Golden Sphinx brings $425,000 as Keeneland momentum
continues
GOLDEN SPHINX (Storm Cat), cataloged as Hip No. 1950, was sold to Lonnie
Kirby, agent, for $425,000 to top Saturday’s session of the Keeneland November
Breeding Stock Sale in Lexington, Kentucky. Consigned by Brookdale Sales, agent,
the three-year-old is in foal to Elusive Quality on an April 11 cover.
A winner at Calder Race Course in her only career start on January 1, Golden
Sphinx is out of Gold Sunrise (Forty Niner), who won the 1995 Golden Rod S. (G3)
and placed in the Alcibiades S. (G2) and Pocahontas S. Gold Sunrise has also produced the
stakes-placed T S Eliot, a full brother to the session topper.
Golden Sphinx’s second dam is Grade 2 winner and stakes producer Seattle Dawn
(*Grey Dawn II), and her fourth dam is 1983 Broodmare of the Year Courtly Dee
(Never Bend), whose notable offspring include 1983 champion juvenile filly
Althea (Alydar). She hails from the black-type rich family of sires Green Desert
(Danzig) and Arch (Kris S.), among others.
Wright Brothers Bloodstock went to $420,000 to secure Hip 2124, a weanling
colt from the first crop of multiple Grade 1 victor Lion Heart. The January 31
Kentucky-bred was offered by Taylor Made Sales Agency, agent.
The chestnut is the first foal produced by the winning Formal Gold mare
Shorewalk Drive, who is herself a half-sister to four-time Grade 3 hero and
millionaire Champali
(Glitterman) and multiple stakes queen Drexel Monorail (Glitterman). This is the
female line of stakes winner Reactress (Sharpen Up [GB]), the dam of Grade 3
winner Shemozzle (Ire) (Shirley Heights).
On Saturday, 271 horses were sold for a total of $20,496,000, a jump of 37.1
percent from the corresponding session a year ago when 258 brought $14,952,500.
The average price shot up 30.5 percent, from $57,955 to $75,631, while the
median of $60,000 skyrocketed 41.2 percent compared to the $42,500 witnessed in
2005.
With six sessions in the books, 1,407 horses have changed hands for a gross
of $269,049,500, an increase of 4.3 percent from the 2005 total of $257,839,900
realized by 1,389 horses. The average climbed 3 percent, from $185,630 to
$191,222, and the median rose 22.2 percent, from $90,000 to $110,000.
“The results continue to bear out the fact that Keeneland is where the world
comes to shop for top-quality Thoroughbreds,” Director of Sales Geoffrey Russell
said. “Thanks in part to the Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs, and a favorable
exchange rate, we have an internationally diverse group of buyers from Europe,
Asia, Australia and South America who are actively spending deep into the sale.”
The sale resumes Sunday at 10 a.m. (EST). For complete results, visit
keeneland.com.