Runnymede Farm

English may be his second language, but it certainly would have been difficult to guess when 2nd grader Markus won his school's spelling bee and went on to compete against kids several years his elder in a district-wide spelling tournament. Markus moved with his family to the U.S. several years ago when his parents started jobs working on a horse farm in Paris, Kentucky. His family valued education and after receiving a partial scholarship, Markus was able to attend St. Mary School in his new hometown, where his principal Miranda...

By Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis LEXINGTON, KY - The Keeneland September Yearling Sale's first Book 2 session continued right on from where the auction's elite Book 1 section concluded, producing strong results largely in line with last year's record-setting renewal. During Wednesday's session, 209 yearlings sold for $64,024,000. The session average of $306,335 and the median was $255,000. During last year's Book 2 opener, 219 head grossed $66,695,000 for an average of $304,543 and a median of $250,000. With 83 horses reported not sold, the buy-back rate was 28.42%....

A half-brother to this year's GI Kentucky Derby winner Mage (Good Magic) by McKinzie brought $1.2 million when selling to CRK Stables at Wednesday's session of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale. MGISW McKinzie, a Gainesway sire, is represented by his first crop of yearlings this year. The $1.2-million colt is out of former 'TDN Rising Star' Puca (Big Brown), a SW & GSP runner whose three foals to race, including current juvenile Dornoch (Good Magic), are all stakes performers. Grandview Farm bred both the Derby winner and Hip 669, who...

Three Chimneys Farm's Gun Runner threw down the gauntlet at Wednesday's session of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale with a $1.15-million colt to lead the day's top-priced receipts about two-thirds of the way through Wednesday's selling. Hip 614, bred in Kentucky by Runnymede Farm, LLC and Peter J. Callahan, is out of Margate Gardens (Speightstown), a full-sister to GSW Bridgetown. Runneymede consigned the Apr. 28-foaled chestnut, who was purchased by Mike Repole's Repole Stables and Spendthrift Farm. The mare's current 2-year-old, Wilson Q (Constitution), was second in the Bashford Manor...

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...

Into Mischief was the undisputed star of the show on the first day of selling at Keeneland September, but Coolmore's Uncle Mo proved an able understudy, as his son of Helena Bay (GB) (Johannesburg) was knocked down to Donato Lanni, agent for Amr Zedan, for an even $2 million to become the day's top seller of his sex. Hip 154, a half-brother to 2014 KEESEP purchase and hot young sire Collected (City Zip), was bred by Runnymede Farm, Peter J. Callahan and Three Chimneys Farm. The Feb. 12 foal was...

Who knows what kind of Turf, never mind what kind of world, may be inherited by such of his 15 grandchildren as may themselves be blessed to reach the landmark they celebrate with Catesby W. Clay on Tuesday? But someday they will look back on the apt emergence, in his 100th year, of a fourth Kentucky Derby winner raised on the farm founded by his own grandfather, and see that the heritage of the race itself gained at least as much from Runnymede, in 2023, as the other way round....

OCALA, FL - The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's June Sale of 2-Year-Olds opened with a workmanlike session Tuesday as four horses sold for over $200,000, led by a filly by Bolt d'Oro who attracted a final bid of $290,000 from bloodstock agent Donato Lanni, acting on behalf of Greg and Caroline Bentley. In all, 184 sold Tuesday for a gross of $7,107,500. The average of $38,628 slipped 2.4% from last year's opening session, but the median of $25,500 was up 27.5% from the 2021 sales record-tying figure of $20,000. With...

In just a few weeks, champion Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil - Expo Gold, by Johannesburg) will sell at the Fasig-Tipton 'Night of the Stars' Sale. On an evening heralded for its abundant opportunity, her trip through the ring will be marked with anticipation for what is to come as she begins her broodmare career. But until then, there's just a bit of melancholy for her fans in looking back on her remarkable racing career. What was it, exactly, that made Swiss Skydiver so unforgettable? It could have been her extraordinary toughness...

If City of Light was considered to be in demand after the close of Book 1 at the Keeneland September Sale, his yearlings were perhaps even more challenging to get ahold of by the end of Book 2. First a colt by the first-crop stallion out of the graded stakes-producing mare Ghostslayer (Ghostzapper) brought $1.05 million late in the second session of the auction on Tuesday, selling as Hip 376, but then the next day another colt by the Lane's End sire, Hip 612 out of SP Anchorage (Tapit), brought...