Authentic

It's that time again. The first major 2-year-old sale, the March OBS sale, is in the books and the buyers, sellers and bloodstock agents have had their chance to evaluate this year's freshman sires. So who do they like? We asked the experts listed below to give us their pick for leading freshman sire and an under-the-radar stallion they expect will have a big 2024. Liz Crow: "I really liked the Improbables (WinStar) at the OBS March breeze show. It's very sad that he passed away. I thought he had,...

by Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis OCALA, FL - With a $1-million Authentic colt early in the session and a $1.8-million Win Win Win filly late in the day, the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March Sale of 2-Year-Olds matched its 2023 number of five seven-figure juveniles and the auction concluded its three-day run Thursday with another strong renewal. "Overall, it was a terrific sale and we are looking forward to April," said OBS Director of Sales Tod Wojciechowski. Through three sessions, 446 horses sold for $66,437,600. The average of $148,963...

A colt from the first crop of champion Authentic sold for $1 million to an online bid from John Stewart's Resolute Bloodstock. Consigned by Hartley/DeRenzo Thoroughbreds, the chestnut colt worked a furlong last week in :9 4/5. He is out of stakes-placed Ruby Trust (Smart Strike), a daughter of graded winner Queen of the Catsle (Tale of the Cat). Randy Hartley and Dean DeRenzo purchased the colt for $260,000 at last year's Keeneland September sale.

Now we're really entering nosebleed altitudes for most breeders, between $30,000 and $50,000: a zone where you should feel that you're improving the odds of coming up with an elite horse. It tells you a lot about our business that the majority of the two dozen stallions operating at this level can only do so because they have yet to send a single runner into the starting gate. A quarter of these we immediately set to one side, as absolute beginners, because those received separate consideration in the opening instalment...

Fasig-Tipton has catalogued 308 entries for its December Digital Sale, which is now open through Tuesday, Dec. 12, at 11 a.m ET, the auction house said in a release Thursday. The catalogue, which is the largest ever offered on the Fasig-Tipton Digital platform, features more than 170 broodmares, as well as broodmare prospects, horses of racing age, yearlings and weanlings. The catalogue also includes a stallion share and lifetime breeding right in MGSW Flameaway (Scat Daddy), who is the current co-leading North American first-crop sire by black-type winners. "This is...

Keeneland has supplemented four horses, including Ack Naughty to Book 1 of the 80th November Breeding Stock Sale on Wednesday, Nov. 8 at 1 p.m. ET, and has added eight supplements to the November Horses of Racing Age Sale, which begins at noon Nov. 17, the sales organization said in a release Thursday. Consigned by Sequel New York, agent, Ack Naughty (Hip 246) is an 11-year-old stakes-placed daughter of Afleet Alex who is in-foal to Into Mischief. Her son Practical Move (Practical Joke), winner of the GI Runhappy Santa Anita...

Between winning the COVID-delayed Kentucky Derby in September and giving thousands of microshare owners cause to celebrate, Authentic was a major talking point the fall of 2020. His first foals, yearlings of 2023, include 10 who fetched $700,000 or more at recent Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton sales. "Authentic is a very special horse to us here at Spendthrift," said the farm's general manager, Ned Toffey. "He is a horse that we initially pursued the breeding interest in, but very quickly we found ourselves taking it a step farther and buying him...

LEXINGTON, KY - A bevy of high-priced yearlings provided a late spark to the first Book 3 session of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, but the auction--which had kept pace with its record-setting 2022 renewal during Books 1 and 2--lost a bit of its steam as it entered into its second week Saturday. A total of 289 yearlings sold Saturday for $46,697,000. The average of $163,849 dipped 7.3% from last year's Book 3 opener and the median fell 7.1% to $130,000. The buy-back rate remained steady at 22%. During the...

by Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis The Keeneland September Yearling Sale opened with a packed pavilion and plenty of bidding from a diverse buying bench ultimately producing eight seven-figure sales led by a $2.3-million daughter of Into Mischief. At the end of the session, numbers were largely in line with the figures from the opening session of last year's record-breaking auction. "We were all biting our nails a little bit thinking about being measured up to last year's sale which was so phenomenal," said Keeneland President Shannon Arvin. "But the...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - The two-day Fasig-Tipton New York-Bred Yearlings Sale concluded with a day of brisk trade Monday in the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion which produced--from a significantly larger catalogue--the auction's highest-ever gross. "We concluded another successful New York-bred Yearling sale today," said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning, Jr. "It continued the strength and momentum that we have witnessed at this sale in recent years, and also the strength that we saw at the selected sale last week. There was very good activity and lots of outstanding horses on the...

by Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale of Selected Yearlings, which looked to have a tough task to live up to its record-smashing 2022 renewal, proved more than equal to that task and, when a fast and frenetic session concluded Tuesday night, the auction had once again set high-water marks for gross and average and tied its record median. "We have experienced some magical nights in Saratoga in the past and you've heard me talk about the Saratoga magic, but we ain't seen...

by Jessica Martini and Christina Bossinakis SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - With bids ricocheting from all directions both inside and outside the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion, the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale of Selected Yearlings opened with a strong session topped by a pair of million-dollar babies Monday night in upstate New York. "I thought it was a tremendous start to the 2023 Saratoga Yearling Sale," Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning, Jr. said at the close of business Monday. "The numbers are essentially on par with last year's opening session, which was a remarkable,...