Adena Changes Course

Hidden Brook is consigning 173 Adena Springs horses to the Keeneland September yearling sale. The huge consignment is one of the results of Adena Springs owner Frank Stronach's decision to cancel  his sale of 2-year-olds in training in Florida for 2009 and concentrate instead on selling the young horses he breeds as yearlings.

Stronach will "retain a handful of fillies from his top broodmares and they will go back into the broodmare band (when they are finished racing)," said Dan Hall, a partner in Hidden Brook and a consultant to Adena Springs. "He'll also pick out eight or 10 colts for the racing venture."

  Stronach's juvenile sale was unique because none of its horses breezed prior to being offered. Graduates included Ginger Punch, last year's champion older female. She was a $27,000 buy-back in 2005.

"The 2-year-old market is tough," said Hall during the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co. August yearling sale.  "We went about it the right way. We didn't breeze, and we took care of the animals. Everybody said they loved the philosophy behind it, but as far as stepping up and paying for that, they never quite embraced it. Plus, we had a much, much more limited buyer base with 2-year-olds. When you take these yearlings here and to Keeneland, you've got a lot more people trying to buy them than you do at a 2-year-old sale. The cost of getting that many horses to that point (to sell as juveniles), it was quite expensive. We're always thinking of different, better ways to do things."