AMERICAN GRADED STAKES STANDINGS brought to you by Keeneland: BARGAINS THERE ARE APLENTY
By Ray Paulick
There are auction bargains aplenty in the list of American Graded Stakes winners thus far is 2010. No horse was a bigger sale bargain than the unbeaten, two-time champion Zenyatta, who was purchased on behalf of Jerry and Ann Moss for just $60,000 in 2005 at the Keeneland September yearling sale. The daughter of Street Cry has won nearly 100 times her purchase price, $5,624,580, going into Friday’s Apple Blossom Invitational at Oaklawn Park, where she will be a heavy favorite in her attempt to stretch her record to 16 wins without a loss.
But Zenyatta isn’t the only American Graded Stakes winner bought at public auction for a relatively small price. Evening Jewel, last weekend’s winner of the Central Bank Ashland Stakes, a Grade 1 race for 3-year-old fillies at Keeneland, was originally purchased for just $8,000 at the 2008 Keeneland September yearling sale and entered in the 2009 OBS April sale of 2-year-olds in training by E.J. Sipus Jr.’s Richwood South. During a quarter-mile breeze she caught the eye of bloodstock agent Gary Young (aka Gary the Clocker) when he went to Ocala for the March OBS sale in 2009, and he struck a deal to buy her privately on behalf of Californians Tom and Marilyn Braly (she was subsequently withdrawn from the April sale).
Bred in California by the late Betty Mabee and Larry Mabee, the daughter of Northern Afleet returned to her native state, where she was turned over to trainer Jim Cassidy. Evening Jewel nearly won a Grade 1 race at Santa Anita, getting caught by 3-year-old filly division leader Blind Luck in the last jump of the Las Virgenes Stakes, but then ventured to Keeneland to win the Ashland. Among those she defeated was the 2009 2-year-old filly champion She Be Wild. From eight starts, Evening Jewel has earned $410,600.
Speaking of Blind Luck, she has followed a path not that dissimilar from that of Evening Jewel. Bred in Kentucky by Dr. and Mrs. Bill Baker’s Fairlawn Farm, she sold for just $11,000 at the 2008 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July yearling sale as a pinhooking prospect for Omega Farm and then entered in the same April 2009 OBS sale of 2-year-olds in training as Evening Jewel. When bidding stopped at $10,000, she was bought back by her consignor, former jockey Juvenal Diaz, who ran her in a $40,000 maiden claiming race at Calder two months later. When she won by 13 1/4 lengths, she caught the eye of California trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, who bought her on behalf of a partnership.
Blink Luck has gone on to win five addition races, including four American Graded Stakes (three Grade 1) and $1,069,050.
That’s quite a trio: Zenyatta, Evening Jewel, and Blind Luck. Three Grade 1 winners whose combined auction price as yearlings was just $79,000.
Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report
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Tags: American Graded Stakes Standings, Apple Blossom Invitational, bill baker, blind luck, Central Bank Ashland Stakes, E. J. Sipus Jr, Evening Jewel, Fairlawn Farm, fasig-tipton, Gary Young, jerry hollendorfer, jim cassidy, Keeneland, Keeneland September, March OBS, Marilyn Braly, oaklawn park, ocala, Omega Farm, Richwood South, santa anita, She Be Wild, Street Cry, Tom Braly, zenyatta
April 8th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
Yep,that’s something many of these commercial only breeder’s have never been able to get a grasp of.It’s not about how well they sell,it’s about how good that mating is to run !!!!!!!!!
April 8th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
True JC, but the “right” commercial breeders rake in the money. And then so much money gets invested at high prices there is a need for slots to help subsidize the huge sums needed to win back some of the table stakes.
The bias is towards the big spender and the big commercial breeders. How often have I heard a commentator say so and so big spender “deserves” to win a big race when one of their big bets pay off. But its just as deserving for the Taylors to win with a Seattle Slew.
And Li’l E Tee first sold for $1,100. His unfortunate breeder had excellent instincts but unlucky timing.
But longtime patrons Jerry and Ann Moss certainly deserve - and have earned - their success as well.
Not too many decades ago the sweet spot at the yearling sales was the $5,000 to $20,000 range. Despite inflation, Paulick observed two of the three were bought in that range even today. It is good to see these fine horses with modest initial value do so well. That should keep buyers willing to take a risk at any level they can.
The horses still make racing a democratic sport and any horse - from a Dust Commander to a War Admiral - can win the Derby (Grade 1 sponsored by Yum Brands). Big spender Zayat will deserve to get some of his money back if Eskadereya fulllfills, but some horses of modest background who get to the big dance will prove as you say JC that the final proof is in how well they run.