Keeneland September Yearling Sale Preview

I can honestly say that one of my favorite things of the entire year is to peruse Book 1 of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, arguably the most important sale of the year.

I've examined all 875 hips of Book 1, and I've managed to narrow my "Most Interesting List (not to be confused with Most Impressive List, which while I would compile poorly, could only do so in person)" to a whopping number of, well, let's just say I ran out of fingers and toes very quickly.

The biggest difference that I can see after the Great Crash of the breeding industry was that so many of the lowest class, non-producing mares are no longer being bred. The best are still out there producing great foals year after year. But honestly, that's nothing but a good thing for the industry.

For some hilarity, checkout Hansen's little sister's page.

A couple bits of required reading, prior to delving in:

Pedigree Profile: Bridge Verrazano

Pedigree Profile: Oxbow

Pedigree Profile Mashup: To Honor and Serve/Stormy Atlantic/Ava Knowsthecode references

Pedigree Profile: Shackleford

Stallion Profile: Kitten's Joy

So, without further ado:

Format is Hip - Sex - Sire - Notes (with ** are overly interesting ones)

4- c. Tapit - Family of Shakespeare out of SW Fantastic Shirl

6- c. Smart Strike - 1/2 to Eddington

8- c. Distorted Humor - o/o $2.2 mil winner Film Maker

**18- c. Candy Ride (ARG) - Family of Hungry Island; Queena; Somali Lemonade; Verrazano; El Padrino. This family is pure gold right now. Other hips for sale from this female lineage are: 19, 145, 198, 356, 661 and others. Looks like breeders are striking while the iron is hot with this family. More on the family in the links above.

**27- c. Tale of the Cat - Full to Forty Tales. 740- f. Kitten's Joy is from the same family.

28- c. Quality Road - Family of Fusaichi Pegasus. 713- c. Giant's Causeway and 714- c. Smart Strike are from the same

40- c. MdO - o/o Gotta Have Her - 1st foal from the winner of $1.1 million

57- f. Lookin at Lucky - From the family of Elusive Quality. Dam by Giant's Causeway.

67- c. Bernardini - 1/2 to Stevie Wonderboy

80- f. Malibu Moon - o/o Hollywood Story, winner of $1.1 mil she has 1 SH from one runner

86- f. MdO - o/o Henry Ryder - winner of 2.2 mil with 2 winners from 2 foals.

93- f. Lookin at Lucky - 1/2 to Smarty Jones

**98- c. Giant's Causeway - o/o Imagine. This is a huge family with GSWs everywhere you look.

100- c. Giant's Causeway - o/o Kingmambo mare - 1/4 to Eskendereya (kind of a 3/4, but it'd be a stretch to claim that)

101- f. Tiznow - full to G1-Carter winner Morning Line

115- f. Henrythenavigator - o/o BC Distaff winner Jewel Princess who is a fantastic producer

134- f. Galileo - this Irish bred is o/o G3-winning More Than Ready mare.

135- f. Perfect Soul - 1/2 to Munnings

148- f. Lemon Drop Kid - 1/4 to Cape Blanco

151- f. Tiznow - o/o Lazy Slusan, winner of 1.1 mil, dam of G1 winner

154- f. Midnight Lute - Family of First Samurai

159- c. More Than Ready - 1/2 to Vyjack

**171- c. Sea the Stars - 1/4 to Giant's Causeway. Big Money here.

180- c. Candy Ride - o/o champion Lu Ravi

**186- f. Giant's Causeway - dam is full to Rags to Riches and half to Jazil. 550- dam is 1/2 to Rags and has 2xSH foals.

202- c. MdO - 1/2 to Go Between, Pacific Classic winner

**216- c. Giant's Causeway - 1/2 to both Mine that Bird and Dullahan.

**233- f. Unbridled's Song - Huge family of To Honor and Serve. 311- Bernardini - full to THAS. 660- c. Elusive Quality - same family here.

236- f. Speightstown - dam full to Monarchos

253- c. Majesticperfection - dam has foaled 2 different Canadian Champions.

264- f. Tapit - o/o My Trusty Cat, winner of 902k

266- c. Tapit - full to BC Juvenile Fillies wnr Stardom Bound

285- f. Unbridled's Song - 1/2 to You who won 2.2 mil

292- c. MdO - o/o G3 winner - family of Bodemeister

304- c. Distorted Humor - o/o Pepper's Pride. This mare was 19 for 19 lifetime, but all of her wins were in New Mexico.

333- c. Bernardini - o/o champion Proud Spell

334- f. Smart Strike - o/o $2mil winner Pure Clan

346- c. Tapit - o/o dam of Invasor (who incidentally only bred like 7 mares last year...)

367- f. Giant's Causeway - family of Royal Delta (this filly's 3^rd dam is RD's 2^nd)

377- c. Tapit - full brother to Zazu

392- c. Blame - ½ to G1 winner, First Dude

405- f. Street Sense - ½ to SW Last Gunfighter

**418- f. Distorted Humor - dam is full to Euro sire Perfect Soul (IRE). From the family of Stopshoppingmaria and Flashy Bull. 432- same as 418, just different full sister

446- f. Tiznow - ½ to Speightstown

461- c. Indian Charlie - ½ to Mushka

463- f. Indian Charlie - 2^nd dam ½ to AP Indy's dam.

485- c. Stormy Atlantic - ½ to Brilliant Speed (who is by Dynaformer, so they continued the grass sire pattern)

499- f. Harlan's Holiday - Full to champion Shanghai Bobby

516- f. Indian Charlie - ½ to Tiz Miz Sue - family of Cozzene

532- f. Curlin - ½ to Graydar

**541- f. Indian Charlie - o/o Take Charge Lady (dam of Take Charge Indy and Will Take Charge). 758- f. Giant's Causeway - dam is o/o Take Charge Lady

565- c. Lemon Drop Kid - 2^nd dam is Personal Ensign. Dam is a G1 Winner.

568- c. Malibu Moon - ½ to Paynter - family of Oxbow as well. 637 is from same family. Overall female family of Oxbow. More on the family in the links above

586- f. Distorted Humor - o/o near $2mil winner Unbridled Belle

623- c. Giant's Causeway - o/o Win Crafty Lady - Huge family, to include Graeme Hall

**666- f. Candy Ride - dam is full to sire Majestic Warrior - 846- c. MdO - ½ to Majestic Warrior

681- c. Tapit - o/o Ava Knowsthecode - dam of Justin Phillips; Keyed Entry; Algorithms. More on the family in the links above

689- c. Elusive Quality - dam is ½ to Shackleford o/o Oatsee. More on the family in the links above.

703- f. Kitten's Joy - from the Ramsey's family of Stephanie's Kitten

**717- f. Street Cry - full to sire Street Boss

731- dam is ¾ to Royal Delta's dam

**767- f. Kitten's Joy - full to Artemus Kitten and Redwood Kitten

768- c. Pulpit - family of Point of Entry

**827- c. Street Cry - granddam is ½ to Kitten's Joy. Dam of Lewis Michael, Justenuffhumor, Dreaming of Anna

828- c. Hard Spun - o/o Desert Storm, winner of BC Sprint. Very good producer

842- f. Eskendereya - ¾ to Creative Cause o/o 1.2mil winning dam

843- f. Distorted Humor - ½ to Dreaming of Julia

847- c. Street Sense - ½ to Daddy Long Legs

**849- f. Hard Spun - dam ½ to Havre de Grace. 855- Tiznow - Dam is also ½ to HdG

850- f. Tapit - o/o Dynaforce, winner of $1.2 million

And that's just Book 1.

Admittedly, it's not that short of a list, but how could I ignore so many great pages?