BIG BIDS IN THE BREEDING INDUSTRY

Hard Spun (USA)
(Photo : Darley)

“Round sums thwarted as Darley winning bids exceed fees”
Racing Post - 27 January 2013

Martin Stevens
Racing PostDarley Online Auction

The first round of bidding in an online auction of nominations to three of Darley America’s leading stallions ended on Friday with the winning bids all exceeding the horses’ advertised fees this year.

The nomination to Medaglia D’Oro, sire of nine top-flight winners including Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra, sold for $105,100, just over $5,000 above his fee of $100,000.

Bidding reached $68,100 for the nomination to leading second-crop sire Hard Spun. His advertised fee this year is $60,000.

Former Australian champion sire Lonhro, who is shuttling to Darley’s Jonabell Farm in Kentucky for the second time this year, achieved a price of $41,100. He stands at $30,000.

The next round of bidding, for the second of three sets of nominations to those stallions, starts tomorrow.

Darley has heralded the prices as a “strong vote of confidence from industry breeders”.

What those three winning bids ending in $100 tell me is frustrated underbidders who offered nice, round sums will have to rethink their strategy.

Singspiel

It’s fair to say that when Singspiel died in 2010 obituaries led on his glittering racing career rather than his achievements at stud.

That’s not to denigrate his breeding record. Far from it. The son of In The Wings racked up 13 individual top-flight winners, but with only two stallion sons in Britain and Ireland, Eastern Anthem and Moon Ballad, who cover at £2,000 and €2,500, it didn’t look as though he was going to be a breed-shaping stallion.

Or so I thought, until I read through our New Stallions supplement in Friday’s paper and it struck me that Singspiel was the damsire of no fewer than three new recruits this year - Caspar Netscher, Debussy and Helmet.

Then you remember that last month Singspiel’s Grade 2-winning son Lohengrin supplied the first and third home from his second crop, Logotype and Gottfried, in the Grade 1 Asahi Hai Futurity Stakes at Nakayama. So there is hope that he will be supported by Japanese breeders this year.

For good measure Singspiel was also the damsire of another Grade 1-winning juvenile in Japan last month, Hanshin Juvenile Fillies scorer Robe Tissage.

With news this week that one of Singspiel’s last stars, Dar Re Mi, will be covered by Frankel, there is hope that Singspiel will continue to strengthen his influence on the breed.

DARLEY ANNOUNCES ONLINE STALLION AUCTION

Medaglia d’Oro
(Photo : Darley)

“Three nominations each to Medaglia d’Oro, Hard Spun,
and Lonhro for the 2013 breeding season.”

About ten years ago, Summerhill built an online auction site for stallion services. It was at a time when we were developing new concepts in Ready To Run sales, which history tells us was one of the world’s great innovations in thoroughbred sales. However, when it came to online auctions of stallion services, it seems we were ten years ahead of our time. South Africans were just not “plugged-in” to the idea of buying their services through the internet, and only a miniscule percentage of our trade in this commodity took place on the website. Nonetheless, it gave rise to another concept, and that was the online sale of horses off the farm, which brought about the disposal of the champion racehorse Imbongi, and current J&B Met aspirant, Black Wing, among many other stand-outs.

This weekend Darley America announced that it will offer three nominations each to Medaglia d’Oro, Hard Spun, and Lonhro for the 2013 breeding season via an online auction platform on the Darley website. Three seasons, one for each stallion, will be offered each week for three consecutive weeks, and will carry Darley’s standard live foal terms with no reserves.

“We are extremely excited about this new initiative,” said Olly Tait, Chief Operating Officer of Darley. “We have been able to make three additional seasons available to several of our fully subscribed stallions, and offering the seasons online via an auction allows our clients guaranteed access at prices that will be determined by them.”

The auctions will also be open to those who already hold 2013 contracts for the three stallions. Should one of these existing contract-holders be the successful bidder for a price below the published fee, Tait noted that the client’s contract would be revised to reflect that lower fee.

Charlie Boden, the Head of Sales for Darley America, said the idea was born from the desire for innovation in the process of selling nominations. “We’re always looking for something new, and some innovation to help the marketplace,” Boden explained. “Because the internet has become a bigger part of everyone’s lives, we thought the timing might be good. The idea really is looking for efficiency, as opposed to looking for ways to generate revenue.”

Boden noted that Medaglia d’Oro, Hard Spun, and Lonhro were chosen to kick start the project because their books are already full, thus eliminating the risk of underselling those who have already purchased seasons at the advertised fee. “We’re using the three stallions that were the most popular in the way of demand at their price,” he explained. “So we’re going to really just test out the mechanics of the website and the auction process and do it without worrying about how much it might affect the prices. We don’t want to harm anyone who has a contract already. I hope the three seasons each week in the auction sell for the farm fee. That would be ideal, and we’d get three more nice mares to each of the horses, and hopefully three happy customers.”

Boden said that he also views the auctions as a potential method of price discovery. “I see it as a way down the road, if it works like we hope, to let the market determine the price, especially for the cheaper stallions,” he said. “What I hate is standing a horse for $25,000 that I should have stood for $15,000 and, as a result, I only get 30 mares, when he should have gotten 75 at a lower fee? It might allow us down the road to let the market determine the prices as opposed to guessing at what the market should be.”

For more information, please visit :

www.darleyamerica.com

Extracts from Thoroughbred Daily News

PLUM PRETTY TOPS KEENELAND NOVEMBER DAY 1

Click above to watch the sale of Hip 96 Plum Pretty (Medaglia d’Oro)
(Image and Footage : Keeneland)

KEENELAND NOVEMBER BREEDING STOCK SALE
6 - 16 November 2012

It’s an historic daily double that at least one Kentucky family will remember for a long, long time. Roughly 18 hours after purchasing Horse of the Year Havre de Grace (Saint Liam) for $10 million from Taylor Made Sales, Whisper Hill Farm’s Mandy Pope was back to secure another jewel from the Taylor brothers’ consignment: the 2011 GI Kentucky Oaks heroine Plum Pretty (Medaglia d’Oro), offered during yesterday’s opening session of Keeneland’s November Breeding Stock Sale.

Pope and her bloodstock advisor Chris Brothers, sitting inside the pavilion, outlasted two other challengers sitting in adjacent sections to land the striking mare for $4.2million. That was easily the November opener’s top price.

“It’s been great,” said Taylor Made’s Frank Taylor. “The market’s been unbelievable, and Mandy Pope’s been unbelievable. She’s been representing America well.”

Pope returned the compliment. “Taylor Made had done a great job of presenting them,” she said.

Plum Pretty sold as hip 96 as a racing or broodmare prospect, and Pope confirmed she would be retired and bred. Breeding plans are undecided for Plum Pretty.

“Obviously we are not going to rush into anything,” said Pope. “A lot of the farms are just setting their stud fees, and I am sure a lot of them may be calling me before I call them. It is going to be very exciting.”

Keeneland November - Tuesday 6th
Top Broodmares / Broodmare Prospects

Hip	Name	Sire	Dam	Status	Price ($)
96	PLUM PRETTY	Medaglia d’Oro	Liszy (A.P. Indy)	r/b’ mare prospect	4,200,000
24	HARMONIUS	Dynaformer	Jade Tree (Storm Cat)	b’ mare prospect	2,800,000
149	ZAZU	Tapit	Rhumb Line (Mr Greeley)	b’ mare prospect	2,100,000
112	SHOTGUN GULCH	Thunder Gulch	Rosieville (Boston Harbor)	i/f Bernardini	1,600,000
76	NEGLIGEE	Northern Afleet	Naughty Notions (Relaunch)	i/f Distorted Humor	1,250,000
94	PISTE NOIRE	Diesis	Skiable (Niniski)	i/f Galileo	925,000
170	CALAIS	A.P. Indy	Flanders (Seeking The Gold)	i/f Distorted Humor	700,000
148	XS BELLE	Dynaformer	Queenie Belle (Bertrando)	i/f Unbridled’s Song	510,000
72	MY JEN	Fusaichi Pegasus	Mekko Hokte (Holy Bull)	i/f Hard Spun	485,000
162	BAY TO BAY	Sligo Bay	Bala (With Approval)	r/b mare prospect	425,000
91	PERSUADING	Broken Vow	Peaks Mill (Stalwart)	i/f Distorted Humor	425,000

Keeneland November - Tuesday 6th
Top Weanlings

Hip	Sex	Sire	Dam	Price ($)
95	Filly	Galileo	Piste Noire	625,000
176	Colt	Quality Road	Charming Tale	410,000
121	Colt	Tapit	Spice Island	310,000
144	Filly	Tapit	Will Prevail	300,000
171	Filly	Indian Charlie	Calais	280,000
7	Colt	Quality Road	Flashy Frolic	270,000
109	Colt	Giant’s Causeway	Seeking Results	260,000
142	Filly	Smart Strike	Wickedly Wise	255,000
75	Filly	Malibu Moon	Necessary Evil	190,000

www.keeneland.com

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

WHAT DO THESE FAMOUS SIRES HAVE IN COMMON?

Click above to watch Visionaire.
(Image and Footage : Team Valor)

Medaglia d’Oro, Leroidesanimaux,
Hat Trick and King Kamehameha?

They all came via
Team Valor.

SO DID GRADE ONE HERO,
VISIONAIRE.

Enquiries :
Linda Norval 27 (0) 33 263 1081
or email linda@summerhill.co.za
www.summerhill.co.za

PLUM PRETTY WINS KENTUCKY OAKS 137

Plum Pretty wins the 137th Kentucky Oaks (Grade 1)
(Image : NBC - Footage : Churchill Downs)

KENTUCKY OAKS (Grade 1)
6 May 2011

When she first got off the van, I called her “Plum Ugly,” trainer Bob Baffert admitted as he headed to the winner’s circle after the G1 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs yesterday. “But now she’s beautiful.”

Peachtree Stable’s Plum Pretty (Medaglia d’Oro) gave Baffert his second Oaks winner; his first was Silverbulletday (Silver Deputy) in 1999. A 6-1 chance, the bay tracked Summer Soiree (War Front) through fractions of :23.65, :46.99 and 1:11.25. She drove to the lead when they straightened into the lane and looked home free, but jockey Rosie Napravnik wheeled 16-1 St. John’s River (Include) off the rail inside the eighth pole and the longshot came flying. It was close, but the wire came just in time for Plum Pretty to hold on by a neck. “Everybody talks about how long the stretch here is at Churchill Downs,” Napravnik said after the race. “I wish it was just a nose longer today.”

Plum Pretty made one start at two, graduating at first asking at Oak Tree October 27. The bay came back to be third in the January 15 G2 Santa Ynez Stakes and she was 5 1/2 lengths behind winner Zazu when completing the triple in the February 5 G1 Las Virgenes Stakes. Connections hit the road in search of a softer field, and boy, did they find one. The Pennsylvania-bred was bet down to 1-20 in the March 27 Sunland Park Oaks and made those slim odds look right on the money as she romped home a 25-length winner over five grossly overmatched rivals.

The Peachtree colorbearer proved that effort was no fluke yesterday. Content to settle off the runaway Summer Soiree (War Front) early, she had no trouble collaring the tiring leader as they raced around the bend and was flicking her ears as they hit the lane.

Jockey Martin Garcia sent her on about her business and she had opened up daylight by the time they hit the sixteenth pole. St. John’s River moved off the rail and hit the gas, but ran out of real estate late. “Great trip; great filly,” Garcia said. “I couldn’t have asked for more.” Added trainer Bob Baffert, “That was awesome. We hoped she’d run like that. She thought she was at Sunland Park.”

KENTUCKY OAKS (Grade 1)
FINAL RESULT

#	Horse	Sire	Jockey	Trainer
1	PLUM PRETTY	Medaglia d’Oro	Martin Garcia	Bob Baffert
2	ST. JOHN’S RIVER	Include	Rosie Napravnik	Andrew Leggio
3	ZAZU	Tapit	Joel Rosario	John Sadler
4	JOYFUL VICTORY	Tapit	Mike Smith	Larry Jones
5	BOUQUET BOOTH	Flower Alley	John Velazquez	Steve Margolis
6	KATHMANBLU	Bluegrass Cat	Julien Leparoux	Ken McPeek
7	DAISY DEVINE	Kafwain	Jimmy Graham	Andrew McKeever
8	STREET STORM	Stormy Atlantic	Shaun Bridgmohan	Steve Margolis
9	SUAVE VOIR FAIRE	Suave	Miguel Mena	Daniel Michael Smithwick
10	SUMMER SOIREE	War Front	Gabriel Saez	Larry Jones
11	HER SMILE	Include	Garrett Gomez	Todd Pletcher
12	LILACS AND LACE	Flower Alley	Javier Castellano	John Terranova
13	HOLY HEAVENS	Holy Bull	Kent Desormeaux	Bernard Chatters

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News