The Factor

Somehow this is a real sweet spot in the market. For a stallion farm, the $10,000 cover is a particular pitch: you're a cent away from offering a horse at four figures, but you feel that dropping him into a low-rent neighborhood might be beneath his dignity. You're offering a very accessible fee, but you're not going to let him look cheap. That makes this a surprisingly congested zone, ample for separate assessment. And since clinging to a five-figure fee somewhat represents a show of faith, some of these sires...

A total of 713 yearlings have been cataloged for the OBS October Sale, which kicks off a two-day run Tuesday morning in Central Florida. Based on the foot traffic on the grounds over the last few days, OBS Director of Sales Tod Wojciechowski is confident there will be plenty of demand for what is on offer. "We were very busy Sunday and by Monday afternoon we were busy again, so I feel pretty good about what we've seen traffic-wise," he said. October graduates don't get much important than Crimson Advocate...

2nd-Keeneland, $64,160, Msw, 4-27, 2yo, 5 1/2fT, 1:03.21, fm, 6 3/4 lengths. FANDOM (GB) (c, 2, Showcasing {GB}--Brogan {GB}, by Pivotal {GB}) took all the money at 3-5 and looked a winner every step of the way, breaking on top from the outside gate and easily clearing the field to keep his face clean up front. Rated through fractions of :22.24 and :46.11, the English-bred colt let room on the rail open up as he drifted out around the turn but no one was close enough to threaten. With only...

5th-Keeneland, $100,145, Alw, 10-28, (NW1X), 2yo, f, 1mT, 1:36.88, gd, 2 3/4 lengths. HEAVENLY SUNDAY (f, 2, Candy Ride {Arg}--Alien Giant {SP}, by Giant's Causeway) was hammered to 7-5 favoritism on debut Sept. 27 against a Horseshoe Indianapolis 7 1/2-panel maiden turf race, and made it look like a gift when she won by seven, geared down lengths. Once again enthusiastically supported at 8-5 here, she mildly brushed with the inside horse at the jump but secured a ground saving position from midpack early. Advancing between runners approaching the five...

A Mitole colt and a The Factor filly shared top billing during the select session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's October Yearling Sale, with both fetching $210,000 from the Green family's D. J. Stable. In total, 123 head changed hands for gross receipts of $6,018,000. The average was $48,927 (up 12.1% from $43,644 for the corresponding session in 2021) and median was $40,000 (up 25% from $32,000 last year). The RNA rate was 34.2% as of this writing, but that figure does not include post-sale transactions. D. J. Stable...

Call it the Japan factor. We've already seen it creating opportunities for breeders, after all, with Hard Spun--a still more direct conduit of Danzig blood, and arguably underpriced ever since his relaunch in Kentucky after a sojourn in Hokkaido. The Factor, however, is four years further behind in that process, and right now finds himself at an intriguing crossroads in his rehabilitation. Having spent 2018 at Shizunai Stallion Station, the son of War Front had no American juveniles last year and will accordingly have no sophomore representation in 2022. That...

In reaching the penultimate instalment of our series, once again we are obliged by the steepening commercial gradient to combine different intakes--this time, those who have now launched between four and six juvenile crops--to ensure a suitably competitive podium. For by this stage of their career the majority of Kentucky start-ups will already have packed their bags for regional or overseas programs. One or two are still barely clinging on, their books plummeting, but overall we're now looking at those few who have bravely consolidated to the brink of inclusion...

So here we are at last, rounding the home turn. This series has unfolded in familiar fashion, with an initial stampede of unproven young stallions progressively thinned out by the impatience of a commercial sector operating in ever decreasing cycles. Today we finish with a selection from those admirable stallions who have survived the ruthless attrition, and created a viable niche at various levels of the market. The odds they have overcome, to get here, are such that the long-term health of the breed is clearly being treated as something...

The second to last Japanese yearling sale on the calendar is in the books, and the health of the Japanese bloodstock market compared to other global markets was on full display during the Hokkaido September Sale from Sept. 22-24. The three-day sale saw healthy increases across the board despite the lingering COVID-19 pandemic and the global economic downturn. A day longer than last year's sale, the 2020 renewal's increase in gross was expected on numbers alone, but the increases to the clearance, average and median were a welcome relief to...

A colt by The Factor (hip 129) and a son of Dialed In (hip 141) breezed the quickest eighth and quarter, respectively, during Thursday's first of three breeze shows for next Tuesday and Wednesday's Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale. Consigned by GOP Racing Stable Corp., hip 129 covered a furlong in :9 4/5 despite starting his breeze well out into the track and finishing it close to the fence. A $22,000 KEENOV weanling RNA and $17,000 OBSOCT yearling, the Maryland-bred is out of SW and GSP...

Right, that's enough ranting for now. In the course of this series, I've repeatedly professed bewilderment and alarm over the damage to the Thoroughbred gene pool threatened by a witless stampede towards unproven newcomers, and the no less puerile impatience with which they are promptly abandoned. But we won't revisit those complaints today. Embarking on this final instalment, dealing with those stallions talented or lucky enough to have come out the other side with a viable stud career in Kentucky, we'll just offer one simple consolation. Because if you're one...

Reviewing the 2019 sires' championship, it was striking to observe such consistent correlation between fees and performance. Almost without exception, the top of the table was dominated by the most expensive stallions in the business. The big guns, in other words, had all found their range. Of the top 20 sires in Kentucky, in fact, only one is still standing for less than $40,000. Yet he is also younger than all bar one of that elite. (Uncle Mo is also just 12.) Those two distinctions are hardly unrelated, of course....