City of Light

by Jessica Martini & Christie DeBernardis OCALA, FL--Action started off measured at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale's third session Thursday, but picked up noticeably throughout the day, capped by a $1.7-million Tapit colt purchased by Lane's End Racing and West Point Thoroughbreds. Hip 885 was the fourth seven-figure seller of the sale so far. There were a few new faces buying in the top end Thursday with Christine and Phil Hatfield's CHP Racing purchasing a $870,000 son of Into Mischief (Hip 844); trainer Cherie DeVaux securing a $685,000...

With the start of the 2-year-old in training sales just around the corner, a visit to Ocala proved to be informative as we checked in with consignors who are going through the fine-tuning process with their sales horses. Leading up to the OBS March Sale, we will release a series of video features covering the topics everyone is talking about as the sales season approaches. Watch our first episode on first-season sires with Eddie Woods, Nick de Meric and Susan Montanye here. In this edition, we spoke with Niall Brennan,...

With the start of the 2-year-old in training sales just around the corner, a visit to Ocala proved to be informative as we checked in with consignors who are starting the fine-tuning process with their sales horses. In the weeks leading up to the OBS March Sale, which starts March 15, we will release a series of video features covering the topics everyone is talking about as the sales season approaches: Who might be this year's top freshman sire? Which freshman sires could be flying under the radar? What horses...

LEXINGTON, KY--Recent GI La Brea S. runner-up Brilliant Cut (Speightstown) (hip 541) was as popular as many expected her to be, topping the Fasig-Tipton Winter Mixed Sale at $750,000. Japan's Katsumi Yoshida was the winning bidder over the internet. A total of 431 horses changed hands during the two-day auction for a gross of $17,245,500 with an average of $40,013 and median of $16,000. There were 56 horses led from the ring unsold for a very low RNA rate of 11.5%. That was a significant increase over last year's auction,...

The two-day Fasig-Tipton Winter Mixed Sale got off to a strong start Tuesday with 15 six-figure horses, topped by the $450,000 racing/broodmare prospect Bodhicitta (GB) (Showcasing {GB}). The yearling market was especially strong Tuesday with youngsters accounting for half of the top 10, led by a $260,000 colt by City of Light. That yearling was the only offspring in the catalogue for his sire, who was very popular last year, topping Keeneland September with a $1.7-million colt. Last term's champion freshman sire Gun Runner continued to be in demand on...

With the 2022 breeding season right around the corner, we will feature a series of breeders' mating plans over the coming weeks. Today we have Robert Slack of Stoneriggs Farm near Paris, Kentucky. BAJAN GIRL (m, 5, Speightstown--Dazzling {Ire}, by Galileo {Ire}), to be bred to Curlin We purchased this mare out of a 2-year-old sale in Ocala, and raced her. She was multiple graded stakes placed before we retired her to Stoneriggs. She is by Speightstown, one of my very favorite sires, and out of Dazzling, who herself was...

A season by last year's leading second crop sire Not This Time (Giant's Causeway) has been added to the select session of the Thoroughbred Charities of America Annual Stallion Season Auction. The Taylor Made Farm stallion will be among 10 select seasons--including Bolt d'Oro, Charlatan, City of Light, Constitution, Liam's Map, Maxfield (with 2023 breed back), Nyquist (with 2023 breed back), Quality Road, and Yaupon (with 2023 breed back)--that will be sold at the 'Tis the Seasons Celebration Sunday, Jan. 9 at 5:30 p.m. at Grand Reserve in Lexington, Kentucky....

Flightline (Tapit) showed that he was fast from the start with his 13 1/4-length, 'TDN Rising Star'-worthy debut, but he proved his status as an elite talent in his most recent jaw-dropping performance when he passed the wire on cruise control in the GI Runhappy Malibu S., winning by 11 ½ lengths and earning a 118 Beyer speed figure. The impressive colt's ownership group of Hronis Racing, Siena Farm, Summer Wind Equine, West Point Thoroughbreds and Woodford Racing has undoubtedly spent much of this new year celebrating their star's unforgettable...

Quality Road (Elusive Quality--Kobla, by Strawberry Road {Aus}), whose 'TDN Rising Star' son Corniche figures one of the favorites for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Nov. 5, will remain at $150,000 for the upcoming breeding season at William S. Farish's Lane's End Farm, which released its stud fees Monday. The 15-year-old stallion is in the midst of another outstanding season, with nine stakes winners to his credit. Three of those have come at the graded level, led by the aforementioned Corniche, who topped this year's OBS April Sale on a...

There are folks who sound like broken records when it comes to first-crop sires, complaining that breeders who use them and buyers purchasing those yearlings at auction are about as foolish as dunk-tank clowns. However, when one of those sires succeeds with his first 2-year-olds, those same people are usually the first to wax eloquent with platitudes, forgetting what they'd said earlier. That's human nature, I suppose. What they forget is that all sires start out with first crops, and there are people on the other end that wildcat for...

If any ducks have been careless enough to stray at the Michael McCarthy barn at Santa Anita, they've been promptly herded back into row. The McCarthy office has a new lick of bright white paint and a navy accent wall to compliment the trainer's coat of arms. There's the fancy new desk--one of those good-for-the-back ergonomic types that moves to fit the owner and not the other way around--and a blazing new flatscreen high in one corner. Then there's the trainer himself, freshly shorn from an in-office trim--a precision 10-minute...

Less than 48 hours after what was arguably her greatest achievements in the horse business, Rosilyn Polan was back at Keeneland with a pair of yearlings slated to go through the ring on Sunday. Earlier in the week during Book 2 of the Keeneland September Sale, her City of Light colt out of the Tapit mare Anchorage became the probable sale topper when he sold for $1.7 million to Woodford Racing, Talla Racing and West Point Thoroughbreds. But now it was on to Book 3 and the spirited breeder and...