Steve Venosa

Longtime New York breeder Sanford Bacon passed away Friday. He was 95. Bacon bred hard-knocking Say Florida Sandy (Personal Flag), a multiple graded stakes winner and earner of over $2 million, as well as his half-sister Dancin Renee (Distinctive Pro). Both were named New York-bred champions. Say Florida Sandy was New York Horse of the Year in 2001 and 2002 and a three-time champion sprinter in the state. Graded stakes winner Dancin Renee was named New York Horse of the Year, as well as champion sprinter and champion older female,...

TIMONIUM, MD - The three-day under-tack show ahead of the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale began on a picture-perfect day in Timonium Tuesday with a colt by Awesome Slew (hip 91) working the bullet furlong of :10 flat early in the first of the day's seven sets. The juvenile is consigned by Tom McCrocklin, who purchased him on behalf of Michael Sucher's Champion Equine for $150,000 at last year's Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's October Yearling Sale. "He's a very fast horse," McCrocklin said Tuesday. "I was not surprised...

by Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis OCALA, FL - The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training opened Tuesday with a session that produced figures nearly identical to the auction's 2022 opening session. "It was a good start to the sale," said OBS Director of Sales Tod Wojciechowski. "A lot of horses sold very well. And I'd like to think the strength will continue through the next three days. I feel pretty good about that. There are a lot of good horses left to sell." During Tuesday's...

A colt by No Nay Never (hip 332) turned in the fastest quarter-mile work of the second session of the under-tack show for the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training Monday in Central Florida, covering the distance in :20 4/5. The juvenile was the first of three from an initial pinhooking group owned by Houston Astros third-baseman Alex Bregman to hit the OBS track ahead of next week's auction. Bregman Family Racing made its debut on the racetrack a winning one just last May when the...

Cesar Loya, who was first introduced to Thoroughbreds as a kid when his father worked for Dr. Pug and Susie Hart, will offer his first consignment at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale next week and it seems fitting the star of his five-horse draft may well be a filly by Mitole (hip 738) that Loya and his wife Danielle Jones-Loya raised on behalf of the Harts on their Ocala farm. "My dad worked for Dr. Pug and Susie Hart. I grew up at their farm...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - Fasig-Tipton will be looking to continue the momentum set by its record-setting select sale when bidding returns to the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion Sunday evening for the first of two sessions of the New York-Bred Yearlings Sale. Bidding begins Sunday at 7 p.m. and Monday's session will begin at 12 p.m. With the end of the sweltering conditions which punctuated the last week in upstate New York, activity was high at the sales barns on a picture-perfect Saturday morning as a mixture of end-users, pinhookers and...

By Christie DeBernardis & Jessica Martini    LEXINGTON, KY--Yearling sale season started with a bang Tuesday at Fasig-Tipton's July Selected Yearling Sale. The auction house saved the best for last with the final horse through the ring, a son of Curlin (Hip 302), topping the day on a $600,000 bid from the Green family's DJ Stable. Last year's leading freshman sire Gun Runner accounted for the day's second-highest seller, a $430,000 colt (Hip 153) sold to de Meric Sales. Both colts came from the Gainesway consignment, which was responsible for...

TIMONIUM, MD - After a stakes-filled weekend of racing at nearby Pimlico Race Course, the action moves back to Timonium for the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, which begins its two-day run at the Maryland State Fairgrounds Monday morning at 11 a.m. "I'm always happy to be back in Maryland and to be back in Timonium," consignor Cary Frommer said as shoppers looked for horses and shady spots on a steamy Sunday morning at the fairgrounds. Of the action at the barns, Frommer said, "It's actually been quite steady...

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL - A day after a well-attended breeze show and a day ahead of sale time, shoppers were out in force at the Fasig-Tipton sales barns at Gulfstream Park on a brilliantly sunny Tuesday morning. "It's been very steady," consignor Steve Venosa of SGV Thoroughbreds said as he watched his popular Practical Joke filly (hip 63) head out for another show Tuesday morning. "We started with our first show roughly around 8 a.m. and it's been non-stop for the last three hours. The usual faces are here and...

You've all heard this song before, I'm sure, but humor me. I was co-owner of a horse who was running at Turfway Park last week. So I sent the requisite information to the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission to get licensed in the state before the horse ran Dec. 31. In speaking with a woman in the office, I was asked if I wanted to get a one-year or two-year license. Since I don't often run horses, I decided on the shorter option only to be told my "one-year" license would...

TIMONIUM, MD - The Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale returned to its traditional May spot on the calendar with an ebullient session topped by a $1.5-million son of Quality Road at the Maryland State Fairgrounds Monday. The seven-figure purchase was the co-highest priced colt ever sold at the Timonium auction, tying the price of a Curlin colt sold in 2017. "It was unbelievable," Midlantic Sales Director Paget Bennett said at the close of business Monday. "The activity in the barn area over the weekend was strong and all of...

A colt from the first crop of Florida stallion Valiant Minister was one of two to breeze a bullet quarter mile in :20 3/5 at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale under-tack show Friday. Hip 996 will attempt to follow in the hoofprints of his Bridlewood-based sire, who topped OBS's 2015 June sale after a bullet work, selling to Charles Chu of Baoma Corp. For $680,000 after breezing an eighth in :9 4/5. "I remember Valiant Minister when he sold here," said SGV Thoroughbreds' Steve Venosa, who consigns Hip...