A Giant Danzig reappears after a 5 year absence

A Giant Danzig reappears after a 5 year absence

Auction 3567 – As the half-price breeding sale draws to a close I would think that the auction will stabilize through the summer – at least until everyone starts to cull all those 2 YOs that just didn’t pan out as one hoped.  In the meantime, the auction continues its roller coaster ride and almost every category that was up last week is down this week and vice versa.  Twelve horses sold for more than a million dollars and one of those was also one of the ten old guys, 8 years old and up, that sold for more than dollar.  In his case – waaaaay more.    

Auction Stats 3553

Horses Entered – 633 (Last week – 797) –  

Horses Sold For More Than $1.00 – 244 (Last week – 209) +  

Horses Not Sold or RNA (Reserve Not Attained) – 69 (Last week – 62) +

Horses Sold For $1.00 – 138 – (Last week -199) +  

Two Year-olds – Entered – 40 – (Last week – 33) +  

Two Year-olds – Sold – 37 – (Last week – 33) +

Two year-olds – Not Sold or RNA – 3 – (Last week – 0) +

Total Sales – $37,489,615.00 – (Last week – $31,443,223.00) +

Average Sale Price – $98,140.35 – (Last week – $77,066.72) +

Leading Buyer – Computer Stable – 182 – (Last week – 327 horses) –  

Sale Topper – # 133912 – Mostly Ghostly – $4,500,000.00 – (Last week – $3,930,001.00) +

The Millionaires – Here is a quick look at the top five, high selling horses to give you an idea of what people are buying.  Hopefully none of these are stable transfers.

Greenapp14 sold the sale topper this week, Mostly Ghostly # 133912, to Lenny6.  The 3 YO dark bay colt is by Ghostzapper out of a Deputy Minister mare and is 3/6 in the money.   Mostly Ghostly does sport one win picture that is hanging in a place of honor on Greenapp14’s trophy wall.  Lenny expects to hang a few win pictures on his wall soon.  I am sure Lenny will work his training magic on the rangy colt but it’s a good thing he can afford the vet truck as he will need it when that curb on the near hind begins to stalk him.

Backslider # 92431 was consigned by Blackswan4 and brought the hammer down at $3,309,754.00 for the sale reserve.  A pretty bay colt by Aldebaran he has yet to break his maiden but if his speed figures continue to improve it shouldn’t be long.  The 3 YO is out of a seven time winning mare by Fruits Of Love, Charlie N Burst.  A mostly lower level claimer, Charlie N Burst was pretty durable if not very fast and started 44 times.  She is the dam of two foals to race.  Leftcoastj signed the ticket.

Three races back, Grave Danger # 121497 hit a deep and sandy track causing him to rundown badly behind.  Simsters8 let the 4 YO plain bay colt heal but decided he was way too busy and didn’t want to deal with a horse that was going to have to wear rundown bandages every time he ran.  Consigned to the auction, even after earning a 104 speed figure as he raced to a second place finish going 11 furlongs, he caught the eye of top Australian trainer Dowelly.  By Empire Maker out of a Nijinsky mare, the colt has won four races from 20 starts and Dowelly dipped deep into his wallet paying Lenny $3,100,000.00 in order to take this colt home.

Lenny, knowing what it will take in vet bills to get his Derby hopefuls to the big race next week, also consigned # 92973, Ninja Nightway, from his Crazyjoe division.  The 4 YO dark bay, almost black, colt by Victory Gallop is out of the well bred, but only one time winner, Ninja West by Gone West.   Ninja Nightway has won four of 21 starts and is stakes placed and that was good enough for Graywolf6 to spend $3 million dollars to lead him home.

A Giant Danzig # 14352 is a rather large 9 YO chestnut horse.  He is the only foal of one time winner Communal Water by Danzig and was consigned by Cashrun.  He posted a 107speed figure last time out in a 6 1/2 furlong allowance race finishing second but that was in November of 2003 when he was a 4 YO.  Cashrun decided because of his size and flair, A Giant Danzig might make a nice show horse and gave him to the neighbor’s daughter to train for a new career as a hunter/jumper.  After a stellar five years in the show ring the neighbor’s daughter up and got married and gave the horse back to Cashrun who promptly sent him to the auction ring.  I think new owner Donnyb purchased him for $2,543,212 knowing he could always give him to his wife as a show horse if he doesn’t pan out on his return to the racetrack.

The Stc:  Less and less auction action from this group every week but still a few notables.   Five horses were purchased for a total of $23,571.00 and no one bought more than one horse.  The average price paid was $4,714.20.  Leading buyers were Gwolfstc who paid $10,000 to Bdog04 for Sin Sin Sin # 127746, a 4 YO bay colt by Singspiel and Stcselur who paid the same amount to Elest02 for # 43194, To Boot, a 5 YO horse by Storm Boot.

Auction Seen:  I got lucky this week as there was sunshine on the bluegrass although there were storms on Friday and storms predicted for tomorrow.  I flew in from windy Arizona and with Keeneland closed it was easy to get a cab – I sure wish they had the cash cab in Louisville – and in no time at all I was at the sales barn.  I made my way toward the front door and for the first time in a long time I was not in a hurry to go inside, preferring to spend a few minutes out in the nice weather.  Joecool and Kingdamo stopped for a short visit before heading inside as did Miressa and Rosie70.  I saw Shadows and decided I should probably head on in if I wanted to get to the races later.  Of course I had to stop by the bar and let that nice Lenny buy me a soda before heading off to my table.  No fire needed today!  Yippee! 

Seated to my left were Florence and Arp55 along with Gonzo and Eddieperth.  They were quite talkative and had to tell me all about the jockey in Texas, J Carlson, who was taken before the stewards for hidden ownership.  Seems he was in partnership with some trainer named Bentnose on a horse named Morphine.  They said he was supposed to get 60 days but that he was appealing it.  I wonder if Texasace had anything to do with the goings on out there?  He is pretty prominent around those parts.  On my right were Nyssa, Biscuits and Onemillion who was dressed in a wonderful shirt with Canadian maple leaves all over it.  On the back of the shirt it had “I buy houses” in big red letters.  Sign of the times, I guess.  Gangster walked by with Frenchtart and they were followed closely by Thepolice.  Slicker was telling Navytales about a horse he was going to buy and gave Greenlight a thumbs up as he pointed to a number in the catalog.  I got in a quick wave in at Boss as he went with Inhalers down towards Hippyfarms and then had to sit and be quiet as the auction started because I certainly didn’t need to be waving my arms around.  I have enough horses!   

That’s it for the auction report this week.  Good luck with all your auction purchases.