Paramount Sales

The momentum carried through into Tuesday's closing session of Book 4 of the Keeneland September Sale in Lexington with a filly by sophomore sire Connect drawing a $450,000 final bid from Maddie Mattmiller, acting as agent for Black Type Thoroughbreds. Tuesday's session grossed $21,182,500, up slightly from the corresponding session in 2021 when 312 horses sold for $20,549,000. The average for the day was $71,805, up 9.02% from 2021, while median increased 22.22% to $55,000. The final day of Book 4 saw a total of 295 horses sold, while 1,851...

A filly by Into Mischief became the second seven-figure yearling of the Keeneland September sale when selling for $1.25 million Monday in Lexington. Bloodstock agent Donato Lanni, standing alongside trainer Bob Baffert, made the winning bid on behalf of Frank Fletcher. The filly, who sold as hip 52, was consigned by Paramount Sales. She was bred by Stoneway Farm. She is the first foal out of graded winner Song of Spring (Spring at Last) and from the family of multiple Grade I winner Dream Rush. Jim Stone's Stoneway Farm purchased...

   Paramount Sales has fast become one of the leading consignors in America with Jack Christopher, Life Is Good and Kameko an example of the recent graduates. Pat Costello, who emigrated to America in 1984 and climbed the ranks in the industry before setting up Paramount Sales in 2001 with fellow Irish ex-pat Gabriel 'Spider' Duignan, shares all about his racing backstory in this week's Q&A.    From turning a profit pinhooking for 10 years on the trot to revealing what horses in the Paramount Sales draft he's most looking...

LEXINGTON, KY - The yearling sales season kicks off Tuesday with the Fasig-Tipton July Sale of Selected Yearlings at Newtown Paddocks in Lexington. Bidding at the one-session auction begins at 10 a.m. "We're optimistic," Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning said of expectations for the sale. "We've seen a very solid 2-year-old marketplace throughout the spring. There is demand for quality horses, certainly plenty of interest. Racing is pretty good right now." On a balmy Monday morning in Lexington, buyers were out in force and consignors were busy showing yearlings to a...

If the early trials have produced a Derby horse to "rise without trace," then that might well turn out to be Morello (Classic Empire). As winner of two sprints round Aqueduct this winter, he obviously still has a long way to go--in every sense. But there's no mistaking his raw talent, nor the fact that we have only seen the tip of the iceberg even in that very stylish exhibition in the Jimmy Winkfield S. Certainly Morello looks eligible to restore some deserved attention to his sire. Though they're all...

Foaling season is already underway at Springhouse Farm, where breeder Gabriel "Spider" Duignan says they are expecting to see around 50 new foals on the ground this year. On Saturday, Duignan enjoyed a brief respite from his work on the farm to celebrate a successful day on the racetrack. Forbidden Kingdom, a son of American Pharoah bred by Springhouse Farm, stamped himself as one to watch on the Triple Crown trail after he upset a trio of Bob Baffert runners in the GII San Vicente S. at Santa Anita. Trained...

LEXINGTON, KY - The Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Sale brings the curtain down on a competitive season of yearling auctions when it begins its four-day run at Newtown Paddocks Monday morning. A total of 1,586 yearlings have been catalogued for the auction and bidding begins daily at 10 a.m. Consignors were kept busy showing over the weekend and the foot traffic at the barns was a testament to the auction's continued growth in popularity in recent years. "Historically, with the October sale, once the first call to post at Keeneland would...

Prominent owner/breeders Gary and Mary West will begin an annual reduction of their broodmare band at Keeneland November starting with the 2021 sale. With Paramount Sales consigning, the Wests will offer 31 broodmares and broodmares prospects at this November's auction. Mares will be offered in foal to Hard Spun, Union Rags and The Factor, as well as to the Wests' champions Game Winner, Maximum Security and West Coast and Grade 3 winner and Grade 1-placed American Freedom. The Wests had acquired a significant number of mares in past years to...

Strong trade continued at Keeneland Thursday in the 10th of 11 sessions of the Keeneland September Sale and the second of three Book 5 sessions. The day's top seller was a Tapiture colt (Hip 3173) from the Paramount Sales consignment, who brought $145,000 from John Greathouse, agent for Glencrest Farm. A total of 303 yearlings summoned $9.194 million Thursday. The average was $30,343 and the median was $23,000. In the pre-vaccine pandemic era last year, 244 horses brought $4.764 million during the 10th day of selling with an average of...

After paying $575,000 for a Speightstown colt (hip 17) earlier in the session, Don Adam's Courtlandt Farm waded into seven-figure territory as the opening session at Keeneland September neared its midpoint, going to $1.1 million for a filly by Uncle Mo. The dark bay is a daughter of Nikki's Choice (Forestry), a half-sister to GSP Moyo Honey (Mizzen Mast), whose own dam Charming Lauren (Meadowlake) was a full-sister to Grade I-winning juvenile Greenwood Lake. Easily the most popular of her dam's four foals to be offered at public auction, hip...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Selected Yearlings Sale, swept away by the pandemic last summer, marks its 100th anniversary when bidding on the two-day boutique auction starts Monday evening at 6:30 p.m. in the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion. "We are thrilled to be back," Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning said while overseeing action at the sales barns on a brilliantly sunny Sunday morning in upstate New York. "It's wonderful to be here and to feel the excitement and the energy on the sales grounds. And there is that same...

When the global pandemic propelled the world into chaos and uncertainty earlier this year, perhaps no industry group was impacted more by cancellations than New York breeders, who saw all three Saratoga-based auctions cancelled and who were forced to find other outlets for their stock. The up-and-down yearling sales season concludes with next week's Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearlings Sale which features over 100 New York-breds, including four well-bred youngsters from Marty Zaretsky's Pine Ridge Stables. "I would say, not as I would have liked," Zaretsky admitted when asked to assess...