Kestrel and Boomer combine for breakthrough Keeneland score
Fast stakes-winning Karakontie mare Karak continues strong Australian interest in US breeding stock market
Kestrel Thoroughbreds’ Bruce Slade made his first successful foray into the US mare market on day two of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale as southern hemisphere breeders continued to plunder Kentucky in search of outcross pedigrees.
Slade teamed up with Queensland-based agent Craig Rounsefell of Boomer Bloodstock, who has been in the northern hemisphere attending the important trade sales since September, to buy lightly-raced sprinting mare Karak (Karakontie) for US$280,000 (A$383,772).
She was one of five mares bought by Australians during the second session, which after a record Fasig-Tipton sale and the start of Keeneland, takes the tally to 20 mares who have been purchased by Australian interests with the intention of sending them Down Under.
Karak, who was taken to Royal Ascot by her trainer Wesley Ward at just her second start, won twice as a juvenile including taking out the Tyro Stakes (Listed, 5f) at Monmouth before returning at three to land the Cincinnati Trophy Stakes (Listed, 6.5f) at Turfway Park.
Catalogued as Lot 504, Karak is by Gainsway’s promising young stallion Karakontie (Bernstein), the sire of seven stakes winners to date, and she is one of three winners out of Down The Well (Mjadil) making her a half-sister to stakes winner Aqua Frio (Uncle Mo).
“From Craig’s comments and everything I have seen on video and photos, she is a beautiful sort and you are buying her for sub-$400,000 Australian dollars by a really promising young sire who was a proper stakes-winning two-year-old who was a Royal Ascot-performed two-year-old,” Slade told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“I thought she was good value as I don’t think you could buy a mare with her profile in Australia for sub-$400,000, so I think we’ve bought well and obviously time will tell.”
Karak was bought for Steve and Daniel Allam who will consider 2022 mating plans once the mare arrives in Australia early in the New Year.
“It’s a commercial operation, Allam Racing, and if there was an opportunity there for her to be sold or put to the market, then we will consider that down the track, but certainly, as of right now, she is a long-term addition,” Slade said.
“Being her first foal, one of these exciting young first season sires who are set to be retired next year would be a great first mating for her from a price point in terms of service fee and then second, third, fourth year we might get a bit more serious and put a bigger service fee into her.
“She is Danehill free with size, scope and a big action, so a horse like Stay Inside would be very much in the mix.”
Slade, who has forged a strong industry reputation from his time with trainer Gai Waterhouse and Newgate Farm before launching Kestrel Thoroughbreds, bought Karak from the draft of Taylor Made, a major US operation.
“It has gone a full circle because I did my internship with Taylor Made in America. I spent a season with them (in 2008) and now my first ever mare purchased out of there is from Taylor Made,” Slade said.
“That was the last time I was there, but next year I am dead keen to take a bit of a group over and attend the Breeders’ Cup and the sales.”
Even though Slade is not in Kentucky, he has used a similar approach in assessing the catalogue to what he does at an Australasian auction.
“I am big on time data and I think the big difference is finding the quality form as I think the quality form crosses international boundaries and performs well everywhere,” he said.
“In America, we’ve got the benefit of Thoro-graph and the rating profiling of these horses to really differentiate what is quality black type versus the less quality stuff.
“If you are doing your homework and working hard, the access to information is terrific. We’ve got agents like Boomer (Rounsefell), Andy (Williams) and Will Johnson, they are all young agents travelling the world who can be there and positioned in these places.
“They pick up the phone and are happy to help and work with you and they understand exactly what we need in Australia from a physical side of things in terms of their bone, their size, their feet. It has become a really global game.”
Blue Sky Bloodstock’s Julian Blaxland, who is on the grounds in Lexington this year, also considered the ratings profile of mare purchases and called on Racing Victoria chief handicapper Greg Carpenter for an Australian rating for mares his clients intended to race Down Under such as Fasig-Tipton purchase, dual Listed winner Sound Machine (Into Mischief), who will be trained by Anthony and Sam Freedman.
“There’s a bunch of different ratings and the American ratings system I find hard to understand, probably because it’s foreign to me, and the UK rates American horses as well, but it is quite different when you get Greg Carpenter to rate some for us on behalf of the Freedman stable. That’s quite interesting to see where they fit,” Blaxland said.
“We get a local (Australian) rating on them before we look at them as a racing proposition. It just tells you where you can kick off or whether you’re too highly rated.
“Some mares might be rated highly in America but at home they’re not. It is much clearer to have that Australian rating on your list.”
Blaxland combined with agent Will Johnson during the second session to land Blue Sky Baby (Pioneerof The Nile), a juvenile winning, stakes-placed mare, for US$240,000 (A$328,708).
Blue Sky Baby, who was offered by Burleson Farms as Lot 364, is out of the unraced Medaglia d’Oro (El Prado) mare Maggie d’Oro, herself a sister to the stakes-placed Christina d’Oro.
Blaxland revealed that a few parties had joined forces to buy the mare who will come to Australia to either be reoffered to the market next year as a maiden mare or be sent to stud.
“She’s a Group-performed mare who really looks like an Australian sprinting type and Will and I, rather than taking each other on, we decided to partner up and we’ve put some really good clients into her,” Blaxland said.
“There’s still value at this sale, I think, because there’s so many horses on offer and certain breeds suit certain countries. Australia’s got a turf emphasis, so some of these mares might not be valued as highly in America as they are in Australia.
“That combined with the sheer numbers means, yes, you’ll get beaten on three out of four mares you bid on, but if you do your work and sit by the ring, you can find value.”
The Freedman Brothers partnership of trainers Michael and Richard also struck again yesterday, purchasing two mares to go with their two-lot haul at Fasig-Tipton’s November Sale earlier in the week.
Randwick-based Michael and his wife Anna have been in Kentucky for the sales and have teamed up with agent Michael Wallace to help identify mares suitable to race in Australia and subsequently to be sent to stud in support of Golden Slipper-winning colt Stay Inside (Extreme Choice) who will retire to Newgate Farm in 2022.
From the second session, Freedman went to US$250,000 (A$342,404) for Lot 244, the four-time winner She’s So Special (Hard Spun), and US$400,000 (A$547,847) for Lot 338, the winning, stakes-placed UK-bred Shamardal (Giant’s Causeway) mare Alnaseem.
SF Bloodstock and Newgate Farm has also been active, securing mares in advance of the 2022 breeding season when Henry Field’s Hunter Valley operation is set to launch first season sires Stay Inside, A J Moir Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m) winner Wild Ruler (Snitzel) and Artorius (Flying Artie), among others.
Field and SF Bloodstock’s Tom Ryan, who bought three mares on day one of Keeneland, went to US$175,000 (A$239,857) for Excessivespending (Shackleford), who is in foal to War Of Will (War Front).
A half-sister to stakes winner Sweet Marini (Marino Marini), Excessivespending was trained by Chris Hartman to win six of her 28 starts including a Listed race over five-and-a-half furlongs.
The top billing on day 2 of the Keeneland Breeding Stock Sale was a weanling colt by Coolmore Stud shuttler Justify (Scat Daddy) after he was purchased by M V Magnier for $625,000 (approx. AU$856,090) from the Lane’s End draft.
Catalogued as Lot 305 and called Just Before Dawn, the colt is out of Unenchantedevening (Unbridled’s Song), making him a half-brother to Grade 1 winner Moonshine Memories (Malibu Moon) and Listed scorer Indian Evening (Indian Charlie).
Unenchantedevening is herself a daughter of Listed winner Evil Elaine (Medieval Man) and she in turn produced Grade 1 winner Favorite Trick (Phone Trick) and Listed winner Cold N Calculating (It’s Freezing).
“He is stamping them as strong horses and good breathers; the lads at home have commented how they are very simple to deal with,” Magnier told Bloodhorse.com.
The weanling would prove to be the session topper on a day that saw strong sales of young horses and mares as the average spiked 19 per cent to US$167,549 (approx. AU$229,671) and median improved 30 per cent to $130,000 (approx. AU$178,200), compared with the opening session of Book 2 in 2020. The session saw 226 of 290 horses offered to sell for $37,866,000 (approx. AU$51,905,766).
Overall the sale has seen 344 horses sell for $88,500,000 (approx. AU$121,313,587). That gross is up 14 per cent compared with 2020 to this point in the sale.
Keeneland vice-president of sales Tony Lacy said momentum has continued from the yearling sales to the mixed sales.
“Incredible. I mean, it was a really vibrant market,” he said. “I think this is a continuation of a lot of the energy we saw in September. Foals were incredibly strong. I think there were a lot of frustrated pinhookers out there trying to buy. There were a lot of end users actually participating in the market today, which is really encouraging.
“Young mares – well bred and on the cover to popular stallions – again were extremely popular. So you had a lot of happy sellers. I think it’s a really encouraging market as we move forward.”