Zach Madden

The saying in New Orleans goes something like, 'Laissez les bons temps rouler!'. And while Mardi Gras is over a month away and Lexington is some 700 miles from Louisiana, the Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale kicks off Monday looking to keep the good times rolling off a record-setting 2025 sales season. The sale begins its two-day run at 10 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 12 and concludes Tuesday, Jan. 13 with a total of 1,097 horses catalogued across the two sessions. Riding a tsunami of momentum, Keeneland January...

The yearling sales season, which set records from summer to fall, makes one final stop for the year with the four-day Fasig-Tipton October Yearlings Sale which gets underway Monday at 11 a.m. in Lexington. The remaining three session begin at 10 a.m. The October sale, which expanded to four days a decade ago, has made itself a must-attend event with an increasingly impressive list of graduates and the 2024 auction set highwater marks for gross and average while producing its lowest buy-back rate in 11 years. Consignors expect to see...

The Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale begins Monday in Lexington and continues through Thursday with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m. Following on the heels of an apparently softening market at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale two months ago, consignors expect to see that all-too familiar polarization continue at the first auction of 2024. "If you take a nice physical over there--the same as in November--it will stand out and should bring plenty of money," said Hunter Simms of Warrendale Sales. "I think last year was a...

Bobby Miller, who was the longtime manager at Ro Parra's Millennium Farm before being named the farm's vice chairman, passed away Thursday following a long battle with cancer. "Bobby made a huge difference in all of our lives," said Parra. "He was just a kind man and really one of a kind. When I hired him 20 years ago, I was an absentee owner and I think I had 200 head of horses at the time. And he really brought an incredible amount of professionalism and order to running the...

Fasig-Tipton, which hosted the opening event of the season with its July Selected Yearlings Sale, will bring the curtain down on the yearlings auction season with its four-day Kentucky October Yearlings Sale which begins Monday at the company's Newtown Paddocks. The sale continues through Thursday with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m. The 2021 October sale was a barnburner, setting new records for gross, average and median, and consignors are hoping this year's edition continues a string of strong results this season. "The market has been very strong throughout the...

When Zach Madden announced Tuesday he is now the sole owner of Buckland Sales, as partner Ro Parra has decided to step back, we figured there might be more than the basic story put out to the public. Jen Roytz learned it's a feel-good story--someone using the success they've had to help others carve their path. JR: How did the idea of Buckland Sales come about? ZM: The idea came organically between myself and Millennium Farms back in the fall [of] 2015. I was doing a lot of different things...

Buckland Sales agency, which has been operating as a partnership between Ro Parra and Zach Madden, will now be run solely by the latter, as Parra will be stepping back from his role with the consignment company. The announcement comes the year after Parra consolidated his commercial breeding, boarding and stallion operations at Millennium Farms in Lexington to focus on his family and his own racing and breeding portfolio. "Ro has been a tremendous business partner and mentor to me over the years and I am thankful to also call...

The Fasig-Tipton Winter Mixed Sale, ideally positioned just ahead of next week's start of the breeding season, opens for its two-day run Monday morning at Newtown Paddocks. Hips one through 324, a collection of racing and breeding prospects and short yearlings, will be offered Monday and will be followed Tuesday by hips 325 through 673. Bidding begins each day at 10 a.m. "I've always really liked this sale because of its timing," said consignor Zach Madden, whose Buckland Sales brings a 13-horse consignment into the auction. "There is a little...