miesque: a star on the course and in the paddocks

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breeders' cup mile, east of the moon, great broodmares, great racemares, henrythenavigator, kingmambo, lane's end oak tree division, lemon drop kid, miesque, mr. prospector, nureyev, pasadoble, poule d'essai des poulains, poule d'essai des pouliches, private account, prix de diane, prix du moulin de longchamp, prove out, river lady, st james's palace stakes, stavros niarchos, woodward stakes

The following post was first published earlier this week at Paulick Report.

Very few top-class racemares equal their acclaim on the racecourse with their success as producers. One of those who did, however, was the great Nureyev mare Miesque, who was euthanized due to infirmities of old age on Jan. 20 at the Oak Tree division of Lane’s End outside Lexington.

So this week, rather than focusing on a pedigree from a current racing result, the spotlight is on a mare whose headlines and accomplishments transcended a generation of racing.

Born in 1984, Miesque was the first foal of her dam, the Prove Out mare Pasadoble. By the unsuccessful stallion Prove Out, whose best racing victory was the 12-furlong Woodward Stakes over Secretariat, out of the unraced mare Santa Quilla, whose pedigree was stocked with classic-distance performers, Pasadoble had bags of speed.

In addition to winning a pair of listed stakes, Pasadoble had enough speed and class that she was used as the pacemaker for her top-class stablemate River Lady.

Put to stud, Pasadoble knocked the lights out when she foaled Miesque.

The bay filly was a clear superior to her dam as a racer and was arguably even better than her great sire Nureyev. The dashing bay son of Northern Dancer never finished behind a horse on the racecourse, but the stewards disqualified Nureyev from his most important victory, the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket.

The brilliant racehorse became a stallion of great international importance, and Miesque seemed to match her sire for racing ability and clearly exceeded him in terms of sturdiness in temperament and body.

From three seasons of racing, the bay filly won a dozen of her 16 races, 10 at G1 level. All four of her losses, three seconds and a third, were also in races at the top level. The bay’s consistency was exceeded only by an astonishing turn of foot, which allowed her to accelerate past her competition time after time.

Following her second victory in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, Miesque retired to stud and began a career as a producer that has rivaled her fame as a champion racehorse.

Bred and raced by Stavros Niarchos, Miesque produced all her foals for the Niarchos family. As she was Pasadoble’s first foal and best produce, Miesque followed that pattern with her own producing career.

To put everything in perspective, however, Miesque’s first two foals were classic winners. A mare simply cannot do any better than that.

Kingmambo was the mare’s first foal, born in 1990, and the bay son of Mr. Prospector won the French classic for colts at a mile, the Poule d’Essai des Poulains, then the St. James’s Palace Stakes at Ascot, and defeated older horses in the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp. All three victories were in Group 1 races, and they established Kingmambo as a very high-class animal.

The escalating demand for sons of Mr. Prospector at stud joined with the élan of being a classic winner out of a top-class champion to make Kingmambo an exceptional stallion prospect. He went to stud at Lane’s End for the 1994 breeding season, and with nearly the facility of his mother’s victory in the Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs, Kingmambo became a stallion of great international significance.

Although now pensioned from breeding, Kingmambo has sired 77 stakes winners to date, including such outstanding international champions as Lemon Drop Kid, Henrythenavigator, King Kamehameha, El Condor Pasa, Divine Proportions, and Russian Rhythm.

Miesque’s second foal was the high-class filly East of the Moon (by Private Account). The scopy bay won the French fillies’ classics, the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches and Prix de Diane, as well as winning the Prix du Haras de Fresnay-le-Buffard and running second in the Prix du Moulin.

The mare’s next two foals were both stakes winners. Miesque’s Son (a full brother to Kingmambo) won the G3 Prix de Ris-Orangis, was second in the G1 Prix Maurice de Gheest and Prix de la Foret.

Moon Is Up (by Mr. Prospector’s high-class son Woodman) won a listed stakes.

Miesque’s later foals included G3 stakes winner Mingun (by A.P. Indy) and stakes-placed Inventing Paradise (also by Mr. Prospector). A full sister to Inventing Paradise and Kingmambo, Monevassia, produced G1 winner Rumplestiltskin (by Danehill), and Miesque has young daughters by Storm Cat whose best producing years may yield more performers of significance.

On the course and in the paddocks, Miesque showed exceptional character and consistency through her long life. For a generation and more, she has served as a yardstick of quality and accomplishment in Thoroughbred racing and breeding.

A great racemare and a great producer, Miesque made the game look easy.

 

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concord point: new ky stallions for 2011

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concord point, sales success, Tapit

Concord Point (2007 gr by Tapit x Harve de Grace, by Boston Harbor)

Hill ‘n’ Dale $7,500

A winner in four of his six starts, Concord Point had some real ability, and he has the shape and top line of a quality racehorse. He was all that.

The big gray stands 16.1 hands and has good bone and scope. A pricey and naturally athletic young horse, Concord Point was the top-priced weanling by his sire in 2007 at $70,000 and also the top-priced yearling by Tapit in 2008 at $220,000 in the Keeneland September sale.

In addition to color and size, Concord Point has some of the quality that distinguishes his sire, grandsire Pulpit, and great-grandsire AP Indy. This is a line of horses that tend to show form that improves markedly at 3 and with racing around two turns.

This male-line tendency is in some conflict with Concord Point’s broodmare sire, juvenile champion Boston Harbor (a son of juvenile champion Capote). On the point of racing aptitude, it would appear the AP Indy side won out, as Concord Point showed marked progress through his 3yo season, winning two Derbys … the G2 West Virginia and G3 Iowa.

Concord Point shows best from the side, where his scope and athleticism draw attention. When walking at you, the horse is not perfect, with rotation in both forelegs. A modest but noticeable enlargement in the front ankles also indicates that he had some trouble there.

In selecting mates for the horse, some care in evaluating and preferring those mares with ruggedness and proof of racing soundness would be repaid.

all american: new ky stallions for 2011

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all american, ben walden, brigadier gerard, darby dan, john galbreath, leading freshman sire, paul mellon, roberto, rokeby stable, shuttle stallions, sire success, vinery

All American* (2005 dk b by Red Ransom x Milva, by Strawberry Road)

Darby Dan $10,000

* All American will stand his first Northern Hemisphere season at stud this year.

This is a big horse with many of the traits associated with his sire, the successful Roberto horse Red Ransom. Bred and raced by Darby Dan founder John Galbreath, Roberto was a top-class juvenile in Ireland. The following season he won the Derby at Epsom from subsequent Arc de Triomphe winner Rheingold, and Roberto had his best day on the racecourse when Braulio Baeza guided him to a front-running victory over the great Brigadier Gerard in the Gold Cup at York.

Although the ‘Brigadier’ was a more successful racehorse, Roberto proved trumps at stud, getting classic winners and champions from the start and becoming a major influence in international breeding.

Red Ransom, surprisingly, was not one of his sire’s most successful racing sons. Bred and raced by Paul Mellon’s Rokeby Stable, Red Ransom won two of his three starts but never appeared in a stakes. Red Ransom was one of the most highly regarded non-stakes winners and went to stud in Kentucky at Vinery.

The stallion’s natural ability and Ben Walden’s promotional ingenuity propelled Red Ransom to leadership as top freshman sire of 1994, and he never looked back, siring classic winners and champions.

A foal of 1987, Red Ransom sired All American in Australia rather late in the sire’s career. All American is a dark brown horse with the trademark heavy top that Red Ransom possessed. The muscle mass from such a body gives a horse tremendous energy reserves and frequently great speed through power. The downside, however, is increased demands for soundness and rugged bone.

All American competed successfully in his homeland. In 2008, he won the G3 Skyline Stakes, then was second in the G1 Blue Diamond and third in the G1 Ascot Vale. In 2009, All American graduated to victory in the G1 Cantala Stakes.

Physically quite robust, All American has excellent power through his hindquarters, and he is set a bit higher behind like a drag racer. All this adds speed to the package.

Standing 16.2, All American has a great depth through the heart, girthing more than 79 inches. He is a big, rugged horse with a good head and appealing eye.

A bit of trivia: If you look at his photograph on the Darby Dan website, you’ll notice he also has a strawberry brand on his left shoulder.

pasadoble a hidden gem

Tags

classic performers, francois boutin, miesque, pasadoble, prove out, river lady, stavros niarchos, unrealized potential

Amid the recollections of Miesque, I took time to check the racing record of her dam, the Prove Out mare Pasadoble.

The latter was a good-class filly owned by Stavros Niarchos and trained by Francois Boutin like Miesque. Pasadoble was good enough, in fact, that she was used as pacemaker for her stablemate River Lady (by Riverman) in the French classic Poule d’Essai des Pouliches and Prix de Diane, as well as in the Prix de la Grotte.

Possessing bags of pace and enthusiasm, Pasadoble did her job so well that River Lady won the first and last of the races mentioned above, and she was making a likely winning move in the Prix de Diane when she broke down.

Thereafter, Pasadoble raced on her own account, winning four consecutive races at 1,600 meters, including a pair of listed stakes. Clearly, the filly had more than a little ability.

Put to stud, Miesque was Pasadoble’s first foal and much her best, but the daughter of Prove Out did produce another stakes winner, as well as G1-placed Siam.

** River Lady, who broke down in the Prix de Diane, was an outstanding classic filly and would have been another star in Riverman’s great constellation. The filly’s injury, fracture of the pelvis and a tibia, proved so severe that she was euthanized. Another case of what might have been.

how to save a horse’s ass

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application of human surgical techniques on horses, country doctor, Dr. Rif'at Hussain, equine surgery, overcoming problems in surgery, soft-tissue surgery on horses, veterinary innovation

When a high-quality Quarter Horse broodmare who had produced several very good horses was sold privately in the upper Midwest, the buyers thought they had a great bargain. And their initial goal was to use the broodmare as the donor for embryo transplants, which are allowed with Quarter Horses.

Then, they brought her home and found she had a “large recto-vaginal fistula bigger than the size of a quarter,” said Rif’at Hussain, MD, who was asked by the mare’s vet to consult on the mare’s problem. The fistula was allowing manure to get into the mare’s vagina, with the resultant bacterial contamination making it essentially impossible for her to conceive and remain pregnant.

The initial cause of the problem had been a dystocia, or difficult birth, with the foal’s foot puncturing the wall of the birth canal and then the rectal lining that lies above, as well.

The previous owner’s attending veterinarian at the time at the time of the injury had  tried to sew up the tear immediately, but the repaired wound fell apart, resulting in a large opening between the rectum and the vaginal cavity.

The new owners sent the mare to their local veterinary surgeon, who operated  on the mare four times, but the repaired wound not hold up and broke down, resulting in the recto-vaginal fistula remaining open. The vet called Dr. Hussain, who is in practice of plastic and reconstructive surgery for human beings and has decades of experience working with soft-tissue injuries.

He said, “Without experience dealing with soft tissue reconstruction, this problem would be very difficult to resolve. First, you have to keep in mind that your incisions will not interfere with or interrupt the blood supply of the tissues involved. And second, in carrying out reconstruction of soft tissues, the repair cannot be under any tension, or the repair will fall apart returning the situation to where you started from.”

When Dr. Hussain heard about this mare’s problem, he knew that his experience with soft-tissue reconstructive surgery should help him in solving this problem and hoping for a positive result.

Then he went to the vet’s clinic. The drive was 125 miles each way, approximately an hour and a half at the doc’s usual rate of travel.

“I had not seen nor examined the problem of  the mare before,” he said, “and when I saw the magnitude of the problem, I realized that I had to come up with a procedure not described in the equine surgical literature. The procedures that are normally used to repair recto-vaginal fistulas of this sort in broodmares would not work because of the scarring from previous surgeries. The four operations that were done consisted of making the fistula into a complete perineal tear and then carrying out the actual repair. The scarring  resulting from those previous surgeries dictated I had to think of something different for the problem.”

Dr. Hussain did the surgery on the mare while she was standing up, after she had been placed in a heavy metal device called stocks or stanchions. He was assisted by the veterinarian.  For anesthesia, they used general sedation and an epidural block done by the vet.

Leaving the mare standing was intentional because it “gives better perception of the effects of gravity on the repaired wound,” and since it was the tension that had caused previous repairs to fail.

This case, which is in the process of being written up for a journal of veterinary surgery, pushed Dr. Hussain to come up with a different approach than the standard operations that have been described in literature. A plastic surgeon who in his normal practice works on repairs of cleft lip and cleft palate and other reconstructive procedures in human beings used his 40-plus years of experience came up with an innovative idea for repair of a recto-vaginal fistula in mares.

For veterinarians trying to repair recto-vaginal fistulas in mares, Dr. Hussain had some brotherly advice on technical difficulties that they might face. He said, “First of all, the need for adequate lighting requires that a fiber-optic light source to illuminate a dark cavity, and second, professional  surgical assistance is of paramount importance.

“I couldn’t do a damned thing about it because I was out in the middle of nowhere. So when I agreed to help with this case, I took my own fiber-optic lighted retractors, and I took my own instruments.

“And even then the procedure did take twice as long in my view. But you try to do things right, and proper assistance is frequently not available to veterinary surgeons, especially in clinic situations.

“Even so, with attention to detail and an obsession with fundamentals, this surgical technique will work anywhere. The one thing to keep in mind is to avoid tension. Of course, how you place the sutures and where the knots go make all the difference. You want to make sure that the rectal repair is done in a way that the actual sutures do not go through the rectal mucosa.

“All breakdowns of this type occur from breakdown of the rectal mucosal wound. That is where the manure is and thus all the possibility of infection. Likewise, you should keep in mind that the tissue of the birth canal will stretch.”

The result of this surgery done by a plastic surgeon on the Quarter Horse mare’s recto-vaginal fistula has had an excellent result so far. After six weeks, no breakdown has occurred, and it appears that she has healed well. Later this spring, the owners should be able to get her in foal and transfer the embryos to surrogates.

princess crowned in el encino

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acorn stakes, always a princess, argentine breeding, blind luck, blushing groom, candy stripes, champagne d'oro, eclipse awards, el encino, fasig-tipton november sale, gabby's golden gal, gabriellina giof, hennessy, housebuster, international thoroughbred, lemon drop kid, leroidesanimaux, liberation farm, medaglia d'oro, mt livermore, nasrullah male line, orientate, rainbow quest, red god, Rob Whiteley, santa anita racetrack, stonewall stallions

The following post was published earlier this week at Paulick Report.

On Sunday, Always a Princess won the Grade 2 El Encino from newly minted Eclipse Award champion 3-year-old filly Blind Luck in a scorching effort over the fast track at Santa Anita. Always a Princess pressed the cracking pace of Champagne d’Oro (by Medaglia d’Oro) and held off the divisional champ’s stretch run.

Rob Whiteley of Liberation Farm said that “It was rather ironic for me to watch a beautiful daughter of Leroidesanimaux that I did not breed crush Champagne d’Oro, whom I bred, in the El Encino, preventing Champagne d’Oro from being able to relax on the lead, which she needed to do to win the race,” eventually finishing fourth.

Already a winner at G2 level and second in the G1 Hollywood Starlet behind Blind Luck in 2009, Always a Princess is an outstanding specimen by champion turf horse Leroidesanimaux and is out of the Ashkalani mare Gabriellina Giof.

A talented racer who won stakes in Europe and in the States, Gabriellina Giof has become a major star with her produce since going to stud. The mare’s first foal, the Hennessy filly Gabby’s Hen, was a winner, but her second and third foals have proven to be much more.

Second foal Gabby’s Golden Gal (by Medaglia d’Oro) won the G1 Acorn Stakes at Belmont and the G1 Santa Monica at Santa Anita. As a multiple G1 winner and a very attractive daughter of a posh stallion, Gabby’s Golden Gal ticked all the boxes for buyers when she went through the ring at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November sale. She sold as a racing or breeding prospect, and buyers were not caught flat-footed by her credentials, driving the sales price to $1.25million, as Shadai Farm made her one of their many high-end purchases this sales season.

In January 2008, when Gabby’s Golden Gal and her year-younger sibling Always a Princess were an unraced 2-year-old and yearling, their dam went through the Keeneland January sales ring for $75,000 in foal to Lemon Drop Kid.

The resulting foal was sold at the 2008 Keeneland November sale for $22,000 as a weanling and then resold in 2009 as a Tattersalls October yearling for the equivalent of $259,504.

In contrast to the upwardly mobile female side of the family of Always a Princess, her sire has been in a maelström caused by the bankruptcy of Stonewall Farm in Kentucky, which bought Leroidesanimaux and stood him at stud.

Following a move to Florida last summer, however, the stallion’s future now seems clear.

A representative of Stonewall Stallions Florida confirmed that Leroidesanimaux is no longer subject to litigation and is owned outright by Family Broodmares III. The stallion is standing at the Stonewall property in Florida for a fee of $7,500 live foal and has nearly 50 mares on his book at present.

An outstanding specimen of a swift miler, Leroidesanimaux represents one of the variant lines descending from the great stallion Nasrullah. While almost all the male-line descent of Nasrullah in the U.S. comes through Bold Ruler (and most of that through Seattle Slew these days), Nasrullah’s son Red God, another colt born in the 1954 crop like Bold Ruler, sired European highweight Blushing Groom.

Imported to the U.S. as a stallion by John Gaines, Blushing Groom spent his entire career at Gainesway Farm, where he became one of the most important influences for speed and class in international breeding through the 1980s to the present.

Blushing Groom’s Arc de Triomphe winner Rainbow Quest set a much more classic standard for this male-line branch in Europe, but in America, Mt. Livermore proved the most influential with champion sprinters Orientate and Housebuster, as well as champion juvenile filly Eliza.

Blushing Groom’s high-class son Candy Stripes went to stud in Argentina, where he became a very important factor in South American breeding. Among his best-known stock above the equator are Spinster Stakes winner Different, Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Invasor, and the dam of leading sire Candy Ride, as well as Leroidesanimaux, who was foaled in Brazil.

Second in a G1 in his only start in his homeland, Leroidesanimaux made his 10 subsequent races in the US, with eight victories and earnings of $1,650,900. Winner in three G1 races, Leroidesanimaux was named Eclipse Award winner as best turf horse in 2005.

Whiteley described the effect that Leroidesanimaux’s racing ability had on his judgment as a breeder. He noted, “I was a fan of Leroidesanimaux on the racetrack, and I liked him very much as a stallion prospect and bred two dozen mares to him [in the past four seasons]. He not only was a solid and accomplished racehorse, but he looks like one.”

A massively constructed stallion standing 16 hands, Leroidesanimaux is well balanced and as athletic as a champion should be. He has great reach at the walk and showed both speed and a finishing kick during his racing career.

Whiteley said, “Leroidesanimaux has been quite successful at reproducing himself and has stamped his foals effectively. I’ve yet to see one that I didn’t like, and some of them, I have liked very, very much.”

With support from the rugged and speedy broodmare population in Florida, the stallion’s opportunities should not diminish. Always a Princess, her sire’s best performer to date, is from the stallion’s first crop of foals, now 4.

innovation in the breeding biz?

Tags

economics of thoroughbred breeding, lifetime breeding rights, line of david, ned toffey, spendthrift farm, temple city, thoroughbred breeding, warrior's reward, wayne hughes

After the fall yearling sales and the broodmare and weanling auctions of the past few months, the screams of breeders could be heard round the world. They were, as a group, not very happy.

Some stallion farms in Kentucky appear to have heard this too.

A few have noticeably lowered; others have tried some different approaches to standing their stallions and involving breeders.

Among the farms getting the most breeder response for innovation is Spendthrift Farm, owned by Wayne Hughes and standing leading sire Malibu Moon.

With the new stallions that Spendthrift has stood recently, the operation has tried a program called “Share the Upside.”

Farm manager Ned Toffey said that “by participating in this program, a breeder typically breeds two mares to the stallion, pays both stud fees, and then has a lifetime breeding right in the horse. It has been well received.”

Spendthrift is standing three new stallions for the 2011 breeding season, Arkansas Derby winner Line of David, Carter Handicap winner Warrior’s Reward, and Cougar Handicap winner Temple City. Of these, the latter is least known to the general public, but he too has quite popular in this program.

Toffey said, “He has about 100 mares now, and he has been one of the most popular programs we’ve done. With Temple City, we offered a lifetime breeding right to breeders for breeding a single mare and paying the stud fee. With him, our first priority was getting mares to the horse. There are a lot of breeding theories out there, but no stallion can get a stakes winner from a mare he hasn’t bred.”

The desire to get solid representation to the stallion was allied with the family dynamics. Temple City’s sire Dynaformer started his stud career at $3,500, and his dam is a half-sister to Malibu Moon, who entered stud in Maryland at $3,000.

“With the Spendthrift stallions, the number of breeding rights varies,” Toffey said, “and we started Temple City with 60. But it was so popular that we added more, and many of the mares coming to him are breeding right mares.”

In the economic turmoil of the breeding business, Toffey believes that “breeders are more discerning in what they buy, and they have to be. You have to offer breeders value now, or it isn’t worth their while. And as with most endeavors, ownership of a breeding right encourages people to contribute to the horse’s success. All of that dovetails with Mr. Hughes’s feeling that if we don’t take care of the breeders, we’re lost.”

One of the reasons that Spendthrift can create these programs is that they “own most of the stallions outright,” Toffey said.

They are therefore sharing the wealth, in a sense, by giving breeders a stake in their own success. If programs such as this succeed, they are sure to alter the way stallion operations do business: breeding, racing, selling or buying, and standing stallions.

observation of the week

Tags

breeding racehorses, farming, raising thoroughbreds

An opinionated farmer from Tennessee called and during the ensuing discourse noted: “Horse breeders are going to have to figure out they’re farmers, or they are going out of business. They are a whole lot closer to the man raising hogs than to the art dealer, and they have to get into that mode or else.”

 

and the envelope shows …

Tags

blame, championships, horse of the year, thoroughbred breeding, zenyatta

On the eve of the Eclipse Awards, when weeks of argument about the superiority of Zenyatta and Blame will come to end, the most pressing question is … who will the big mare be bred to.

My expectation is that the short list is something like this: AP Indy, Smart Strike, Distorted Humor. Someone will shortly ask, “What about Giant’s Causeway?” I don’t especially like him for this mare, but many might.

Bernardini is good enough but doesn’t yet have enough proof on the racetrack to satisfy some. Why would anyone send a mare of this quality to a stallion who isn’t fully proven?

So it’s a very short list.

My own preference, if the mare and the choice were mine (and obviously aren’t), is Galileo. He has the class, he had exceptional cruising speed and begets this, he had outstanding closing speed and begets this, and he is a good, medium-sized, sound horse. Hard to fault, isn’t he?

Now we await the formal announcement. The envelope please.

is the tide of the market rising?

Tags

alcibiades stakes, ave, geoffrey russell, grade 1 winners, japanese buyers, keeneland january sale, negligee, overseas influence in sales, status of bloodstock industry, wickedly perfect, yoshida family

The following post was published earlier this week at Paulick Report.

At the opening session of Keeneland’s 2011 January Horses of All Ages Sale, those horses with racing performances at the highest level once again led the prices as Grade 1 winners Ave, Wickedly Perfect, and Negligee brought the three highest prices on Monday.

Ave is a bay daughter of Coolmore stallion Danehill Dancer out of the In the Wings mare Anna Amalia. Winner of the G1 Flower Bowl Invitational at Belmont Park last October, Ave sold for $1.4 million, with Yoshiro Nakaji, veterinarian for Japan’s Shadai Farm, signing the ticket for Teruya Yoshida.

An elegant and very racy-looking filly, Ave drew compliments from a representative of a leading international farm. He said, “She is a very appealing type, with great quality and scope. I’d see her as more appealing to the Europeans or the Japanese because of their greater emphasis on turf racing.”

Not only did the top lot have outstanding international appeal, the session at Keeneland was strongly supported by overseas buyers at all levels. But the best licks came for the top lots.

Geoffrey Russell, Keeneland’s director of sales, said that “our top-selling horses today are all outstanding Grade 1 stakes-winning individuals, and there is no doubt that they generated a lot of buzz going into this session.” That buzz carried right through the day.

Earlier in the day, the last two winners of the Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland had gone  through the sales ring with notable success. Last year’s winner, Wickedly Perfect, sold for $800,000, and the 2009 winner, Negligee, sold for $625,000.

The Yoshida family again took the winning role in purchasing Wickedly Perfect. This time, Naohiro Hosoda, representing Katsumi Yoshida’s Northern Farm, bought the gray 3-year-old for that leading Japanese breeder.

A winner in three of her four starts at 2 last year, Wickedly Perfect won the Alcibiades and the G3 Sorrento Stakes, ran second in the G1 Debutante at Del Mar.

Sent to the sidelines after the discovery of knee chips following her victory in the Alcibiades, Wickedly Perfect is from the firstcrop by leading freshman sire Congrats and is out of the Tactical Cat mare Wickedly Wise. The filly, like Ave, was consigned by Three Chimneys Sales.

After the purchase, Shunsuke Yoshida, son of Katsumi Yoshida, said that Wickedly Perfect’s good looks made her “the best in the sale.” As an American-bred, Wickedly Perfect would have limited opportunities to race in Japan, and Yoshida said, “ I think she’ll be retired, but I’m not completely sure.”

Negligee was the first of this trio to sell, and that reflected the overall trend of the market on Monday, as prices tended to rise through the session, as buyers gained confidence and began to assert themselves for the lots they prized most.

Negligee, a bay daughter of Northern Afleet and the Relaunch mare Naughty Notions, sold to Fergus Galvin and Adrian Regan of Hunter Valley Farm, who were acting for an undisclosed client.

Regan noted that the 4-year-old is likely to remain in the States for the immediate future. There was no comment on the likely sire to be chosen for the mare.

All these sales reflect the depressed state of the American bloodstock industry, which collapsed violently in the wake of the global economic depression from 2008. After successive sales cycles when yearling and breeding stock values plummeted by 30 to 50 percent, all the value has been wrung out of the marketplace, and there is a trend toward stabilization and rising values.

Regan noted that, although they had to reach farther to purchase Negligee than had been hoped, the price “two years ago would have been more.”

Even in the context of a market that seems to be rising notably, the recovery still has a distance to go and still offers buyers considerable value for their purchases into the foreseeable future.