Sale Sources for Kentucky Derby-Winning Horses

re: Sale Sources for Kentucky Derby-Winning Horses

jamie — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 11:32:41 GMT

wondering if silver charm is still alive,is off spring were nice to ride. but he never made it as a sire. it was my first american derby, would love a print of him... could to look back

re: Sale Sources for Kentucky Derby-Winning Horses

Catherine — Tue, 11 May 2010 04:33:26 GMT

Please note that this list is comprised of the last 25 Derby winners. Slew and Northern Dancer won their Derbies before 1985, so they're not on the list.

re: Sale Sources for Kentucky Derby-Winning Horses

Destin — Mon, 10 May 2010 18:23:18 GMT

Paula, I don't quite understand your comment. Pretty sure Mr. D. Wayne Lukas has had know qualms about winning, correct me if i'm wrong, a record 13 triple crown races?

re: Sale Sources for Kentucky Derby-Winning Horses

karin c-c — Mon, 10 May 2010 05:45:42 GMT

Robin from Maryland, Northern Dancer's story is a little more complicated.

E.P. Taylor, his breeder and owner, wanted to sell some of the horses he bred and retain others to race. He had the problem that every owner who keeps some and sells some faces: potential buyers are inevitably going to believe that the horses offered for sale by the breeder are culls, that he's keeping the good ones for himself.

Taylor tried various ways to deal with this issue, and in 1962, when Northern Dancer was a yearling, he offered his entire yearling crop for sale. He put a fixed price on every yearling: if a buyer was willing to pay the price, he'd sell the yearling.

Northern Dancer was offered at $25,000. This was the highest price Taylor put on any of his yearlings, and there were two other yearlings priced at $25,000.

Northern Dancer was from the first crop of his sire Nearctic. He was also the first foal of his dam, Natalma. So there was no produce record for either his sire or dam. Nearctic had been a good but not outstanding runner, and Natalma was just a stakes-placed runner.

Northern Dancer was physical small and had somewhat suspect hocks. He was also a Canadian-bred, not exactly a recommendation at the time.

$25,000 was a lot more money for a yearling in 1962 than it is now. There weren't a lot of top-bred yearlings bringing that much at that time. Small yearling by unproven sire out of unproven mare, bred in Canada by a breeder not then noted for producing horses that were competitive in open stakes competition, the buyers said "pass." And so Taylor got to keep the colt.

re: Sale Sources for Kentucky Derby-Winning Horses

Bellwether — Tue, 04 May 2010 08:22:53 GMT

ITS ALL ABOUT MOO LA...HA HA HA...WHOS NEXT???...

re: Sale Sources for Kentucky Derby-Winning Horses

SecretTriple — Tue, 04 May 2010 01:00:32 GMT

Nice article, memory lane is always welcomed. Only other comment, once again, Secretariat destroys another Derby field !!

re: Sale Sources for Kentucky Derby-Winning Horses

Paula — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 03:55:09 GMT

It shouldn't be surprising if we see another "inexpensive" winner, only because many yearlings are bred & purchased for their 2 year old potential, not for their classics campaign potential.

Racing has far too long now valued speed over distance. If Wayne Lukas has his way, the Triple Crown would consist of barely mile races, and for some horses, even that would be a stretch with some of today's breeding.

re: Sale Sources for Kentucky Derby-Winning Horses

Robin from Maryland — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 03:29:41 GMT

What about Northern Dancer. I believe that no one even wanted him at auction, so back home he went. What a great story.

re: Sale Sources for Kentucky Derby-Winning Horses

General Assembly — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 03:28:30 GMT

Winning Colors sold for quite a bit more than 75K. She went for $575,000.

re: Sale Sources for Kentucky Derby-Winning Horses

AndiDeLong — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:53:03 GMT

I know it's outside the scope of the piece, but it's a nice aside, "Charismatic ran in a $62,500 claiming race on Feb. 11 at Santa Anita, finishing second. He followed with seconds in an allowance and in the El Camino Real Derby." -CNNSI '99 article. Thanks for the timely article.

re: Sale Sources for Kentucky Derby-Winning Horses

Thoroughbred259 — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:09:47 GMT

If I'm not mistaken, wasn't Seattle Slew sold at auction for the price of $17,500.00?