HEADLINE NEWS Bill Oppenheim

ALAN PORTER ON MISS CONCERTO HEADLINE p. 3 NEWS For information about TDN, DELIVERED EACH NIGHT BY FAX AND FREE BY E-MAIL TO SUBSCRIBERS OF call 732-747-8060. www.thoroughbreddailynews.com WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2005 CAPE OF GOOD HOPE WORKS Cape of Good Hope (GB) (Inchinor {GB}) worked 800 FROM THE DESK OF... meters Tuesday at Sha Tin in preparation for Sunday’s G1 Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Sprint. The seven-year- Bill Oppenheim old gelding covered the distance in :54. “I’m pleased with him,” reported trainer David RECORD YEAR Oughton after the drill. “He’s As you know by now, we've been compiling and starting to come right again after publishing statistics about the total spent in what we coming back from Australia. He call 'the major North American and European auction had a good trial last week and market' for the past few months now. I periodically did all that I wanted this morn- give up hope that there will ever be official statistics ing.” Cape of Good Hope is com- that we could all refer to, and I'm in one of those peri- ing off a runner-up effort in the ods now. So we take it upon ourselves. With the help Nov. 5 G2 Age Classic at Flem- of TDN staffers, especially the long-suffering Marie Cape of Good Hope HKJC ington. Oughton thinks the ab- Kizenko, we've come up with what I'm satisfied are sence of superstar Silent Witness good-enough numbers. I'll spare you all the qualifiers (Aus) will help his horse. “Obviously it’s very disap- and disclaimers, suffice to say there are plenty, and the pointing for everyone that Silent Witness won’t be conversion rates we used are also published some- there, but it gives my horse his chance to win again at where. But let's cut to the chase: what does it say, and home,” the trainer commented. “He’s performed so what does it all mean? well all over the world, but he hasn’t won in Hong We use 12 bellwether sales, nine yearling sales, and Kong for over three years. Hopefully that will change on three mixed. There is definitely an argument for ex- the weekend.” panding the sales covered, and, as promised, that is on the Winter Project Agenda. But just looking at what we ‘Cherry’ in the Mix for the Vase... do have, I find the numbers somewhere between stag- Godolphin’s Cherry Mix (Fr) (Linamix {Fr}), a con- gering and phenomenal. tender in Sunday’s G1 Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Vase, At the 12 sales this year, kicking off at Fasig-Tipton turned in some light exercise over the all-weather yes- Kentucky in July and finishing with the most rocking terday. The four-year-old was 12th in prestigious G1 December Sale of all time last Thursday, a total of Prix de’l Arc de Triomphe before 12,149 horses were sold for more than $1.175-billion, notching San Siro’s G1 Gran and an average of $96,907. Now, I think these are Premio del Jockey Club last out some stupefying figures. This is just the horses that Oct. 16. “He’s doing well out came up for auction at these major sales and, of those, here,” Godolphin’s Sam Avis there are more than 12,000 horses worth an average of commented. “He really didn’t fire almost $100,000 each. This is big business. in the Arc for whatever reason, The sales this year just kept getting stronger and but got back on track in Italy last stronger, especially in Europe, though to be fair, the European sales had taken a big dip in 2004 from the Cherry Mix HKJC time out in lesser company. Hopefully, that will have done his previous year's record highs. Whatever, it didn't matter. confidence good. I think he’ll handle a fast track okay. Keeneland September, the world's great yearling super- He ran one of his best races ever when second in the market, which singlehandedly accounts for a third of 2004 Arc and the ground was pretty firm that day.” the 12-sale revenue, set a new record for a horse sale, grossing $384-million, up nearly $60-million over the All horses in the TDN are bred in North America, previous year. unless otherwise indicated Oppenheim cont. www.winstarfarm.com TDN P HEADLINE NEWS • 12/7/05 • PAGE 2 of 5 Goffs, which had been in the doldrums, came storm- It's great news, that's for sure, particularly because ing back with a lot of promotion and personal attention, your correspondent here made no bones about thinking and the Irish property boom helped the Orby week the market was going to be down this year, by as much yearling gross jump 77 percent over 2004. Tattersalls, as it actually finished up. Or did I forget to mention that completing their yearling schedule reshuffle, followed disclaimer, 'margin of error plus or minus 15 percent?' up with nearly 20-percent gains in revenue. Though we However, I would say that I made my forecasts more or don't yet include Goffs November in our major sale less according to what I assessed as conditions within count, that, too, came roaring back, while Tattersalls the industry, whereas I suspect that this big surge in December sale was up a whopping 41 percent in gross. Thoroughbred value--15 percent, no doubt about it--is People just could not get enough. due more to conditions external to the industry. The One very interesting feature of the sales this year was best guesses still seem to me to be a combination of that the 'percentage change' figures for the nine year- two principal factors: the first is that people don't want ling sales were mirrored almost exactly by those of the their money in banks any more than they have to be, three mixed sales. Nine and three may not sound like because they're getting so little interest; plus they've much, but the nine was 7,287 yearlings sold, and the discovered the stock market can go down as well as three mixed sales added another 4,862; so it's a pretty up; and, third, I think, is the baby-boomer-cashing-out decent sample size. The 7,287 yearlings sold were theory. It's the biggest generation in history, it's (we're) three percent more than last year. They brought in in its fifties, if not approaching our sixties, and a lot of $722,502,160 in gross sales, up 14 percent over people have inherited money, sold businesses, and/or 2004; and the average, which was just a hair under cashed out of long-held property in hot markets like $100,000 at $99,149, was an 11-percent gain over Ireland, or San Francisco. The evidence of the horse last year's 12-sale yearling average of $89,005. business is that the world has now recovered from the The yearling sales, with over 7,200 sold, were up dot-com crash. Boats, art, and other luxury goods $90-million. Then the three major mixed sales, with should be selling like hotcakes, too, if the 2005 major over 4,800 horses sold, were up another $60-million. horse auctions covered here are anything to go by. The total of 4,862 sales was up three percent from last year; the gross of $454,825,472 was up 15 percent; Bill Oppenheim may be contacted at [email protected]. and the $93,547 mixed-sale average was, again, up 11 Please cc TDN management at percent, from last year's mixed sale average of [email protected]. $83,999. In all, a total of 12,149 horses were sold at these 12 major sales. They grossed (draw breath here) TDN Fax-on-Demand $1,177,327,632, and averaged, as noted earlier, Don’t wait one more minute to get a resend $96,907. The number sold is three percent higher than of your TDN. last year's 11,822; the gross is 14 percent higher than Call our Fax-On-Demand line, (732) 559-9595 and enter your last year, when the $1,028,621,077 marked only the 6-digit user id from either your fax machine or any phone line. second time the billion-dollar mark had been reached at Enter the fax number where you’d like the paper to be these sales (the first was in 2000). And the $96,907 delivered, and it will be sent immediately. average was 11 percent higher than last year, when we (Don’t know your user id? Give us a call at 732-747-8060 and could say 'nearly 12,000 horses averaged just over we’ll tell you what it is.) $87,000.' Now we can say, 'more than 12,000 horses THIS COMPLIMENTARY SERVICE IS AVAILABLE TO EVERY averaged just under $97,000.’ SUBSCRIBER (FAX AND EMAIL). NEED A MATING FOR YOUR MARE? New to the Lane’s End Website: MATINGS ANALYSIS BY PEDIGREE EXPERT ALAN PORTER ON EACH LANE’S END AND LANE’S END TEXAS STALLION. Go to lanesend.com/stallions/roster.asp and click on any stallion to access this information or call to request our Matings Book. Phone (859) 873-7300 • Fax (859) 873-3746 • E-mail: [email protected] • www.lanesend.com TDN P HEADLINE NEWS • 12/7/05 • PAGE 3 of 5 WEEKEND PEDIGREE At three, he captured, in succession, the Whirlaway S., John Battaglia Memorial S., GII Jim Beam S.

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