John O'Meara

The Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale concluded its nine-day run in Lexington Wednesday with vibrant trade from a diverse buying bench leading to across-the-board increases where were highlighted by a new sales record median. "Overall, this was a very strong, fair market from start to finish," Keeneland Vice President of Sales Tony Lacy said. "Book 1 gross jumped nearly 15% from last year with a much-improved clearance rate and that momentum powered the sale through the final days." For the nine days, 2,158 horses sold for $196,442,900. The average of...

Mandy Pope went to $2.4 million to acquire Roses for Debra (Liam's Map) (hip 198) from the Candy Meadows Sales consignment Tuesday at Keeneland. The 5-year-old racing/broodmare prospect won this year's GII Presque Isle Downs Masters Stakes and GIII Giant's Causeway Stakes, while racing for Cheyenne Stables and John O'Meara and trainer Christophe Clement.

Call it a Milestone achievement. Any farm, right up to the biggest brands of the Bluegrass, would have been proud to match the three stakes wins in 24 hours recorded by John O'Meara a couple of weekends back. And yet this is a man tending just a dozen mares, with the assistance of a single employee. Some landmark, then, in an odyssey stretching back four decades to when O'Meara first arrived in Lexington and called a farm he'd found in the bus station telephone directory. "Is anybody Irish working there?"...