Lookin At Lucky

by Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis OCALA, FL - The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training completed its four-day run Friday with a  new record gross and average and a record-tying median in an auction which closely mirrored the 2022 renewal which set high-water marks for all of those metrics. Through four sessions, 698 horses grossed $90,805,000. A year ago, 705 horses grossed a record $90,723,000. The 2023 average of $129,907 was up fractionally from $128,685. The median remained unchanged at $65,000. "It was a great...

Fresh off a fourth-place finish behind Raise Cain (Violence) in the Mar. 4 GIII Gotham S. at Aqueduct, Eyeing Clover (c, 3, Lookin At Lucky--Floral Park, by Forest Wildcat) got a black-type win of his own in Oaklawn's Hot Springs S. Saturday. It was blinkers off for the chestnut, who encountered his share of trouble throughout. He broke like a shot, leaping straight to the early lead for a few brief strides until the pair of Rocking Rocket (American Pharoah) and Cactus (Twirling Candy) hounded him with the latter coming...

Calumet Farm's Tall Boy (Lookin At Lucky) broke his maiden in stirring fashion, running out a length winner of the G3 UAE 2000 Guineas Presented by Nakheel over Shirl's Bee (Bee Jersey) for trainer Doug O'Neill and jockey William Buick at Meydan on Friday evening. Sitting just off the Charles Fipke runner after leaving the chute, the chestnut edged closer as noses pointed for home. Refusing to give his rival a breather, the pair locked horns in earnest by the 600-metre mark. Throughout the stretch drive, it appeared that Tall...

It tells you plenty about the business today that this final leg of our quest for value on Kentucky farms should compress together stallions whose various retirements from the racetrack spanned more than decade. In devoting nearly all the previous instalments to individual classes of younger stallions, we've simply mirrored the distribution of mares, which as we all know is massively loaded towards largely unproven sires. To me, then, those few survivors that do establish a viable niche in the Bluegrass are real heroes. While dozens of their original competitors...

Welcome to our annual assessment of Bluegrass sire prospects for the approaching covering season. As last year, we're going to confine our focus largely to a "Value Podium" for each intake--rather than attempt, as in the past, an exhaustive (not to say exhausting) assessment of every stallion in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Believe me, it wasn't always easy to find something adequately civil to say about every last one! But the fact is that this is only ever one person's opinion and, as such, a hopelessly subjective exercise. By restricting...

When it comes to "sire-making races," the Gl Metropolitan H. is usually the first that's thrown into the conversation. Quality Road, the 2010 winner, is the most notable recent example, and before him it was Ghostzapper in 2005, but that's about it for the past 20 years despite the race's vaunted reputation. The Gl Florida Derby is a better recent gauge for making stallions: Nyquist (won in 2016), Constitution (2014), Dialed In (2011), Quality Road (2009), Scat Daddy (2007), Empire Maker (2003), and Harlan's Holiday (2002) are a stronger group...

Having broken his maiden on this same surface and distance Oct. 2 with a 71 Beyer Speed Figure, Hal returned Saturday to Woodbine as the 2-1 second choice--a far cry from his 10-1 morning-line odds. Much as he did Oct. 2, Hal tracked off the pace inside from mid pack before shifting out to the clear as the field passed the quarter pole. He loomed outside of pacesetter Ticker Tape Home and the pair bobbed heads down the lane with Hal gaining only minimal separation on the wire for the...

Uncle Mo will once again top the Coolmore America roster at $150,000 for the 2023 breeding season, the same fee at which he stood in 2022, according to a press release from Coolmore Wednesday morning. The 14-year-old stallion was the sire of 10 black-type winners in 2022, including the GI Belmont S. winner Mo Donegal. Justify, who had four black-type winners from his first crop in 2022, will stand for the farm's second highest-fee, at $100,000, the same as in 2022. He is currently the third-leading first-crop sire by earnings....

GSW & MGISP Breaking Lucky (Lookin At Lucky--Shooting Party, by Sky Classic) has returned to Blue Star Racing in Louisiana for the 2023 breeding season. After beginning his stallion career at Blue Star Racing, he moved to Florida for the 2021 and 2022 breeding seasons. "After many breeder's requests, we're excited to bring Breaking Lucky back to the bayou state," said Dex Comardelle of Blue Star Racing. "It's no secret Louisiana is one of the most lucrative breeding programs in the country, and with the recent passage of sports betting...

by Alan Carasso Shahama (Munnings), who bolted up by nine lengths on her 1400-metre debut at Meydan Dec. 9, endured a much more troubled passage in Saturday's UAE 1000 Guineas Trial, a conditions event over the same course and distance, but exhibited her considerable class in the final stages to score by 2 1/2 lengths en route to 'TDN Rising Star'-dom. She is the eighth 'Rising Star' for her sire. Off slowly and ridden along from gate five racing over a rare sloppy main track in this jurisdiction, the $425,000...

And so we reach the final leg of our journey hunting out value among Kentucky sires in 2022. It's been a rather more focused exercise this time round, and if that means plenty of stallions (and indeed some farms) have been overlooked, so be it. It's only ever the subjective view of a single bystander. You'll know what works for your own mare, and for your own agenda, too, whether you're an end user, say, or first and foremost need to anticipate commercial demand. We've often complained that a market...

Jerry Bailey, whose varied career in the sport included stints as a veterinarian, breeder, owner, pinhooker and consignor, passed away Dec. 17 due to complications from pneumonia after a bout with COVID-19. He was 78. Bailey started out on the racetrack as a veterinarian and took a position as the resident veterinarian for E.K. Gaylord's Lazy E Ranch in Oklahoma, later adding the role of general manager to his duties. He moved to Florida in the late eighties and partnered with Ken Ellenberg to start Bailey Ellenberg Select, a partnership...