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Thursday, October 2, 2014

Observations On First Two Days Of Lexington Selected Sale


Those Swedes have all the dough: Jimmy Takter and agent Robert Lindstrom are the top two buyers at Lexington Selected with a combined $2.2 million spent on 18 yearlings, for an average of $123,000. All those depressing Ingmar Bergman films I watched at the Brattle as a kid didn’t prepare me for this devil may care Nordic spending spree……Two $100,000 plus Dragon Again colts have been sold. This is the first time since 2008 that a pair of his babies went for six figures in Lexington. He’s in Ohio now, and his offspring are living out his PA eligibility. Ron Burke, who has had much success with the sons of that stallion, bought one of them. Maybe the folks who took the other one, a son of Ideal Weather, for $120,000 are chasing the next Dragon Eddy…..Two years ago seven Kadabras averaged $42,000 in Lexington; last year it was 10 for a $31,000 average. He’s averaging almost $80,000 for 14 after the second 2014 session. The fact that his syndicate members stepped up and bought the filly out of Pizza Dolce for $400,000 didn’t hurt, still, they did the same thing last year on a smaller scale. Muscle Mass leads in the OSS freshman filly category, with Dewey in second, followed by Kadabra. Those two have moved on to New York. And Angus Hall, who had a good year, is about to turn 19, which makes him a senior citizen in today’s game……The place is crawling with Western Terrors—again.  There are 42 for sale. Last year three-quarters of them failed to crack the $25,000 mark. Casie Coleman did give $77,000 for a filly, Triple Charm, but that notwithstanding, 10 of them are averaging $22,400 thus far. A Western Terror brother to Krispy Apple sold for only $5000 …….The results for first crop stallion Roll With Joe are inconclusive, but the bidders aren’t beating each other over the head with chairs to get to them either. Five have passed through the ring for a $56,400 average. A very well bred colt brought $115,000. Seventeen Roll With Joes sell in Lexington an 28 in Harrisburg……Shadow Play got lost in the shadow of Sportswriter this year, but the only one to sell thus far brought the top price for a filly in his short career--$92,000 from Jack Darling…..Among volume trotting sires Credit Winner is ahead of Cantab Hall. Both are having a great sale. I don’t get that; Credit Winner had some success in the Excelsior series but drew blanks across the board in the NYSS. Archangel has a couple of wins and Perfect Alliance faltered when she was fed a steady diet of the big girls. Only four Credit Winners sold at Lexington in 2012, but last year 19 averaged close to $88,000. He was an unmitigated success. Seven sold for six figures and four out of five brought at least $50,000. In 2013 perennial big spender Robert Lindstrom bought a colt for $260,000 and another for $165,000. They love that Credit Winner in Lexington…..Western Ideal has clawed his way back to respectability at the sales over the last couple of years. Last year’s Lexington numbers were 30% better than those of 2012 and so far in 2014 seven are averaging almost $80,000. The fact that this crop is Pennsylvania eligible certainly plays a role in the rise. His New Jersey address was a problem. And, of course, the fact that Artspeak has been such a standout has added to his increased relevance at the sale.

Joe FitzGerald

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