THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2017 KEENELAND JANUARY MARCHES ON STRAIGHT TO NUMBER by Jessica Martini LEXINGTON, Ky - The Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale ONE: UNCLE MO continued with its first Book 2 session Wednesday, with a pair of mares bringing six-figures and numbers largely in line with the 2016 Book 2 opener. Fifth and Madison (Street Sense) (hip 1118) brought the day=s top price when selling for $135,000 to Doug Branham. Taylor Made Sales Agency consigned the 4-year- old mare on behalf of Starlight Racing. Bubbles and Babies (A.P. Indy) (hip 1050) also broke the six-figure mark when selling for $125,000 to Josham Farm from the Valkyre Stud consignment. AIt was a positive thing to see those two mares break $100,000 today,@ said Keeneland=s Director of Sales Operations Geoffrey Russell. AIt shows that there is still money here for horses.@ After recording double-digit declines in Book 1, Book 2 opened with numbers similar with last year=s corresponding session. In all, 197 horses sold Wednesday for a total of $3,415,900. The average was $17,340--it was $17,351 a year ago. The median dipped 5.56% to $8,500. The buy-back rate for Wednesday=s Uncle Mo | Coolmore session was 33.22%--up from 23.34% last year. Cont. p3 by Bill Oppenheim IN TDN EUROPE TODAY It=s been a good few years since we decided that once a sire ‘DUNDEEL’ COLT TOPS MAGIC MILLIONS had 200 or more year-starters (a horse is counted as a A colt by It’s A Dundeel (NZ) topped the opening session at >year-starter= each year it starts), we were willing to compare Magic Millions when selling to Boomer Bloodstock for him to the general population of sires; until they have that A$900,000. Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. many, their figures are too subject to fluctuation and don=t seem as reliable. Up until very recently, that >200+ year-starter= threshold meant sires which had just finished having their first 3-year-olds run rarely if ever had that many year-starters in their progeny=s first two years of racing. Well, if it was ever going to happen, it was 2/5 that Coolmore/Ashford sires would be the ones to have so many by the end of the year their first 3-year-olds ran, and sure enough, Ashford=s Uncle Mo had 226 year-starters by the end of 2016. A total of 23 of them were A Runners (just as they are year-starters every year they run, they can be an A Runner every year they run and reach the A Runner threshold, so in Uncle Mo=s case in 2016, there are individual horses--Nyquist, for example--who count as two A Runners, looked at this way)--just over 10% of his year-starters--meaning Uncle Mo ended 2016 with a 5.09 A Runner Index, taking him straight to number one among the 446 North American and European sires which had 200+ year-starters by the end of 2016. For sure it=s the first time a sire with just 3-year-olds has topped the list. Cont. p8 1:31.71 FASTEST Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) Winner Ever WinStarFarm.com | (859) 873-1717 Tiznow – Unbridled Melody, by Unbridled’s Song | Fee: $12,500 S&N Posted 8 Consecutive Triple Digit Beyers “Palace Malice (Curlin), makes a lot of appeal in his second season at Three Chimneys ... what really clinched his reputation were four straight wins in the first half of his 4-year-old year in 2014, culminating in the GI Met Mile, in which he defeated two-time GI Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Goldencents; in the last three of those wins, Palace Malice ran BEYERS of 112-114-112.” - Bill Oppenheim Curlin’s Best Son CURLIN WAS THE SIRE OF 5 GRADE 1 WINNERS AND 2 ECLIPSE FINALISTS IN 2016 $20,000 LFSN LGB, LLC 2017 Inquiries to Grant Williamson at 859.873.7053 www.threechimneys.com @ three_chimneys PRESIDENT & CO-PUBLISHER Barry Weisbord @barryweisbord [email protected] SR. V.P. & CO-PUBLISHER Sue Morris Finley @suefinley [email protected] V.P., INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS Gary King @garykingTDN [email protected] Thursday, January 12, 2017 EDITORIAL [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Jessica Martini @JessMartiniTDN Managing Editor Alan Carasso @EquinealTDN Senior Editor Steve Sherack @SteveSherackTDN Racing Editor Brian DiDonato @BDiDonatoTDN Associate Editors Christie DeBernardis @CDeBernardisTDN Ben Massam @BMassamTDN Assistant Editors Heather Anderson @HLAndersonTDN Joe Bianca @JBiancaTDN ADVERTISING [email protected] Director of Advertising Alycia Borer Advertising Manager Lia Best Advertising Designer A horse for all seasons. Rahy Wind (left) and Dancin Charisse (right), two mares from Amanda Crelin the June 2016 Mercer County, KY neglect case, train under saddle in the care of New Advertising Assistants Alexa Reisfield Vocations Racehorse Adoption Program at Mereworth Farm in Lexington, KY. Both Michelle Benson mares will be available for adoption in the near future. | Photos courtesy of New Vocations Photo Editor/Dir. of Distribution Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew [email protected] Social Media Strategist REEVES ACQUIRES BREAKING LUCKY FOR PWCI SPOT 7 Justina Severni Reeves Thoroughbred Racing has reached a deal to run Gunpowder Farms’ Breaking Lucky (Lookin At Lucky) in their starting gate position for the Director of Customer Service inaugural running of the $12 million GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational Vicki Forbes Jan. 28 at Gulfstream Park. [email protected] Director of Information Technology Ray Villa [email protected] ANOTHER ‘KITTEN’ LOVES THE GULFSTREAM TURF RR1 Enchanting Kitten (Kitten’s Joy) captured her debut over the grass WORLDWIDE INFORMATION in Hallandale Beach Wednesday. Owned by the Ramseys and trained by International Editor Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN Chad Brown, the sophomore is a full to MGSW Csaba and GISP Kitten’s Queen. [email protected] European Editor Emma Berry [email protected] Newmarket Bureau, Cafe Racing Sean Cronin & Tom Frary [email protected] 60 Broad Street, Suite 100 Red Bank, NJ 07701 732-747-8060 | 732-747-8955 (fax) www.TheTDN.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 3 OF 11 • THETDN.COM THURSDAY • JANUARY 12, 2017 Keeneland January Marches On (cont. from p1) away from the racetrack, the weaker it gets.@ Taylor thinks the soft market on mares offers buyers the AIt=s the same sale as last year,@ Russell said. AThe average is chance to find bargains. roughly the same as last year. It is very similar, but we are going AThe good news is, I think the way prices are now on some of through a cycle at the moment that we all need to take note of. I these mares, it=s getting to the point where you can make think people will be evaluating their breeding stock for the 2017 money,@ he explained. AThere have been a lot of mares through breeding season and will have to decide whether they need to here today that we=ve bought. And I=m thinking, >I really don=t breed their mares or not.@ want to own another mare, but I am buying her for $10,000. If I Regarding the continued polarization in the market, Russell get lucky, she could have a $75,000 foal next year.= So the added, AIt=s an expensive market will adjust.@ business to be in, so people are The Keeneland January sale continues through Friday with tending to gravitate towards less sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m. numbers and higher quality and that=s been the theme for sales season 2016/2017.@ Taylor Made Sales Agency was the session=s leading consignor by gross, selling 36 head for $812,700. Taylor Made=s Mark Taylor KEENELAND JANUARY SALE acknowledged that, while there SESSION 2017 2016 Fifth and Madison | Keeneland was still competition for the top $ Catalogued 392 367 offerings, mares falling short in any category were largely $ No. Offered 295 287 ignored by potential buyers. $ No. Sold 197 220 $ RNAs 98 67 AThe production costs are the same for everybody, on your $ % RNAs 33.22% 23.34% upkeep, your vet, your board, all of that stuff,@ Taylor said. AIt=s $ No. $100K+ 2 2 just hard on people dealing with these lower-end horses and $ High Price $135,000 $240,000 less and less people want to do it. And that=s the hard thing $ Gross $3,415,900 $3,817,300 $ Average (% change) $17,340 (-0.06%) $17,351 about our business, you have to go through two years of $ Median (% change) $8,500 (-5.56%) $9,000 production and then, even if you do everything right, a very subjective opinion by a vet and you still don=t succeed. The costs CUMULATIVE 2017 2016 keep going up and it gets harder and harder to hit that bulls eye. $ Catalogued 1173 1085 $ No. Offered 875 819 The bulls eye keeps getting smaller and smaller because you $ No. Sold 581 595 have scoping, X-rays, DNA, heart scans and everything else and $ RNAs 294 224 it has to all line up to hit the home run. I think it=s driving a lot of $ % RNAs 33.60% 27.35% $ Gross $24,989,500 $30,468,900 breeders out of the business. The weanlings we=ve been selling $ Average (% change) $43,011 (-16.01%) $51,208 have had good action on them, but it=s just the further you get $ Median (% change) $20,000 (-9.09%) $22,000 Brody’s Cause was an expensive yearling that ran to his looks. “ “ He has the slinky, flat-kneed walk all of us want from our stock, and you cannot beat the first-year price.