WISE DAN CROWNED 2012 ECLIPSE HORSE OF THE YEAR

Click above to watch US Horse of the Year, Wise Dan, winning the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1)
(Image : Washington Post - Footage : BC World Championships)

ECLIPSE AWARDS 2012
Gulfstream Park, Florida, USA
19 January 2013

Following a wildly successful 2012 campaign which saw him set two track records, win three Grade 1 races and record six consecutive triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures, Morton Fink’s homebred gelding Wise Dan (Wiseman’s Ferry - Lisa Danielle, by Wolf Power {SAf}) was named America’s ‘Horse of the Year’ for 2012 at Saturday night’s Eclipse Awards ceremony at Gulfstream Park.

“It’s a good thing I have something to hold onto. What can I say?” deadpanned Fink, as he took the stage for the third time, having previously accepted the ‘Eclipse for Older Male’ and ‘Champion Turf Male’. “When you get to be my age, you need something to get up in the morning for and look forward to. This horse has made me so happy I can’t even express it in words.”

Brilliantly managed and brought along by trainer Charles Lopresti, Wise Dan posted a Beyer Speed Figure of 117 in winning the Grade 3 Ben Ali Stakes over the Keeneland Polytrack in April and won the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile and Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile ahead of his sensational score in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita.

Wise Dan also took down top honors as ‘Champion Older Male’ and ‘Champion Turf Horse’, the first to sweep all three categories since John Henry in 1981. He is the first homebred horse of the year since Ghostzapper in 2004.

Wise Dan is back at work at Keeneland and is being readied for a 6-year-old campaign in 2013.

ECLIPSE AWARDS 2012
Champions

Award	Champion
2 Year Old Male	SHANGHAI BOBBY (Harlan’s Holiday)
2 Year Old Filly	BEHOLDER (Henny Hughes)
3 Year Old Male	I’LL HAVE ANOTHER (Flower Alley)
3 Year Old Filly	QUESTING (GB) (Hard Spun)
Older Male	WISE DAN (Wiseman’s Ferry)
Older Female	ROYAL DELTA (Empire Maker)
Male Sprinter	TRINNIBERG (Teuflesberg)
Female Sprinter	GROUPIE DOLL (Bowman’s Band)
Male Turf Horse	WISE DAN (Wiseman’s Ferry)
Female Turf Horse	ZAGORA (FR) (Green Tune)
Steeplechase Horse	PIERROT LUNAIRE (War Chant)
Owner	GODOLPHIN RACING LLC
Breeder	DARLEY
Jockey	RAMON DOMINGUEZ
Apprentice Jockey	JOSE MONTANO
Trainer	DALE ROMANS

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

THE STALLION MAKER

Click above to watch Visionaire winning the King’s Bishop Stakes (Gr1)
(Image and Footage : Team Valor)

KING’S BISHOP STAKES (Grade 1)
Saratoga, New York, USA

For some years now, we’ve been banging on about the influence of Saratoga’s King’s Bishop Stakes (Gr.1) as a producer of high-class stallions. The debate is appropriate right now, as the big Saratoga meeting has just commenced, and it happens to coincide with the emergence of another rising star on the stallion firmament, Hard Spun, who like the Summerhill sire, Visionaire, is a previous winner of this great race. You may argue that our own awareness of the King’s Bishops’ importance as a “stallion-maker”, was only awakened by the need to “propagandise” Visionaire’s demolition of the 2010 King’s Bishop field, but that would hardly be doing justice to a team, which if nothing else, is diligent in its research. When we first made our observations on the King’s Bishop’s outcomes known, we already knew about More Than Ready and his exploits in the covering shed, Distorted Humor was not yet Champion Sire of America, (though he was on his way there), and Elusive Quality, End Sweep, Ghostzapper and Successful Appeal were all fine living adverts for the belief. In a modern nutshell, the King’s Bishop is far outpointing even the Kentucky Derby (Gr.1) as a provider of top notch stallions at the moment.

Let’s turn to Hard Spun again, and America’s stallion logs. Hard Spun is head and shoulders ahead of his contemporaries with their first three-year-olds at the races, with no fewer than eleven stakes winners already, including a Grade One exacta last weekend. And if you take a peek at the general sires’ log, what do you find? Sitting snugly in third spot behind Empire Maker and Giant’s Causeway, is City Zip, remarkably, another graduate of the King’s Bishop.

The world’s top stallion guru, Bill Oppenheim, penned an excellent article in Wednesday’s Thoroughbred Daily News on the state of play of the Danzig male line (from whence Hard Spun descends), which is an excellent read, as always.

Visit: www.thoroughbreddailynews.com

His observations are worthy of our attention; and this is an especially relevant piece on the re-emergence of Danzig in the States, the impact of the “undeclared war” between Coolmore and the Maktoums, and how that has pretty much split the fate of the line between Danehill and Green Desert in Europe. Go to it!

TOPPER GOES TO SUMMERHILL'S ADMIRE MAIN CONNECTIONS

Click above to watch Azeri selling at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale
(Footage : Keeneland)

KEENELAND NOVEMBER BREEDING STOCK SALE 2009

International connections have been the lifeblood of Summerhill going back twenty years to the time the Maktoum family arrived with their first stallions. More recently, Summerhill has connected with Japan’s headline breeding dynasty, the Yoshida’s, and one of the family was in the news again yesterday.

Multiple champion Azeri made her second appearance of the year in the Keeneland sales ring Monday, and the second time was a charm, with the chestnut mare bringing a final bid of $2.25 million from Northern Farm’s Katsumi Yoshida to top the opening session of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale in Lexington. Azeri, in foal to Ghostzapper, failed to reach her reserve at $4.4 million at Keeneland in January. She sold yesterday in foal to Distorted Humor. The auctioneer looked to start the action at $1 million, but bidding began at a more modest $300,000. From there, bids came in rapid-fire succession in $100,000 increments, with Blandford Bloodstock’s Tom Goff among the bidders inside the pavilion. Bidding began to stall approaching the $2-million mark, but with encouragement from the auctioneer’s stand Azeri’s price tag inched up to the final figure. Shunsuke Yoshida, on the phone with his father Katsumi, did his bidding behind the pavilion and signed the ticket on the prized mare.

“We didn’t expect that we could buy this mare,” Yoshida said. “We just kept bidding up to our budget, and finally she came to us.”

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

A Difficult Act To Follow

Robert Sangster (getty)It seems only fitting that the late Robert Sangster, who paid a then world-record price of $13.1 million for a yearling at the 1985 Keeneland July sale, would have a hand in establishing a Keeneland November and world record for a broodmare. John Ferguson, representing Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, outlasted John Magnier and representatives of Coolmore—a stud Sangster helped develop into one of the world ’ s preeminent farms—to land English champion Playful Act (Ire) (Sadler ’ s Wells) yesterday. When the dust had settled, the Keeneland toteboard read $10.5 million, demolishing the previous record of $9.4 million for a broodmare achieved by Magical Romance at the 2006 Tattersalls December sale. The North American record was set by broodmare prospect Ashado, who sold for $9 million at this sale in 2005. “ I was delighted and surprised, I must say, but when those two get into battle, you never know what might happen, ” said Sangster ’ s son Ben, who now manages the family’s Swettenham Stud with his brothers Guy and Adam.

KEENELAND NOVEMBER
TOP BROODMARE/RACING PROSPECTS

Hip       Name                         Covering Stallion       Price ($)

231       Playful Act (Ire)      not in foal                    10,500,000
Purchased by John Ferguson

294       Spun Sugar              A.P. Indy                        4,500,000
Purchased by Shadwell Farm LLC

174       Kamarinskaya         Kingmambo                   3,200,000
Purchased by Kern Lillingston Association, agent

125       Evil                            Bernardini                      2,700,000
Purchased by John Ferguson

204       Melhor Ainda         Maria’ s Mon                   2,300,000
Purchased by John Ferguson

257       Rosa Parks (GB)     Kingmambo                   2,300,000
Purchased by John Ferguson Bloodstock

263       Sand Springs          Kingmambo                   2,300,000
Purchased by RBTS, agent

037       Amorama (Fr)       Ghostzapper                   2,100,000
Purchased by Cecil Seaman, agent

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News 06.11.07