City of Light

LEXINGTON, KY - With five sessions of selling still to come, the 2021 Keeneland September Yearling Sale surpassed the total gross of its 12-session 2020 renewal during a final Book 3 session which featured competitive bidding through to the very end Sunday night in Lexington. By the end of business Sunday, 1,169 yearlings had sold during six sessions for a total of $278,883,000. The auction's total 2020 gross, recorded during the uncertainty of the pre-vaccination pandemic, was $200,750,700. During the two-session Book 3, 571 yearlings sold for $80,011,500 for an...

If City of Light was considered to be in demand after the close of Book 1 at the Keeneland September Sale, his yearlings were perhaps even more challenging to get ahold of by the end of Book 2. First a colt by the first-crop stallion out of the graded stakes-producing mare Ghostslayer (Ghostzapper) brought $1.05 million late in the second session of the auction on Tuesday, selling as Hip 376, but then the next day another colt by the Lane's End sire, Hip 612 out of SP Anchorage (Tapit), brought...

by Jessica Martini & Christie DeBernardis LEXINGTON, KY - Bidding was fast and frenetic when the first of two Book 2 sessions of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale opened Wednesday in Lexington, producing the auction's highest-priced offering yet when a colt by City of Light (hip 612) sold for $1.7 million to the partnership of Woodford Racing, Talla Racing and West Point Thoroughbreds. "That was amazing," an ebullient Keeneland vice president of sales Tony Lacy said at the close of business Wednesday. "That was one of the best sale days...

A colt from the first crop of MGISW City of Light (Hip 612) became the new sale topper Wednesday when summoning $1.7m from Talla Racing, Woodford Racing and West Point Thoroughbreds, who also took home a $1.55m Justify colt about 30 minutes earlier. Bred & consigned by Rosilyn Polan, the bay is out of MSP Anchorage (Tapit), who is also responsible for GSP Chip Leader (Giant's Causeway).

There have been several horses over the past 100 years of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale to summon big price tags, eclipsing the $500,000 mark, in the Humphrey S. Finney pavilion and then go on to be quite successful on the racetrack. The siblings of four such Thoroughbreds are part of the catalogue for the famed auction's centennial edition to be held at the Spa Aug. 9-10. The 2017 GI Belmont S. winner Tapwrit (Tapit) summoned $1.2-million at the Saratoga Sale back in 2015 from a partnership comprised of Bridlewood Farm,...

First-crop yearling sire City of Light (Quality Road - Paris Notion, by Dehere) was a physical standout long before he joined the Lane's End stallion roster. In 2015, the son of Quality Road bred by Ann Marie Farm topped the sixth session of the Keeneland September Sale by a landslide when he sold for $710,000 to Mark Reid of Walnut Green. It was the largest ticket price for a Keeneland Book 3 horse since 2007. Allaire Ryan recalls watching City of Light develop at Lane's End Farm in the days...

The Lane's End Press Pass event has become increasingly popular over the past few years, and while hosting a large gathering in their stud barn was made impossible for the farm due to the current circumstances, Lane's End still worked to make the third annual Press Pass a reality. Through a Zoom meeting, media members joined the virtual get-together to chat with Bill Farish and the rest of the Lane's End team about the farm's stallion program. TVG racing analyst Scott Hazelton hosted the event and led participants through the...

As we all know, the more a stallion has to prove, the more the market indulges him. As each intake shows more of its hand, however, breeders become progressively more nervous of young sires disproving judgements that are themselves typically more concerned with the anticipation of demand at the sales, than of any potency they may (or may not) be able to recycle on the track. In this third instalment of our survey, then, we begin our descent of the slippery slope with the first group to offer a hint...

Surrender (Stormy Atlantic), dam of recent GIII Bob Hope S. winner Red Flag (Tamarkuz) who is in foal to Catholic Boy; Red Flag's half-brother foaled in 2020; and Exotic Notion (Lemon Drop Kid), a half-sister to multiple Grade I winner City of Light who is in foal to Quality Road, are among the nine horses supplemented to Book 1 of the 2021 Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale, which covers four sessions from Jan. 11-14. Keeneland will continue to accept approved supplements until the January Sale begins. Supplemented to...

by Jessica Martini, Christie DeBernardis and Brian DiDonato LEXINGTON, KY- Bidding remained steady as Book 2 of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale concluded Wednesday in Lexington. Andrew Cary made the session's most expensive purchase, going to $500,000 to acquire the mare Contributing (Medaglia d'Oro) from the Hill 'n' Dale Sales Agency consignment on behalf of Coteau Grove Farms. Weanlings held the next six top prices of the session and, for the third straight day of the sale, Justify was responsible for the top-priced foal when Chris Baccari went to...

10th-GP, $45K, Msw, 3yo, f, 1mT, 5:38 p.m. ET MIGHTY ROAD (Quality Road), a $220,000 KEESEP yearling turned $1-million OBSAPR breezer (:9 4/5), makes her debut for trainer Chad Brown and owner HRH Prince Sultan Bin Mishal Al Saud over the Gulfstream lawn. The 3-year-old filly is a half-sister to graded winner Decelerator (Dehere). Mighty Road's dam Paris Rose (Accelerator) is a half-sister to GI Test S. heroine Fabulously Fast (Deputy Minister) and Paris Notion (Dehere), dam of MGISW City of Light (Quality Road). TJCIS PPs

VERSAILLES, KY--With the foal crop of 2020 beginning to gradually dot the paddocks of the Bluegrass, excitement and anticipation are running high, perhaps even more so for a stud farm with a stallion celebrating its first arrivals. For Lane's End Farm, the feeling is threefold, with the farm set to welcome the first crops of Grade I winners Accelerate (Lookin At Lucky), City of Light (Quality Road) and West Coast (Flatter). In a media-only event at the farm's stallion complex Tuesday evening, Lane's End's Sales Director Allaire Ryan said she...