NEWS: SALES

NY-bred standouts at KeeNov Bks 2-3: Yawkey Way, Wholelottashakin, weanling duo

Monday, November 10th, 2014
By Sarah Mace

Following the Book 1 fireworks on Tuesday and Wednesday, top-class New York-breds continued to be in demand in Books 2 and 3 of Keeneland’s November breeding stock sale. Accomplished race mares Yawkey Way and Wholelottashakin sold to the same buyer for $200,000 each, while well-bred weanlings by Ghostzapper and first crop sire Gemologist went for $190,000 and $185,000 respectively.

Stakes winning sprinter Yawkey Way (Grand Slam) in foal to Violence (Medaglia d’Oro) sold to Sabana Farm (David Seguias, Agent) for $200,000 in opening session of Book 2 on Thursday. Bred by New Dawn Stud LLC and foaled at Sez Who North in Stillwater (now Questroyal North), Yawkey Way (Hip 484) is out of a winner by Touch Gold whose dam was a stakes winner in France. She was consigned by St. George Sales, Agent III.

A $50,000 Fasig-Tipton New York-bred preferred yearling in 2009, Yawkey Way sold the following year as the second highest-priced New York-bred at the OBS February Select Sale, bringing $165,000. Campaigned by Klaravich Stables, Inc. and William H. Lawrence and trained by Chad Brown, Yawkey Way was precocious, winning her debut and, second out, a state-bred stakes at Saratoga. She retired after three seasons with a record of three wins, two seconds and one third from ten starts and $127,400 in earnings.

Also purchased by Sabana Farm for $200,000 was Parting Glass Racing’s graded stakes placed turf runner Wholelottashakin (Hip 1293). Consigned by Woods Edge Farm (Peter O’Callaghan), Agent VII, the 5-year-old daughter of Scat Daddy was hammered down early in Saturday’s fourth session as a broodmare prospect.

Bred by Mia Gallo and foaled at Tom and Mia Gallo’s Blue Stone Farm in Cambridge, Wholelottashakin issues from an immediate family of successful New York-bred runners. Her stakes placed dam Carr Shaker (Carr de Naskra), was bred in New York by James F. Edwards and purchased by Thomas J. Gallo III Sales Agency for only $10,000 at the 2006 Fasig-Tipton December mixed sale. Out of Talc Shaker, a New Jersey-bred multiple stakes winner, Carr Shaker is a full sister to stakes winner and stakes producer She’s a Shaker and has also produced Dewars Rocks (Big Mukora), who won the Grade 3 Rare Treat, and stakes performers Woodford Rocks (Big Mukora) and Northern Shaker (Compliance).

Wholelottashakin, who compiled a record of four wins, seven seconds and two thirds along with $337,465 in earnings, never became a stakes winner, but earned five stakes placings while competing against a particularly strong cohort of New York-bred turf females, even when running out of state. In 2012 at three she finished second to Breeder’s Cup Filly and Mare Turf heroine Dayatthespa in the Sweetest Chant Stakes at Gulfstream Park and ran second to the same rival in the 2013 Yaddo Stakes at Saratoga. This past January Wholelottashakin finished second by a neck in the Grade 3 Endeavour at Tampa Bay Downs.

Books 2 and 3 also saw a pair of well-bred weanlings change hands. Spinghouse Farm went to $190,000 to purchase Hip 1259, a chestnut colt by Ghostzapper from the family of Chief Bearhart, 1997 Breeders’ Cup Turf winner and multiple Sovereign and Eclipse champion. Bred by Jerry Bilinski, Roddy Valente and Rick Alfred and foaled on February 8, 2014 at Waldorf Farm in North Chatham, the colt sports a pedigree page that is littered with black type.

The colt’s dam is the unraced Storm Cat mare Stormy Bear, whose 2014 juvenile, Zayat Stables’ Mr. Z (Malibu Moon), ran second this year in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special, Grade 3 Sanford Stakes and Keeneland’s Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity before finishing fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Bilinski purchased Stormy Bear for $27,000 at last year’s Keeneland November sale. The colt’s second dam Amelia Bearhart, the Outstanding Broodmare in Canada in 1996, produced Chief Bearhart and Grade 1 winner Explosive Red. Other graded stakes winners appearing under the second dam are Strut the Stage, Multidimensional and Aldous Snow and champion Private Zone.

Hip 1066, a bay colt from the first crop of Gemologist whose second dam is a Grade 1 winner, sold for $185,000 to Baccari Bloodstock from the Eton Sales consignment. Bred by SF Racing LLC, breeder of the top New York-bred weanling from Book 1 (see further below), and foaled on March 9, 2014 at Vinery NY at Sugar Maple in Poughquag, the sale colt is out of Impending Storm (Mineshaft) unplaced in three starts, but a daughter of November Snow (Storm Cat), winner of the Grade 1 Alabama and Grade 1 Test Stakes in 1992. A sister of graded winner Scatmandu and stakes winner Lady Sorolla, November Snow produced seven winners including stakes performers and stakes producers. Impending Storm was purchased by Bowden Global Bloodstock for $90,000 at the 2009 Keeneland November sale.

The Book 1 standouts Lady Samuri and a weanling by Sidney’s Candy, are still the New York-bred sale toppers, but through Keeneland’s first three books New York-bred sales continue to be strong overall. A total of 38 individuals have sold (11 weanlings and 27 older horses) for an average of $96,842 and median of $78,500. The weanling average and median ($105,636 and $80,000) are slightly higher than that of the older horses ($93,259 average, $75,000 median).

Cumulatively the sale at large has yielded an average price of $136,586 and median of $75,000, both up seven percent over last year ($127,301 and $70,000). In both the general population of the sale and among the New York-breds buybacks are up, however. For all horses, cumulative buybacks rose to 21.9 percent from 17.6 percent last year. The New York-bred buyback rate is up to 32.1 percent, though the three horses who have RNA’d for six figures suggests that sellers are being exacting.

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