Practical Joke

With the 2-year-old sales right around the corner, the TDN reached out to consignors with juveniles heading to the sales rings at the Mar. 16 and 17 Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training and the Mar. 31 Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Sale to discuss which of their offerings by first-crop sires have impressed them. This is the second installment of the series (click here to view the first section which was published in Tuesday's TDN). CIARAN DUNNE (Wavertree Stables) Among the 26 juveniles Ciaran Dunne's Wavertree Stables has...

As the calendar inches inexorably towards March and a spring-long series of 2-year-olds in training sales, consignors are putting the finishing touches on juveniles heading to auction, paying particular attention to youngsters representing their stallions first crop to hit the track. The TDN is reaching out to consignors with 2-year-olds heading to the sales rings at OBS and Gulfstream Park next month to find out which freshman sires have impressed them. EDDIE WOODS Prolific consignor Eddie Woods has 24 juveniles catalogued for the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March 2-Year-Olds in...

Fasig-Tipton has catalogued an additional 70 supplemental entries to its 2021 Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale. The entries are catalogued as hips 581-650 and may now be viewed online. Print versions of the supplemental catalogue will be available on the sales grounds at sale time. These latest entries include: Shieldmaiden (Hip 589): Daughter of Smart Strike is the dam of Fair Maiden (Street Boss), recent winner of the GI La Brea S. at Santa Anita. She is from the immediate family of Grade I winners Secret Status (A.P. Indy), Private Status...

And so we come to the group standing on the brink. The group facing the moment of truth, when their most precocious stock enters the gate and offers some initial indication as to their competence for the task for which, ostensibly at least, they were bred. As such, this should perhaps be the moment we double down. That's what we would do, at any rate, if we had real faith in the choices we have made for our mares. If we have selected their mates well, then people will be...

Champion sire Into Mischief has had a lot of good weekends. But this year's Kentucky Derby weekend had to be near the top of the list. On Friday, his son Owendale ran second in the GII Alysheba S. at Churchill Downs only to be defeated by By My Standards, sired by none other than Into Mischief's leading son Goldencents. Then the next day at Saratoga, Into Mischief's daughter Frank's Rockette became a Grade II winner in the Prioress S. while at Gulfstream, Cool Arrow won the GIII Smile Sprint S....

We've taken a breather in this series during the January Sale, where I shared many conversations on themes raised in its first two parts--notably the market's addiction to unproven stallions. Time after time, it was the same story. A shrug of the shoulders, a helpless spreading of the hands: "Yes, we know it's nuts. But we have to make the game pay." Fair enough. It's a bit like the individual who asks why he or she should make a massively inconvenient personal sacrifice, with regard to the climate crisis, when...