Sly Butterfly brings $410,000 to top Keeneland

The session-topping mare is in foal to champion Macho Uno (Michael J. Marten/Horsephotos.com)

Canadian stakes winner SLY BUTTERFLY (Pulpit) registered a final bid of $410,000

from Stonerside Stable to

lead the way at the sixth session of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale

in Lexington, Kentucky, on Saturday. Consigned by Hidden Brook, agent for Adena

Springs, the eight-year-old mare is in foal on a May 12 cover to up-and-coming sire Macho Uno. The bay mare

was cataloged as Hip No. 2164.

Sly Butterfly, who captured the 2003 Memorial S. at Fort Erie, compiled a

record of 11-2-2-2, $78,472. Her first foal is juvenile stakes victress Wind in

My Wings (Sligo Bay [Ire]), the winner of the October 11 Jessamine S. at

Keeneland. Sly Butterfly is herself out of 13-time stakes heroine Wild Lightning

(Wild Again), making her a

half-sister to stakes vixen Saintliness (Holy Bull). This is the

family of Grade 1 winners Sewickley (Star de Naskra) and Shared Interest (Pleasant

Colony), who is the dam of 1999 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) queen Cash Run (Seeking the Gold) and

Grade 1 star and top sire Forestry (Storm Cat).

A dark bay son of prominent sire Street Cry (Ire) was the highest priced

weanling of the day when bringing the gavel down at $270,000 to Walnut Hill

Stables. Selling as Hip 1894 and consigned by Bluegrass Thoroughbred Services,

Inc., agent for Larry W. Baker, Jr., the February 25 colt is the first foal

produced from the winning Cannons Crown (Best of Luck). She is herself a

three-quarters sister to stakes-winning, stakes producer Kara's Rockin Role

(Broad Brush).

On Saturday, 251 horses were sold for a total of $17,038,200, down 16.9

percent from the comparable session in 2006, when $20,496,000 was realized by

271 horses. The average fell 10.2 percent, from $75,631 to $67,881, while the

median dipped 11.7 percent, from $60,000 to $53,000.

"We've started to see a change-over of buyers as we get into the first

weekend of the sale," said Geoffrey Russell, Keeneland's director of sales. "It

was a little weaker than I thought it would be today, but anything that 'checks

all the boxes' as they say, like Sly Butterfly, gets attention. Since we're in

Central Kentucky, anybody in the world has someone within 30 miles who can buy a

horse. So updates like you saw with her don't go unnoticed. You still can't hide

a good horse."