Maclean's Music

by Christina Bossinakis & Stefanie Grimm Lexington, KY--The onset of the yearling season every summer can be a bit of a worrisome time for many. With the yearlings that have been so painstakingly selected by Fasig-Tipton's team for its first yearling sale of the season, it can often be a bit unnerving whether things will go off without a hitch or not. And at the conclusion of Tuesday's yearling session, it appeared that it had. "It was a fantastic start to the 2024 yearling sales season," affirmed Fasig-Tipton President and...

OCALA, FL - The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's June Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training got a late boost from its supplemental section when a colt by Uncle Mo brought the top price of $375,000 during Friday's final session of the three-day auction. The 2024 June sale concluded with numbers just a tick off the sale's 2023 renewal. A total of 582 2-year-olds grossed $21,386,800 during the three-day auction, with the average of $36,747 down 2.2% from last year's figure and the median held at $20,000. Ramon Morales purchased Friday's session...

Just a day after Win Win Win earned the first 'TDN Rising Star' of the freshman class with Nooni, he was joined by Complexity (by Maclean's Music) who picked up his fourth overall winner Friday and first 'Rising Star' when Complexion (Complexity--Rushin No Blushin, by Half Ours) dominated her debut at Aqueduct. The half-sister to MGISW and sire Jack Christopher (Munnings), Complexion was a $400,000 Keeneland September Yearling buy for Arnmore Thoroughbreds last year. Gunned from her outside draw under John Velazquez, she was a length clear within the opening...

Saturday's session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's June Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training included a son of Lord Nelson (hip 809) who put up the fastest quarter-mile time of the day. Consigned by Omar Ramirez Bloodstock, the colt worked in :20.4 and is the second foal out of Kodiak's Dancer, a half-sister to SP Baby Gray (Precise End). He'll make his third trip through the sales ring next week, having RNA'd at both KEENOV as a weanling for $9,500 and again as a yearling for $8,500 at FTKOCT last...

TIMONIUM, MD - The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale concluded its two-day run at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium Tuesday with a lively session of bidding led by a $1.25-million daughter of Bolt d'Oro. Through two sessions, 343 horses sold for $32,766,500. The average of $95,485--up 2.9% from a year ago--just ticked up from the sale's previous record average of $95,391 set in 2022, while the median of $50,000 tied the sale record set in 2021 and equaled again in 2023. "I thought we had two very...

2nd-Keeneland, $64,254, Msw, 4-10, 2yo, 4 1/2f, :52.17, sy, 2 1/4 lengths. RAISE THE BAR (c, 2, Maclean's Music--Paschali, by Bernardini) ran to the money for trainer Wesley Ward as the even-money favorite on debut over the sloppy going at Keeneland Wednesday. The rail-drawn Douglas Scharbauer homebred was hustled to the front beneath John Velazquez, kicked for home under very confident handling and was never seriously asked for run while crossing the wire 2 1/4 lengths clear of Tuxedo Park (Complexity). Paschali, a daughter of MGISW Pure Clan (Pure Prize),...

When Domestic Product (Practical Joke) bullied his way through traffic to get his nose in front in the GIII Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby Saturday, he not only earned valuable qualifying points to the GI Kentucky Derby, he also provided a timely update for his half-sister who is scheduled to sell during the first session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales' Company's March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale Tuesday. "She's been very popular today, let's put it that way," Becky Thomas said of the filly from the first crop of Complexity (hip...

The first foal of Grade I-winning sprinter Drain the Clock (Maclean's Music-Manki, by Arch) arrived Wednesday, Jan. 17 at Machmer Hall in Lexington, Kentucky. The colt is out of the mare, Egyptian Bride, a half-sister to Grade I-placed Generous Tipper. Drain the Clock stands for $10,000 at Gainesway. "Very pretty boy born of a maiden mare. Good bone and such a sweet expression!" said breeders Carrie and Craig Brogden. A debut winner at Gulfstream at two, Drain the Clock returned the following season to add wins in the GIII Swale...

by Jessica Martini & Stefanie Grimm LEXINGTON, KY - The Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale, which hadn't had a million-dollar mare since 2019, had two reach seven figures during its opening session Monday in Lexington, with 19-year-old Tom Wachman making the day's highest bid of $1.6-million to acquire the broodmare prospect Prank (Into Mischief) on behalf of his grandfather, John Magnier's Coolmore. Late in the session, Tomoyuki Nakamura of K I Farm purchased Curlin's Voyage (Curlin) for $1 million. "I think we've got to be very happy with...

Now we're really entering nosebleed altitudes for most breeders, between $30,000 and $50,000: a zone where you should feel that you're improving the odds of coming up with an elite horse. It tells you a lot about our business that the majority of the two dozen stallions operating at this level can only do so because they have yet to send a single runner into the starting gate. A quarter of these we immediately set to one side, as absolute beginners, because those received separate consideration in the opening instalment...

by George Adams, Housatonic Bloodstock Wasabi has been focused on upgrading the quality of the foals that it's breeding over the last few years, and to that end will be using some higher-end stallions in 2024 than what we've bred to in the past. A stallion that we'll be patronizing heavily this year is Maclean's Music.  He's about to jump from a crop of 2023 2-year-olds numbering 41 and conceived off of a $20,000 stud fee (out of which he already has nine winners, three of whom have also picked...

GSW Uncle Chuck (Uncle Mo--Forest Music, by Unbridled's Song), whose first foals are yearlings of 2024, was humanely euthanized Dec. 22 according to Brent Fernung, owner of Journeyman Stud in Florida. The 6-year-old stallion was standing at Journeyman at the time of his death. Uncle Chuck was determined to be suffering from untreatable lymphoma. "We're devastated by this loss," said Fernung. "He was a beautiful horse, and his first crop of foals are carbon copies of him. Beyond that, Uncle Chuck had a great demeanor and was a pleasure to...