Michael Hernon

The breeding community lost a friend and asset last week. Annette Covault died Friday, Dec. 13, from complications of ill health that she had dealt with for several years. As the booking secretary for Claiborne Farm first and then Gainesway Farm over several decades, Covault, known to her familiars as "Netto," provided common sense and good humor to breeders and farm managers working through the prickly process of getting mares booked to stallions in a timely manner. The stallion veterinarian at Gainesway from 2008 to 2019, Rocky Mason, DVM, noted...

They pride themselves on their professionalism and were duly mortified when a yearling colt by Tapizar somehow ended up with a nail in a hoof. Worse still, shortly afterwards his full sister--sold at Keeneland the previous September for $100,000--made a winning debut at Horseshoe Indianapolis. The mare was coming good. So Brendan and Oliver Gallagher sent him in to Hagyard, to have the foot cleaned and disinfected. Back then, in 2017, they didn't know Michael Spirito as well as they do now ("a god of a surgeon"); but nor did...

Lael Stables' Sunday Shoes (f, 3, Pioneerof the Nile--Silvertoni, by Tapit) was forced to cover stacks of ground when making her career debut in a 6 1/2-furlong maiden under the Wednesday night lights at Turfway and turned in a spectacular effort to earn the 'TDN Rising Star' distinction. A $500,000 acquisition by Michael Hernon on behalf of Roy and Gretchen Jackson's operation from the Woodford draft at Keeneland September in 2021, Sunday Shoes was sent off as the 9-2 third choice on debut and was one of the first to...

OCALA, FL - The three-day Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's June Sale of 2-Year-Olds more than bounced back from its 2020 pandemic-induced lull, ending Friday with its highest-ever gross and average and with a record-tying median. In all, 560 juveniles grossed $24,492,950 for an average of $43,737--besting the previous record figures of $23,475,500 and $39,722, respectively, set in 2015. The cumulative median was $20,000. With 125 horses reported not sold, the buy-back rate was 18.2%. "The June sale is all grown up now," said OBS Director of Sales Tod Wojciechowski. "I...

The two-session Book 4 portion of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale concluded Monday in Lexington with spirited action at the top of the market. Bloodstock agent Donato Lanni, the most prolific buyer of the auction, made the day's highest bid when going to $320,000 to acquire a colt by hot freshman sire Not This Time (hip 2739) for an undisclosed client. For the session, 255 yearlings sold for $11,832,500 for an average of $46,402 and a median of $25,000. The buy-back rate, which was as high as 40% during sessions...

Michael Hernon, who served as Gainesway Farm's Director of Sales for the past 24 years, has launched his own bloodstock agency, Michael Hernon Bloodstock LLC. Starting in the mid-1990s, Hernon managed the stallion books of sires including Broad Brush, Cozzene and Mt. Livermore. More recently, he oversaw the books of leading sires Tapit and Empire Maker, as well as the emerging young sire Karakontie (Jpn). "Two decades of selling at the highest level of the stallion market was a rare experience, but as Gainesway expanded their bloodstock sales agency, I...

The Fasig-Tipton July Horses of Racing Age Sale, which has steadily built momentum through its first seven years, comes smack up against the swirling uncertainty of a global pandemic when it returns for its eighth renewal at the company's Newtown Paddocks Monday afternoon. The catalogue for the one-session auction, bolstered by the late addition of recent stakes winners, includes 182 offerings. Bidding begins at 4 p.m. Consignors seemed eager to get back to business ahead of the auction, but were cautious about expectations. "This sale is getting more popular every...