WHISPER HILL MAKES NOISE at KEENELAND Dual Toppers for Hill 'N' Dale
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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2011 732-747-8060 $ TDN Home Page Click Here WHISPER HILL MAKES NOISE AT KEENELAND Dual Toppers for Hill ‘n’ Dale... Only eight lots into Monday=s second session at John Sikura=s Hill >n= Dale was co-breeder of Sunday Keeneland September, the night=s $1.4-million topper, and put the million-dollar auction had its third seven-figure sales back-to-back Monday night with the $1-million yearling when Mandy Pope=s Unbridled=s Song filly. Sikura, battling a case of Whisper Hill Farm paid a laryngitis, was gratified with the results. AWe=ve been session-topping $1 million for a trying to collect special mares over the last several daughter of Unbridled=s Song years,@ he said. AThey are expensive, and you need that out of star broodmare Silvery reward in the sales ring, not just to justify buying those Swan (Silver Deputy). Pope, mares, but to make them viable long-term. It=s good sitting with a team of advisors when it works out.@ The unraced Silvery Swan, now including bloodstock agent Chris 18, has been battling physical issues, according to Brothers, did her bidding while Sikura, and will likely not be bred again. Her yearling sitting in the sales pavilion. After was co-bred by Betz Thoroughbreds, Needham, signing the ticket, she admitted, Liberation Farm and Hill >n= Dale. Asked what made the AI=ve never spent anywhere near yearling a standout, Sikura said, AI think the first this kind of money on a horse Mandy Pope Keeneland obvious attraction is her pedigree; the mare has before, but I just fell in love with produced two Grade I winners, and everything has run her, and I have a thing about grays anyway. @ out of the mare. This is the last foal out of a great Of what attracted her to the filly (hip 116), Pope mare, so she is a really special, unique filly. As far as added, APhysically, she was very classy. She was very the physical, she was an end of May foal, but very well-balanced. She=s a little immature, but she=s a May leggy, and looked like a filly that would really turn into foal, so she=s going to grow. And she has the correct something special. Of Hill n Dale s results through the length of body to go with her legs, which sometimes @ > = = first two days of the September sale, Sikura said, We you have to watch with Unbridled=s Songs a little bit; A had a group of powerful horses and they sold well. they get a lot of body. She=s very elegant and classy. Her attitude was wonderful--nothing fazed her. And, of None of them exceeded expectations. We expected a course, her pedigree is wonderful. If she can run like good sale, and we are very happy with the way they=ve her brothers did, she=ll be a very lovely horse, and she=ll sold.@ -Jessica Martini have a home for the rest of her life.@ Silvery Swan is the dam of Grade I winners Roman Ruler (Fusaichi Pegasus) and El Corredor (Mr. Greeley), as well as graded stakes winner Silver Tornado (Maria=s Mon) and Grade I-placed Maimonides (Vindication). Pope admitted the filly=s residual value as a broodmare was the main reason she was willing to go that extra bit to secure the yearling. AWe=ll race her and then breed her,@ Pope said. A[Her potential broodmare value] was a pretty major factor, because we do breed mares, and we=re more inclined to spend that kind of money on mares. If something does go wrong with her racing career, she=s a wonderful broodmare, and I still have a classy horse with a bright future ahead of her.@ Whisper Hill is breeder of current handicap star Tizway (Tiznow), winner of this year=s GI Metropolitan H. and GI Whitney H. Asked the size of the Whisper Hill broodmare band, Pope said, ATwenty-five. Well, 26 now. No, wait, not yet. In about three years. Let=s race her first.@ The million-dollar baby was the Florida horsewoman=s second gray Unbridled=s Song filly acquisition at the Keeneland sale. She paid $400,000 to bring home hip 52 during Sunday=s first session. P TDN HEADLINE NEWS • 9/13/11 • PAGE 2 of 22 • thoroughbreddailynews.com Silvery Lining... A Balanced Result... Not for the first time, a yearling out of Silvery Swan Multiple Grade I winner Balance (Thunder Gulch) was has sparked fireworks at Keeneland September. In fact, a headliner at Keeneland last September when her first when her daughter by Unbridled's Song lit up the board foal by A.P. Indy sold for $4.2 million. Her second foal, to the tune of $1 million Monday a colt by Street Cry (Ire), didn=t night, it was the third quite reach those heights seven-figure KEESEP success for yesterday, but acquitted himself the mare. A filly by Mr. Greeley admirably when selling for out of Silvery Swan brought $2.7 $750,000 to the bid of million at this venue in 2005, and bloodstock agent John GISP Maimonides (Vindication), McCormack. McCormack, who her foal of that year, brought was seated alongside Japanese $4.6 million in 2006. Unraced buyer Nobutaka Tada, declined to Keeneland photo Silvery Swan was bred by Carl say who had purchased the yearling, but did say the youngster would be heading to Keeneland photo Icahn's Foxfield operation, which was managed by the topper=s co- Japan. AI was underbidder on Balance as a yearling,@ breeder Rob Whiteley before Whiteley went out on his McCormack revealed last night. AIt is a special case to own with Liberation Farm. see her produce one after another very good horse. The horse last year was very good, and this horse perhaps was a stronger version that probably will take a bit of time, but he was a good-moving horse. He=s a very athletic horse, and it=s proven to be a good pedigree-- the siblings around her are really performing. You have to believe that if the cream can rise, it is going to do it with this horse.@ Tada has been the most active of a bevy of Japanese buyers through two days of the Keeneland sale, signing (718) 978-8200 www.mersant.com the tickets on five yearlings, including the $585,000 purchase of an Unbridled=s Song colt out of Oonagh KEENELAND SEPTEMBER YEARLING SALE Maccool (Ire) (Giant=s Causeway) Sunday. Monday, September 12 McCormack, who has been going to Japan for over two decades now, attributed the strong Japanese SESSION: 2011 2010 presence to an advantageous conversion rate. AI think Catalogued 105 106 you=d have to say that, with the yen to the dollar at .70 No. Offered 92 92 at the moment, it=s in their favor to buy here. The euro No. Sold 62 58 to the yen is favorable to the Japanese, and the U.S. RNAs 30 34 dollar to the yen is very favorable. People play into the % RNAs 32.6% 36.9% currency exchanges. I see it with Hong Kong. In Hong No. $500K+ 11 7 Kong, they would be buying a lot of horses in Australia, High Price $1,000,000 $2,050,000 but the Australian dollar has gone to 1.07, 1.08, so it=s Gross $20,340,000 $20,340,000 effectively a little bit less expensive in Europe. People Average (% change) $328,065 (-6.4%) $350,690 follow those trends, naturally, because when there is Median (% change) $300,000 (-4%) $312,500 money at stake, it has a bearing.@ P TDN HEADLINE NEWS • 9/13/11 • PAGE 3 of 22 • thoroughbreddailynews.com Bell Happy With Sale... Mill Ridge Sales consigned the Street Cry (Ire) colt out of Balance on behalf of his breeder Jerry Amerman. Amerman Racing purchased Balance for $260,000 out of the 2004 Keeneland September sale, and the mare went on to win three Grade I events; her half-sister Zenyatta (Street Cry {Ire}) reached superstar status while claiming the Horse of the Year title last season. Mill Ridge=s Headley Bell said the yearling=s $750,000 price tag was in line with expectations. AIt was probably about what we expected,@ Bell said. ALast year, we were so very fortunate that two people hooked up on the horse and they took it to those numbers. This year, we just didn=t seem to have the two to take it that far, but it=s a fair price in this market.@ Asked to describe the yearling, Bell said, AI thought he was a special individual, impeccably bred and a truly athletic horse. I think they bought a real athlete, and we wish them the very best.@ Of the overall market, Bell added, AIt=s a selective market and we=ve got select horses here and people to buy those horses. There is money for quality horses; we=ll see how the rest of the week goes.@ -JM CORRECTION: A photo caption on page 1 of Monday's TDN incorrectly identified the man Shawn Dugan was with as her husband, Neil Drysdale. It was, in fact, Patrick Lawley-Wakelin. Said Dugan, "If Patrick and I were married, one of us would be doing time right now..." (718) 978-8200 www.mersant.com KEENELAND SEPTEMBER YEARLING SALE Monday, September 12 CUMULATIVE: 2011 2010 Catalogued 211 211 No. Offered 191 185 No. Sold 129 127 RNAs 62 58 % RNAs 32.4% 31.3% No.