsmill Stud in County Meath, Ireland.
Kalanisi had stood at Boardsmill since 2008 following his acquisition by the Flood family from owner-breeder the Aga Khan. He originally stood at his breeder's Gilltown Stud having retired there in 2002. The son of Doyoun had been pensioned from stud duties at Boardsmill since 2020 due to fertility issues.
Kalanisi's biggest victories came in 2000 in the Champion Stakes (G1) at Newmarket, in which he defeated Montjeu in a thrilling finish, and the Breeders' Cup Turf at Churchill Downs en route to the Eclipse Award in his division. He was ridden by Johnny Murtagh on both occasions for trainer Sir Michael Stoute. Earlier in his career, he was trained by Luca Cumani.
Kalanisi's two most memorable races were in defeat where he was involved in titanic battles with 'The Iron Horse' Giant's Causeway in the 2000 Coral-Eclipse Stakes (G1) at Sandown and Juddomonte International (G1) at York. He came out runner-up on both occasions but gained loads of admirers for his never say die attitude in both enthralling contests. He also landed the Cartier Award as Europe's champion older horse at the end of the season.
Overall, Kalanisi was never unplaced in 11 career starts as he retired with a 6-4-1 record and more than $2.1 million in purse earnings.
Kalanisi sired a number of stakes winners on the flat from his early crops conceived at Gilltown and a Royal Ascot winner in the shape of Missoula, but it was over jumps where his offspring really flourished. Triumph Hurdle and Champion Hurdle Katchit came from his first crop and he added a number of other high profile Jumps winners from his Boardsmill crops.
More recently, daughters of Kalanisi have been flying the flag for him with great success as broodmares. Last year's Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet winner Aristia was a notable top-level success for him as was Roxoterra, a Group 1 winner in Brazil,
“We are sad to announce the passing of our stalwart sire Kalanisi, who died suddenly in his paddock this week,” William and John Flood said in a statement on the farm's website. “He had been enjoying his well-earned retirement in his paddock here for the past few years. Kalanisi was a real favorite with everyone in the yard and with visitors, too. He was a huge attraction with both racing fans and breeders during the ITM Stallion Trail every year. He has a final crop of 25 3-year-olds and he has three representatives of this crop on offer at both the Goffs Arkle Sale and also at the Tattersalls Derby Sale.”
Kalanisi was produced by the Green Dancer mare Kalamba.
The late world champion, Roaring Lion, will be represented in both the Betfred Derby and Betfred Oaks with offspring from his only crop; Dubai Mile and Running Lion.
John Gosden trained Roaring Lion, the Qatar Racing-owned son of Kitten's Joy to win four Group 1s in 2018, which culminated with victory in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot on QIPCO British Champions Day. Roaring Lion stood for one season at Tweenhills before his untimely death from colic.
Gosden said: “He was a real tough cookie and he was a character too. He had so much talent he could play about and still run huge races.”
Running Lion, also trained in Newmarket by John and Thady Gosden, won the Howden Pretty Polly Stakes (Listed race) at the QIPCO Guineas Festival and is set to run in the Betfred Oaks for owner David Howden.
On Running Lion's 4 1/2 length victory, Gosden said: “She did it in great style. The ground was a little bit testing that day, but she travelled well and flew home.”
David Redvers, Qatar Racing Manager and owner of Tweenhills, said: “That tenacity is what we loved seeing, the will to win and the way she gallops with her head down trying is something that absolutely reminds me of her father.
“Roaring Lion was the best horse that Qatar Racing had had to that stage and certainly the best horse I'd been involved with, so it was a huge tragedy for all of us when we lost him after just one season at stud.”
Oisin Murphy, rider of both Roaring Lion and Running Lion added: “They have the exact same shape shoulder and carry their head in a similar position and also have a similar constitution thus far, nothing has phased her so that's really positive.”
On Roaring Lion, Murphy added: “He was a World Champion in 2018 and one of the best horses I'll ever ride.”
Roaring Lion finished third behind Masar in the 2018 Derby and connections are hopeful his daughter will be able to see out the mile and a half trip.
John Gosden said: “We know she's bred really to be a mile and a quarter filly, her father was the last one off the bridle in the Derby and if she gets the distance, she's in there with a huge shout.”
Oisin Murphy added: “I'd imagine she will still be going pretty well coming around Tattenham Corner and I'll know my fate then in the next furlong or two.”
Group 1 winning two-year-old Dubai Mile, trained by Charlie Johnston is set to line up in the Betfred Derby a month after finishing fifth in the QIPCO 2000 Guineas.
Charlie Johnston said: “It's amazing for Roaring Lion to have a runner in both the Oaks and the Derby from his one and only crop.
“We haven't needed to do a huge amount since Newmarket. He came out of that very well and it's just a case of getting him there in one piece now.”
Whilst the tragic loss of Roaring Lion was a severe blow to Qatar Racing's operation, Redvers is optimistic in Classic winning Kameko's ability to fill the void. The record-breaking QIPCO 2000 Guineas winner, also by Kitten's Joy, now stands at Tweenhills.
Redvers said: “The postscript of this whole thing that really matters is that we've got another son of Kitten's Joy in Kameko.
“The taxation of being in the stud game is that you're always wishing your life away, you're looking forward to the next crop or the next foal. This time next year we'll have Kameko's first runners and it's something we're all eagerly awaiting.”
The Thoroughbred auction setting contains a steady ebb and flow of different voices, from the back and forth of the auctioneer and pedigree reader on the stand, to the yelp of the bidspotters on the floor and the murmur of onlookers throughout the pavilion.
Practically to the number, the loudest voices among them are male. Always have been.
When the voice of Camille Booker broke through the chants to confirm bids to the auctioneer's stand at this year's Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, it naturally stood out.
The Midlantic sale was Booker's first working as a bidspotter for Fasig-Tipton. If her presence as a woman taking bids on the floor for a major Thoroughbred auction company wasn't a first in an industry that can cling desperately to traditional gender roles, it was certainly a generational rarity.
Within the greater scope of the auction community, though, Booker's voice is not only familiar, but revered.
A resident of Connell, Wash., Booker is a third-generation auctioneer with over two decades of experience, operating Booker Auction Company with her brother, Austin Booker, in Southeast Washington. In 2011, Booker won the women's division of the International Auctioneer Championship at the International Auctioneers Conference in Orlando, Fla., and she has worked as both an auctioneer and bidspotter at the nationally televised Barrett-Jackson collector car auctions.
Booker has reached great heights in the auction field, but as a teenager, the last thing she wanted to do was go into the family business.
“When I was a kid, we did farm equipment auctions and I was the kid that you brought to the auction and ran clerk pages, then I moved to working at the window, where you're essentially the cashier, and registering bidders,” she said. “When I was 16, my dad wanted to send my 19-year-old sister to auction school, and he decided he was going to send me, too. I told him I would go learn the business, but I would never become an auctioneer. I was actually a pretty quiet person back then, so there was no way I was going to get up in front of a crowd.”
She dutifully went through the paces in her training, and it wasn't until her senior year of college that Booker decided that the auction industry might be worth making a career.
In the early years, Booker said learning how to break out of the shell she'd established as a teenager was her primary challenge. Developing her chant – the staccato of syllables that fill the space between dollar amounts and other information relayed to the bidders and bidspotters – took time and practice, and those had to come in front of a live audience.
Booker described her early career as an auctioneer as something almost parallel to an actor, having to turn herself into somebody else to go onstage and perform, until the chant and the flow of the auction process became so natural that she could be herself on the stand.
Now a veteran auctioneer, Booker presides over offerings at her own company from construction equipment and estate dispersals to real estate and charity auctions.
As her reputation grew within the industry, she began working with auctioneer Joseph Mast for a variety of auction companies including Barrett-Jackson, where Mast is the lead auctioneer. Working first as a bidspotter, Booker became the first woman to wield the gavel at a Barrett-Jackson auction in 2022, when she presided over the company's Las Vegas sale.
Mast is also the lead auctioneer for Fasig-Tipton, and when the company was looking to add new bidspotters, Booker's name came up.
Booker and Mast have worked together at horse auctions in the past, including the weeklong Standardbred Horse Sales Co. Harrisburg Sale, and Booker had attended a previous Fasig-Tipton sale at the company's base in Lexington, Ky. After a chat about the idea, Mast and Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning agreed the Midlantic sale would be a good place for Booker to get her feet wet.
“She's very confident,” Mast said. “She has a great way with people, and she's great at communicating. There's a lot of nonverbal communication when you're talking to buyers when they're bidding on horses. You can see if they're a little bit scared about it. She's good at knowing when to move in and help them, or stay back away from if they're confident in what they're doing.”
Booker ended up being on the floor for the session-toppers during both days of the Midlantic sale, including Tuesday's $1-million overall leader — a filly by Arrogate.
To prepare for the new endeavor, Booker said she sought advice from the other members of Mast's auction team, many of whom pull double duty between Fasig-Tipton and Barrett-Jackson. Anna Seitz Ciannello, Fasig-Tipton's director of client relations, also helped provide background on the event, the buyers she might see, and the product she was selling.
The job of a bidspotter is to read the room, but Booker said that premise can take on different meanings depending on the product, the clientele, and the surroundings.
“Barrett-Jackson is all based on a want,” she said. “Somebody is going to Barrett-Jackson to purchase their dream car, or the car they wanted as a child. They've got some memories with it. Everything in there, I'd say is a want, and they want that personal experience, so I'm in close proximity with them, and trying to walk them through the process, because a lot of times, this is their first auction. It's a very high-energy experience. It's on TV, so you're essentially putting on a production for them.
“Here (at Fasig-Tipton), you understand that most of the people here are conditioned to an auction,” Booker continued. “They understand what they're doing, they understand the process. This is not their first rodeo. We're selling live animals, so you can't have the same excitement in turning in your bids, otherwise you'd spook the horse.”
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Booker said the population of female auctioneers in North America comprises about 15 percent of the profession, though that number is growing.
She acknowledged that her family ties likely helped get her foot in the door in a vocation where the momentum might not otherwise be on her side, and that includes getting an early start in her training. However, a family name can only get you so far once items start going up for bid.
“I had two other sisters, and we were raised that you have your own qualities, the things that you're good at, your strengths, and your weaknesses, and we were just raised to achieve our own dreams,” she said. “In that aspect, I don't think I ever looked at it as male/female as to where my roadblocks were at. Have I run into roadblocks because of who I am? Probably, and that's fair to say. But at the same time, some patience has paid off, and I think some connections have definitely helped give me some opportunities. Once you prove yourself to somebody, then they'll give you the opportunity, and once you get the opportunity, then you've got to prove yourself again that you deserve the spot.”
In between her own auction schedule, Booker has also been training the next generation to take the stand. Her son, 13-year-old Daxton, recently auctioned off an item on his own for the first time, and the early reviews suggest the family business might have rubbed off on him.
“It was stressful as a mom, but pretty cool,” Booker said. “He's pretty witty. His overall stage presence was pretty impressive for 13. He probably outdid his mom. I wouldn't have been able to do it at 13 years old.”
Teaching Daxton the pacing of an auction has been a return to the fundamentals for Booker. Taking on a different character to get through the process might not be necessary anymore, but going through those early lessons without that mask means approaching them with a new perspective.
For as much uncharted territory as she's covered, sometimes going back to step one can be a challenge all its own.
“You forget that you've been doing your chant for so long that it becomes second nature for me,” she said. “It's something that you have to start over with them, so learning their numbers, and their clarity, and making sure people can understand them. Everybody wants to go fast when they're young, but I think clarity and getting the rhythm down is probably the most important thing to get started. He sometimes listens to his mom, and other times he'd rather talk to my colleagues, because they're cooler than mom at this age.”
Discreet Cat, the world champion 3-year-old who went on to forge a thriving career at stud, siring five individual Grade/Group 1 winners, has been euthanized due to the infirmities of old age at Darley's Hokkaido base.
Trained by Saeed bin Suroor for Godolphin (having been acquired after breaking his maiden in impressive style at Saratoga at two), Discreet Cat chalked up five straight victories during an unbeaten 3-year-old campaign.
He commenced with a pair of wins at Nad Al Sheba, the latter being a six-length romp in the Group 2 UAE Derby. Upon returning to the U.S., he went on to win the G2 Jerome Handicap by an astounding 10 1/2 lengths.
Discreet Cat's finest victory on the racecourse came in the G1 Cigar Mile, where he equaled the track record at Aqueduct and sealed his title of co-world champion 3-year-old of 2006 in the Longines World's Best Racehorse rankings.
Discreet Cat initially retired to Darley's Jonabell Farm in Kentucky, where he sired 62 stakes performers including Grade 1 winners Discreet Marq, Dads Caps, Secret Compass and Secret Spice. He also successfully shuttled to Brazil, siring Group 1 winner Taksim among his 16 stakes performers.
He relocated to Japan in 2017 going on to sire Group 1 horses Combustion and recent G2 Keio Hai Nisai winner Obamburumai. His best year yet in Japan came in 2022, with 23 juvenile winners and eight black type performers.
Harry Sweeney, President of Darley in Japan said, “This has been a very tough day for us at Darley Japan. Though Discreet Cat was already 14 years old when he arrived in Japan, he was nevertheless embraced by Japanese breeders and covered more than 750 mares during his sojourn here and the resulting progeny have collectively already won more than $20 million on the track. Though primarily a dirt sire, he was also capable of getting elite turf performers which further heightened his appeal. Indeed, one such horse, Obamburumai, was narrowly beaten into third in the Group 1 NHK Mile Cup earlier this month.
“Discreet Cat was a very gentle horse and was a pleasure to work with. There were plenty of tears in our stallion barn today.”
