Dec_112_Sales_CircuitV2_Sales 20/11/2013 14:35 Page 73
Henry and Magnier own Betterbetterbetter’s two-year-old sister – the last foal for their dam – named Ruby Tuesday, and it's a safe bet the partners won’t be saying goodbye to her anytime soon. John Sikura's Hill ‘n’ Dale consigned Betterbetterbetter for his own account. Pope’s sale-topper was one of 13 late supplementary entries at Fasig-Tipton, which doesn’t appear to have a cut-off deadline if the entry is blue chip. In fact, a weanling half-sister by Tapit to Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Mucho Macho Man was entered the day before the sale began. Pope bought three other mares at FasigTipton for a total outlay of $9.05m. Then on Wednesday at Keeneland, she collected another champion, Groupie Doll, for $3.1m. The applause that erupted after the winning bid spoke as much for the popularity of the Kentucky-based mare, who will continue her racing career for Pope, as it did for Pope's effort to keep her in North America. Very quickly, Pope has ascended to the top of the list of elite North American buyers, a group that also includes Aaron and Marie Jones, Summer Wind Farm, Town and Country Farm, and Stonestreet Holdings, among others – all active at FasigTipton and Keeneland.
Foreign investment Foreign buyers come and go, but this year in particular a Chilean group that had recently purchased Vinery came fully prepared to stock the farm with mares from the sales. Buying at both Fasig-Tipton and at Keeneland well past the select sessions, Liliana Solari’s Don Alberto Corp., which spent $13.82m on Vinery, bought five mares for $2.95m at Fasig-Tipton and led all buyers at Keeneland with 32 lots for $10.64m. Haras Don Alberto is a leading Chilean stud farm that has shuttled several European stallions, such as Henrythenavigator and Rock Of Gibraltar, in recent years. Another South American group with a vested interest in Kentucky is Brazilianbased Borges Torrealba Holdings, an equity stakeholder in Three Chimneys and purchaser of the AP Indy Grade 1 winner Love And Pride, in foal to Distorted Humor, for $4.9m at Fasig-Tipton. Principal Goncalo Borges Torrealba bred Love And Pride, who raced for Green Hills Farm, in the name of his Stud TNT; her second dam, the accomplished racemare Cara Rafaela, was one of the first US successes for TNT and later found fame as the dam of champion Bernardini.
KEENELAND
SALES CIRCUIT
Recent Breeders’ Cup heroine Groupie Doll sold for $3.1 million to Mandy Pope
Borges Torrealba bought five for $5.287m at Keeneland in 2012, when second to Mandore International Agency on the leading buyers’ list, but this year spent ‘just’ $1.630m for five lots. Nicolas de Watrigant’s Mandore, an agent for Sheikh Joaan Al Thani, led all Keeneland buyers last year with five purchases for $10.235m but this year didn't buy a single
“The sheer wealth
on hand five years after the global economic downturn was staggering” lot at Keeneland. But Sheikh Joaan, who bought the 5,000,000gns Galileo yearling filly at Tattersalls in October through Mandore, spent $2.7m at Fasig-Tipton to acquire Mizdirection as a mate for Al Kazeem, buying under his Al Shaqab Racing banner. Katsumi Yoshida’s Northern Farm and Teruya Yoshida’s Shadai were active at both sales venues: between the brothers, they purchased seven of the 38 million-dollar lots, including the only two mares at FasigTipton in foal to Frankel, In Lingerie for
THOROUGHBRED OWNER & BREEDER INC PACEMAKER
$2.4m (Shadai), and Mi Sueno for $1.9m (Katsumi Yoshida). The Yoshidas have been stocking their respective farms with wellraced broodmare prospects over the last few years and their recent buying was a continuation of that effort. Other foreign acquirers of seven-figure lots included Kia-Ora Stud of Australia; SF Bloodstock LLC, with Australian principals Gavin Murphy and Neil Bowden; German Dr Christoph Berglar’s Kentucky-based Stonereath Stud; the Wertheimers; Flaxman Holdings; German-owned Audley Farm; and Coolmore. At Keeneland, Coolmore’s MV Magnier bought the sale-topper, Awesome Maria, for $4m. From the E Paul Robsham Stables LLC dispersal handled by Lane’s End, the Grade 1 winner is in foal to Ashford’s Giant’s Causeway and reportedly will reside at Ashford, perhaps to be bred to Claiborne's War Front, of whom Coolmore has been a big supporter and whose fee has risen significantly from the $12,500 he started at in 2007. Ashford’s Aisling Duignan signed for War Front's only three weanlings that sold at the fall sales – colts for $800,000, $750,000, and $450,000. Each was conceived in 2012, when the stallion’s fee was $60,000 – up from $15,000 in 2011. This year he stood for $80,000 and next year he will command $150,000. War Front could easily be the poster boy for this successful autumn sales season.
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