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Lasting Appeal sells for $875,000
The 12-year-old Katz Me If You Can, sporting Hip 863, is in foal to Indian Charlie on an April 14 cover. The dark bay mare won the 2001 Genuine Risk H. (G2) and 2000 Thoroughbred Club of America S. (G3) and placed in eight other stakes, notably the Sorority S. (G3), Honorable Miss H. (G3) and Vagrancy H. (G3). Retired with a mark of 24-6-4-7, $410,947, she is the dam of two winners so far. "I love her -- she's very nice for a Storm Cat," said Mandy Pope of Whisper Hill. "We tried to buy a Storm Cat mare that had produced, but that didn't work. So we're gambling that the Tiznow or the Unbridled's Song (the mare's unraced juvenile filly named Relent and unnamed yearling colt, respectively) will come on and make the pedigree." Out of Cuddles (Mr. Prospector), queen of the 1990 Hollywood Starlet S. (G1), Katz Me If You Can is a half-sister to stakes winner Country Romance (Saint Ballado) and a full sister to the unraced stakes producer Imaginary Cat (Storm Cat), the dam of Grade 3 victor Cause to Believe (Maria's Mon). This is the family of current multiple Australian Group 1 star Whobegotyou (Street Cry [Ire]), recent Prix Marcel Boussac (Fr-G1) heroine Rosanara (Sinndar), Grade 1 queen and stakes producer Tap to Music (Pleasant Tap) and multiple Grade 2-winning sire Northern Afleet (Afleet). Katz Me If You Can's third dam is Canadian champion three-year-old filly and influential matron Square Angel (Quadrangle). Nursery Place, agent, consigned KELADORA (Crafty Prospector), who went to Blandford Bloodstock for $420,000. The six-year-old mare is carrying her first foal on a March 3 cover to Dixie Union. Twice stakes-placed in France, the bay compiled a record of 17-3-6-4 with $122,318 in earnings. Keladora is a half-sister to current Group 1-placed juvenile On Verra (Smart Strike), runner-up to Rosanara in the Marcel Boussac last time out. They were produced by French stakes victress Karmifira (Fr) (Always Fair), who finished second in the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches (French One Thousand Guineas) (Fr-G1). Karmifira is in turn a daughter of French Group 3 winner Karmiska (Fr) (Bikala). A filly by Unbridled's Song ranked as the top weanling, and fourth best seller overall, at $350,000. Consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency, agent, the April 14 foal was purchased by Ray Bell. The Kentucky-bred gray, Hip 529, is the third registered foal from the unraced Offshore Breeze (Thunder Gulch), who is a half-sister to 1996 champion two-year-old male, Boston Harbor (Capote). The winner of six of seven starts that season, Boston Harbor captured the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1), Breeders' Futurity (G2), Bashford Manor S. (G3) and Kentucky Cup Juvenile (G3). The weanling's second dam, the stakes-winning Harbor Springs (Vice Regent), is herself a half-sister to champion sprinter and millionaire Groovy (Norcliffe). On Thursday, 252 horses changed hands for a total of $26,833,000, an increase of 8.6 percent from the comparable session last year, when $24,698,000 was realized by 224 horses. The average dipped 3.4 percent, from $110,259 to $106,480, while the median fell 9.1 percent, from $82,500 to $75,000. "Today's session was a very good continuation from yesterday. The Overbrook horses have been a great boost to the sale; the quality of their horses is renowned," Keeneland Director of Sales Geoffrey Russell said. "Again today it was a very cosmopolitan group of buyers; but we're also seeing very strong play from domestic mare buyers, so that's a positive sign." Through the first three sessions of the 13-day sale, numbers are down across the board. A total of 547 horses have sold for $98,484,500, resulting in an average of $180,045 and a $110,000 median. Those figures represent declines of 14.2 percent in gross, 17.9 percent in terms of the average, and 12 percent with respect to the median. By this point in the 2008 sale, $114,725,000 had been grossed by 523 horses, yielding a $219,359 average and a $125,000 median. The sale resumes Friday at 10 a.m. (EST). For more information, as well as live video of the sale, log onto keeneland.com.
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