D E P A R T M E N T
Auction Action
News Bits Two bloodstock auctions held in Kentucky during November yielded notable prices for horses with Golden State affiliations. ©Bill Straus Commanding the fifth-highest price of the mammoth 2010 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale was California-bred Golden Ballet, who elicited a winning bid of $1.4 million from Aisling Duignan, agent for Coolmore Stud, on Nov. 8. The 12-year-old daughter of Moscow Ballet won the Santa Anita Oaks (grade I) and Las Virgenes Stakes (grade I) en route to securing a title as her home state’s champion sophomore filly of 2001, and gained prominence in 2010 as the dam of Belmont Stakes (grade I) winner Drosselmeyer. Golden Ballet was bred by Dutton & Popovich and sold in foal to Unbridled’s Song.
©Coady
Golden Ballet
Another California champion, the 2007 two-year-old filly titleholder Spring Awakening, sold for $450,000 to Brookdale Farm, agent. The grade-I placed, dual stakes winner by In Excess (Ire) was bred to Tapit last May. Also at the vendue, Spring Awakening’s winning full sister Mary Ellise, six, was purchased for $115,000 by Daniel Burke for Longford Farm while in foal to More Than Ready. Both mares were bred in California by Gerald Frankel. Six-year-old Secret Kin, a grade III-
placed, multiple stakes winner by the Ballena Vista Farm stallion Sea of Secrets, sold for $130,000 as a broodmare prospect to SF Bloodstock LLC. Making headlines late in the Keeneland sale, which was conducted in Lexington from Nov. 8-20, was Da’ Tara, the 2008 Belmont Stakes winner who sold for $180,000 to Foye Genetics, agent. The five-yearold racing or stallion prospect is a product of California breeding: he is by the state-bred 2000 Eclipse Horse of the Year Tiznow out of the statebred, dual stakes-placed winner Torchera, by Pirate’s Bounty. The 2010 Fasig-Tipton November Sale, held in Lexington on Nov. 7, was notable for the $200,000 transaction of Don’t Forget Gil. The fouryear-old daughter of the Tommy Town Thoroughbreds sire Kafwain is a grade I-placed, grade III winner and was purchased by SF Bloodstock as a broodmare prospect.
Zenyatta Retires As Racing’s Leading Female
©Groothedde
Zenyatta at Hollywood Park on the day of her retirement, November 17, 2010
On Nov. 17, dual Eclipse Champion Older Female Zenyatta was officially retired from her racing career. The six-year-old Street Cry (Ire) mare, who is owned by California Thoroughbred Breeders Association members Jerry and Ann Moss, achieved several unprecedented accomplishments during her 20-race journey. In addition to winning 19 consecutive races to equal a modern North American record, she concluded her career as North America’s highestearning female racehorse in history and as the ninth-highest earner among both genders with her $7,304,580 bankroll. She won 13 grade I races, highlighted by the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Classic and the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic. Zenyatta will commence her broodmare career at Lane’s End in Kentucky in 2011.
Important Dates for Sunshine Millions IX TM
Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010
$100 Early Bird Nominations Close
Saturday, Jan. 15, 2011
$1,000 Regular Nominations Close
Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2011
Pre-Entries
Sunday, Jan. 23, 2011
Post Position Draw
Saturday, Jan. 29, 2011
SUNSHINE MILLIONS IX
8 CALIFORNIA THOROUGHBRED • DECEMBER 2010
TM
Cal-Bred Mare Produces Breeders’ Cup Winner Unrivaled Belle, a four-year-old daughter of the California-bred mare Queenie Belle, defeated some of the sport’s classiest distaffers in the grade I, $1,818,000 Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5. The Unbridled’s Song filly, whose 1 3/4-length victory boosted her total bankroll to $1,774,929, has now won six of her 12 starts, with five seconds. Thirteen-year-old Queenie Belle, a Bertrando mare bred by Marshall Naify and Edward Nahem, has won six of 22 career starts, highlighted by a pair of grade II stakes, and earned $605,130.
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