Tag: Bloodstock

Keeneland's 80th annual September Yearling Sale, which attracts leading horsemen from across North America and from around the world to buy Thoroughbred racing prospects, begins Monday, Sept. 11 at 1 p.m. ET for the first of 12 sessions.

A total of 4,198 horses by prominent stallions and exciting young sires have been cataloged to the sale, which continues through Saturday, Sept. 23.

The catalog includes siblings to winners of major races this year, including Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve winner Mage and these recent Del Mar and Saratoga Race Course graded stakes winners: Adare Manor (Clement L. Hirsch-G1), Arabian Knight (FanDuel Racing Pacific Classic-G1), Aspray (Lake Placid-G2), Conclude (Caesars Sportsbook Del Mar Derby-G2), Dreamfyre (Sorrento-G3 Presented by Keeneland Sales), Gala Brand (With Anticipation-G3), Nutella Fella (Hopeful-G1), Prince of Monaco (Best Pal-G3), Randomized (Alabama-G1 Presented by Keeneland Sales), Rhyme Schemes (Herb Moelis Memorial Saratoga Special-G2) and Roses for Debra (Caress-G3).

In addition, the catalog has siblings to these recent graded stakes winners: Abeliefinthislivin (Canadian Derby-G3 at Century Mile), Gigante (Secretariat-G2 at Colonial Downs), Miss Dracarys (Dance Smartly-G2 at Woodbine) and Vahva (Charles Town Oaks-G3).

“The September Sale is a can't-miss event for horsemen because it presents a critical mass of yearlings of unmatched quality at every price level,” Keeneland Vice President of Sales Tony Lacy said. “For that reason, it's the world's leading yearling sale, the one that has the focus of the industry on a global level. Our team is ready to welcome people from across the U.S. and around the world these next few weeks, and we are excited for them to experience Keeneland and everything the Lexington area has to offer.”

John Deere joins Keeneland team for September Sale

Keeneland has announced that John Deere, the official equipment supplier of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and the equine industry since 2001, has become a Keeneland sponsor and partner on the September Sale and the two race meets.

During each sale day, John Deere Gators will deliver bottled water to the barn areas. Near the end of each session, a Gator will surprise the consignor of the final hip number with offerings to celebrate the end of the sale day.

September Sale schedule

The September Sale, which will be livestreamed on Keeneland.com, FanDuel TV+ and on the FanDuel app, will be held as follows:

Week 1

Book 1 – Monday-Tuesday, Sept. 11-12. Sessions begin at 1 p.m. A total of 383 yearlings are cataloged over the two days. During Book 1, FanDuel TV will present live hits from the sales grounds.

Book 2 – Wednesday-Thursday, Sept. 13-14. Sessions begin at 11 a.m. A total of 728 yearlings are cataloged over the two days.

Dark Day – Friday, Sept. 15. No sale will be conducted.

Week 2

Book 3 – Saturday-Sunday, Sept. 16-17. Sessions begin at 10 a.m. A total of 837 yearlings are cataloged over the two days.

Book 4 – Monday-Tuesday, Sept. 18-19. Sessions begin at 10 a.m. A total of 826 yearlings are cataloged over the two days.

Book 5 – Wednesday-Thursday, Sept. 20-21. Sessions begin at 10 a.m. A total of 820 yearlings are cataloged over the two days.

Book 6 – Friday-Saturday, Sept. 22-23. Sessions begin at 10 a.m. A total of 604 yearlings are cataloged over the two days.

As always, online and phone bidding will be available.

Community outreach

The September Sale represents an opportunity for Keeneland to educate and excite the community about the event, which is a significant economic driver to the area.

On Sept. 7 and Sept. 14, Keeneland Sales will sponsor Central Bank Thursday Night Live at the Fifth Third Bank Pavilion in Tandy Park in downtown Lexington. The free event from 5-8 p.m. features live music along with art, food and beverages.

Keeneland sales are free and open to the public, who can participate in two ways to learn more about sales operations:

• Book a Behind-the-Scenes Sale Tour. These Official Keeneland Tours are available Sept. 16, 18, 20 and 22 from 9-10:30 a.m. Click here for more information and to purchase tickets for these guided, in-depth tours.
• Take an Abbreviated Walk Up Tour, available daily Sept. 8-10 from 1-4 p.m.; Sept. 11-21 from 1-5 p.m.; and Sept. 22-23 from 1-4 p.m. Visit the podium at the front of the Sales Pavilion to take part.

The post Keeneland September Yearling Sale Begins Monday appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Though it's not said publicly at any great volume within bloodstock circles, it's understood that a horse bred with turf leanings has an unspoken commercial ceiling when they're sent through the ring at North American auction. When a turf-bred stallion enters the breeding shed, he does so with a similar imposed handicap.

North America is a dirt-centric racing jurisdiction, and as long as the sport's richest races – and those viewed as stallion-making races – are held over that surface, the incentive to breed a horse for the grass in the commercial marketplace is going to take a backseat.

The overarching rule of the commercial Thoroughbred market, though, is that money talks, and every September, Kentucky Downs puts a lot of it out there in purse money during its boutique turf-only meet.

The benefits are especially apparent for Kentucky-breds, who compete for significantly more with additional purse income from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund. For example, a Kentucky-bred winner of a maiden special weight at Kentucky Downs would earn the winner's share of a $150,000 purse, while a winner born out of state would recieve the lion's share of an $80,000 purse.

With Kentucky being the primary hub for Thoroughbred breeding activity in North America, and the KTDF sweetening the pots so strongly at Kentucky Downs, the incentives to breed and sell for turf appear as high as they've ever been.

“Obviously, if you're running for $100,000, or $150,000 allowance or maiden race, if you're not a Kentucky-bred, you're cheating yourself,” said Ted Nicholson, vice president of racing at Kentucky Downs. “When you fold that into as an owner looking to buy at Keeneland or Fasig-Tipton, you're thinking, 'Kentucky Downs' purses are so large, I'd love to get a turf horse.' To have a turf horse that has a chance to break its maiden for $150,000 or win an allowance race for $180,000, you're not going to find that anywhere else.”

Those high purses for Kentucky-breds go beyond just being a happy reward for the owner of the winning horse. They can also influence the sire lists. A burst of big earnings can go a long way in determining where a stallion lands on the year-end earnings hierarchy, particularly in the freshman sire race, where fewer races are available. Stakes wins can be hard to come by for a rookie sire, and picking up a stakes-level purse in a maiden race can give turf-leaning horses a nice advantage.

“If you have a freshman sire and they can win a race or two out of the 70-some-odd races that we're going to run here, that really bodes well,” Nicholson said. “There's no question that'll pick your head up, especially at the same time that the Keeneland sales are going on.”

If the purses at Kentucky Downs end up influencing the breed, Nicholson said it would be a happy byproduct of the greater strategy of promoting Kentucky-breds that began with the expansion of Historical Horse Racing in the state during the previous decade.

Purses were bolstered significantly at Kentucky's tracks after HHR funds started rolling in, particularly for horses born in the state. The funds were managed with the goal of keeping horsemen in the state year-round, instead of shipping elsewhere during times when the purses had been comparatively weaker – particularly the Ellis Park and Turfway Park meets. The incentives to keep a Kentucky-born horse racing in Kentucky were becoming too good to pass up.

“A lot of it was launched in the 2015, 2016, 2017 years,” Nicholson said. “That was the push initially, and once we started to see what was happening, and we were seeing trainers not ship their horses to Saratoga, for example, because the purse structure at Ellis was good enough and the racetrack was good for them to try to break maidens at Ellis instead of Saratoga.

“At that point, I think that's when people within the KTDF and KTA were thinking maybe this gets to where this helps the breeding side,” he continued. “Then, the next thing to conquer was 'Well, this isn't just going to help the breeding side, this is going to help the turf breeding side.' It's kind of like a chronological domino effect. First, it was to help the purses, then it was to help the overall Kentucky breeding.”

Furthering the idea that Kentucky Downs could help shape the direction of turf breeding, the growth of the track's HHR revenues and its mission to bolster other tracks within the state helped birth Kentucky Downs Preview Day at Ellis Park. This year, Kentucky Downs Preview Day featured a trio of $200,000 stakes races to serve as preps for standout races during the Kentucky Downs meet.

The Kentucky Downs meet is just seven days long, but its influence as a force to expand turf racing into a commercially appealing product for breeders and buyers goes outside its own property lines.

“For us, it's pretty simple,” Nicholson said. “We realize the importance of the Kentucky-bred. We're in the state of Kentucky. We're only in it less than a mile from the border, but the reality is we feel really compelled to show that Kentucky-breds are the most important thing. When you think about Kentucky as a state, you think about horse racing and bourbon. It's that drive that you take between Lexington and Louisville, and you see all the horse farms, that's what we're all about here in Kentucky.

“There's nothing better than being able to promote the fact that you're going to be heavily compensated if you purchase a Kentucky-bred,” he continued. “We have the highest Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund money available in our purses. If you win a maiden race, your non-Kentucky-bred horse is going to get a share of $80,000, whereas if you win a maiden race and you are a Kentucky-bred, you're going to have the winner's share of $150,000. Obviously, that extra $70,000 is huge. When you say those differences out loud, you can't help but promote the fact that we love the Kentucky-bred, and we want them to thrive in the arena that we have.”

The post Could Kentucky Downs Change The North American Thoroughbred Breeding Industry? appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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The quartet of Ontario-bred yearlings Canuck Racing Club purchased at last week's Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society (Ontario Division) Canadian Premier Yearling Sale are the same age as the club itself which has burst onto Ontario's racing scene in the past 12 months, building an impressive stable, and making up for what it lacks in service time with a deep conviction to achieve its own lofty goals.

The brainchild of three childhood friends who grew up in Montreal, Quebec, Canuck Racing Club is run by Donato Lanni, Mark Halloran, and Rob van Blokland who are now based in Kentucky, Ottawa, and Montreal, respectively.

Lanni is one of North America's leading bloodstock agents, having bought champions such as Arrogate and Authentic. Halloran and van Blokland have been partners in their business advisory and leadership development firm for two decades leveraging backgrounds in HR, networking, marketing, and communications.

“We've known each other for 40-plus years,” said Halloran. “We wanted this club to make its mark on Canadian horse racing while transforming the sport of kings and queens into the sport of friends.”

The friendship shared by the three managing partners is emblematic of the spirit they want Canuck Racing Club members to feel as they engage in their horse ownership journey.

“It's easy to get a group of people together, pool some money, and buy a horse,” said van Blokland. “The way we approached this is much more than just ownership. It's a 24-7 club experience connecting member-owners to racing's rich history and brilliant horsepeople, their process and strategies, and a whole lot of fun.”

The seed that grew into Canuck Racing Club was planted during the years Halloran managed several 'one horse at a time' syndicates for Thoroughbreds that Lanni bought to race with friends in Canada.

Ontario-bred gelding Clayton was the most successful of those horses. He was on the 2020 Triple Crown trail, finishing third in the Queen's Plate, second in the Prince of Wales Stakes, and fifth in the Breeders Stakes.

There had always been talk about doing something more, and coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, the time was right for a venture that promised unique and unforgettable experiences, and van Blokland was brought on to help with the club's marketing and communications.

“It all starts with Donato,” said Halloran. “He's the best in the business at what he does, but he's a sentimentalist at heart. Like us, he's proudly Canadian and he wants to build something great here together.”

In 2022, Canuck Racing Club dove headfirst into the game. Responsible for all thoroughbred-related decisions, Lanni purchased eight yearlings for the club in Ontario and Kentucky, including four at the 2022 Canadian Premier Yearling Sale.

Cementing the club's commitment to racing in Canada, all eight of the yearlings they purchased were Ontario-breds and the club has already tasted victory with its freshman group.

Souper Speedy filly Vandoo gave the club its first victory with a win over the boys in a maiden affair on July 29 at Woodbine Racetrack, and War Painter has hit the board twice in two maiden special weight attempts.

Canuck Racing Club also bought into Enjoythesilent, a Silent Name (JPN) gelding who ran a game sixth in the King's Plate, despite starting from the far outside post position in the 17-horse field.

While on-track success is the ultimate goal, Canuck Racing Club's approach to communicating every step of a Thoroughbred's journey has provided members with memorable experiences before their horses even make the races.

“Spending the day backside at our trainer Kevin Attard's stable and at the training track was even better than the races,” shared club member Carter Wilkie. “Hearing Kevin and Donato talk about how the horses are maturing and where they plan to race them next and why gives you a whole deeper appreciation for the sport and these athletes.”

Those backstretch visits are part of an overall package that members consider a form of experiential investing. Another example is the club's visit to the 2023 Canadian Premier Yearling Sale where club members rode shotgun with Lanni as he inspected yearlings, spoke with breeders, and ultimately bid on horses.

“There is such a wealth of knowledge in our crew,” said van Blokland. “The beauty of hanging with pros like Donato, Kevin, and Dave Anderson is it is that you get the insiders to give you their tremendous insight first-hand.”

Canuck Racing Club signed for four yearlings, including forming a partnership with Terra Racing Stables on Hip 113. Reflecting their commitment to excellence, the Souper Speedy filly out of Ghostzapper mare Kin's Ghost was one of just four horses to hammer for $100,000 or more.

“We have elite vets and an awesome trainer supporting the best bloodstock agent in the game who is also your fellow co-owner,” said Halloran. “It's hard for others to access that. And while we provide it all within a fun atmosphere, let's be clear, we're here to win.”

One year into their story, Canuck Racing Club has already achieved some of their short-term goals such as winning races, infusing energy into the game, and creating a club culture that appeals to industry veterans and first-timers alike.

But they're just getting started. The club's red and white silks are here to stay, and as more members join and their horses continue to move forward, Canuck Racing Club wants to establish itself as a major player in Ontario's racing industry.

“At the end of the day, it's our owners who really make all of this possible,” added Halloran. “So, while we're building our business and club on the talent and work ethic of a really solid team, it's being done with a members-first mindset. Along the way, we're hoping to cultivate a new generation of horsepeople who grow to love this sport and appreciate the remarkable contributions that Canada's legendary thoroughbreds, owners, and breeders have made to global racing.”

The post Canuck Racing Club Continues To Build Momentum During Sales Season appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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