Surpassing a Giant: Raven's Pass Tops First-Crop Sales

re: Surpassing a Giant: Raven's Pass Tops First-Crop Sales

Pedigree Ann — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 13:31:22 GMT

Raven's Pass has a quite good pedigree for dirt performance. He shares his sire with Kentucky Derby winner Smarty Jones and Florida Derby winner Quality Road. His half-brother Gigawatt was a SW on the dirt at Fair Grounds, Calder, and Woodbine (pre-Poly). His dam, although best on turf, won twice on dirt. Raven's Pass has the potential to be successful as a dual-purpose stallion - turf and dirt.

re: Surpassing a Giant: Raven's Pass Tops First-Crop Sales

tommyboyo — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 11:16:30 GMT

Actually, the QEII is not part of Royal Ascot but run at their September meeting and, as of 2011, forms part of Champions day and was won this year by Frankel. Raven's Pass did run at the Royal Meeting in June, going down by 3/4 length to his old rival Henrythenavigator.

Scot's reply: Updated--I had inadvertently added the "Royal" in my notes. Henrythenavigator, of course, is also a leader of this sire crop--the Ashford stallion takes fourth by median and third by average with 33 first-crop yearlings sold in North America

re: Surpassing a Giant: Raven's Pass Tops First-Crop Sales

AnneM — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 01:56:39 GMT

How is Big Brown doing?

Scot's reply: Big Brown's near-six-figure average and $80,000 median were good for fourth and third ranks, respectively.

re: Surpassing a Giant: Raven's Pass Tops First-Crop Sales

sgillies — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:06:03 GMT

Some market numbers for Raven's Pass:

27 of his first-crop yearlings have gone through the ring in 2011. Of the 23 that sold, 14 were in the U.S.; 7 in England; 1 in Ireland; and 1 in France. (All four RNAs were split amongst the three European nations, as well.)

The $161,429 average price at U.S. sales falls short of Europe's combined $202,241--but America's $145,000 median tops Europe's $130,108 by 11.4%.

Darley (mostly through John Ferguson) has supported Raven's Pass internationally, and is responsible for the high prices both in the U.S. (a $370,000 filly at Keeneland September) and abroad (a $422,850 colt at Tattersalls October 1).