The Factor

Increases Across the Board at Hokkaido September Sale

The second to last Japanese yearling sale on the calendar is in the books, and the health of the Japanese bloodstock market compared to other global markets was on full display during the Hokkaido September Sale from Sept. 22-24. The three-day sale saw healthy increases across the board despite the lingering COVID-19 pandemic and the global economic downturn. A day longer than last year's sale, the 2020 renewal's increase in gross was expected on numbers alone, but the increases to the clearance, average and median were a welcome relief to...

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Colts by The Factor, Dialed In Fire first OBSMAR Bullets

A colt by The Factor (hip 129) and a son of Dialed In (hip 141) breezed the quickest eighth and quarter, respectively, during Thursday's first of three breeze shows for next Tuesday and Wednesday's Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale. Consigned by GOP Racing Stable Corp., hip 129 covered a furlong in :9 4/5 despite starting his breeze well out into the track and finishing it close to the fence. A $22,000 KEENOV weanling RNA and $17,000 OBSOCT yearling, the Maryland-bred is out of SW and GSP...

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Kentucky Sires 2020 VII: Established Sires
Kentucky Sires 2020 VII: Established Sires

Right, that's enough ranting for now. In the course of this series, I've repeatedly professed bewilderment and alarm over the damage to the Thoroughbred gene pool threatened by a witless stampede towards unproven newcomers, and the no less puerile impatience with which they are promptly abandoned. But we won't revisit those complaints today. Embarking on this final instalment, dealing with those stallions talented or lucky enough to have come out the other side with a viable stud career in Kentucky, we'll just offer one simple consolation. Because if you're one...

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The Factors of His Success

Reviewing the 2019 sires' championship, it was striking to observe such consistent correlation between fees and performance. Almost without exception, the top of the table was dominated by the most expensive stallions in the business. The big guns, in other words, had all found their range. Of the top 20 sires in Kentucky, in fact, only one is still standing for less than $40,000. Yet he is also younger than all bar one of that elite. (Uncle Mo is also just 12.) Those two distinctions are hardly unrelated, of course....

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