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IN THE BLUE GRASS ! By Hugh J. McGuire Recent Dispersals Indicate Strong Thoroughbred Market Interest in What Prices Woodyale Breeding Stock Will Bring High Hopes Held for Kyber Queen, Recent Hollywood Winner Vet Reports Indicate High Number of Crown Crest Mares in Foal LEXINGTON, Ky., June 5. The importance of dispersal sales of quality breeding stock can not be overemphasized and perhaps the best proof of this is the spontaneity with which busy tvcoons defer important tasks to bid fabulous sums to secure such stock. This would appear to be the most healthy of omens for the future of the sport of racing and the breeding of thoroughbreds for the foals of these dispersal mares are not made overnight and even after arrival require at least two years before they have hopes of getting to the races. Purchases at such dispersals can be assumed to reflect the thoughts for the future of the industry held, by prominent men and these are warm and comforting and indicative of great hope. Recent dispersals throughout the country have given no indication that the market is anything but strong. Top quality mares know no price limits and it will be interesting to leara how high the enthusiasm of the bidders will soar for the breeding stock of the Woodvale Farm when it is offered at Keeneland by the Breeders Sales Company in July. Whether high or low prices are realized we do not believe that the sale of the racing stock from this nursery, which will take place in June, can be taken as a definite yardstick for the acceptance of the breeding stock. In the main the two groups are separate and distinct and hold appeal for different buyers. There will be no less than 46 broodmares offered with 25 foals of this year at their sides and these mares include the dams of stakes-class horsey such as Goyamo, Red Charger, Marta, Navy Page, Prince Marque, Page Boots, Navy Chief, Fond Embracei Imbros and others. It should prove stimulating, too, that the mares have been bred this year to such stallions as Citation, Coaltown, Polynesian, Eight Thirty, Ardan, Royal Charger, Goya TX, Menow, Dark Star, Cortil and Shut Out in addition to the farms four stallions Our Boots, Haltal, Sports Page and Page Boots. AAA The success of the get of the stallions standing at the Spendthrift Farm of Leslie Combs II. continues unabated and bids fair to maintain the excellent record of the farm which last year produced more two-year-old -1353 stakes winners from its 1952 sales yearlings than any other consignor to yearling sales. Spendthrift-sired horses finished first and second in the Flamingo, first and third in the Kentucky Derby and won the Withers, Santa Anita Derby and Kentucky Oaks. Just one of the Spendthrift stallions who is compelling attention is Shannon II. whose Sea O Erin recently accounted for the Peabody Memorial. Incidentally, in that race, Spendthrift stallions made a clean sweep of the placing as Hasseyampa, by Alibhai, was second, and Notable, also by Shannon II., was third. There are four colts and one filly by Shannon II. in the Spendthrift consignment of yearlings to the Keeneland summer sales. AAA Out at Hollywood Park recently a three-year-old filly named Khyber Queen won a race rather convincingly and brought to mind that this was the miss for whom trainer Joe Luddy, acting for the Marlad Stable, bid 2,000 at Saratoga. This filly did not race at two but finished second in both her other starts before earning her first purse. She is by Mahmoud Rule All and was sold by the Almahurst Farm of Henry H. Knight who is now in California. Knight found that Luddy was quite enthusiastic over Khyber Queen, and predicted a future for her both on the track and later in breeding. This year Rule Alls yearling to be offered at Saratoga is a colt by Nirgal. Rule All is by Teddy and is the dam, among others, of Proud Ruler. The Knight consignment this year includes seven other yearlings by Nigral, four by Djeddah n., six by Cosmic Bomb, three by Rippey, three by Priam II., three by Goya II. and four by Heliopolis. These are by the farms stallions while outside stallions represented in the group are Roman, War Admiral, Shut Out, Noor, Better Self, Challedon, War Relic, Bimelich and Salmagundi. AAA Early veterinary reports at the Crown Crest Farm of Mr. and Mrs. Howard Reineman indicate that quite a number of the farms mares are in foal. Already positive tests have been received on mares bred to War Relic, Cosmic Bomb, Roman, Oil Capitol, Citation, Heliopolis, Pavot, Royal Charger, Papa Redbird, Revoked, Greek Ship, Big Dipper and Alibhai. The greater number of the farms mares have not yet had time to be. due for examiantion but just one who has been pronounced in foal is Umidzadeh who was purchased from the consignment of the Aga Khan and is in foal to Roman. This list would indicate a fine crop of foals for Crown Crest next season. At Crown Crest the Brookmeade Farms mare Elite is reported in foal to Count Fleet and the same farms Calories to Priam H. My Celeste, the property of George Welley, of New Jersey, is among those in foal to Oil Capitol. The Crown Crest mare Bridal Toast is in foal to Discovery at the Sagamore Farm of Alfred Vanderbilt in Maryland where she has a foal by Ambiorix over whom Sagamore manager Ralph Kercheval was enthused. AAA Blades of Blue Grass: The three-year-old Brookfield colt I. Geegee, who won a division of the Delaware Valley Stakes at Garden State to make it four victories in as many starts this year, was bred by Charles A. Asbury. His dam, On the Double, is now in foal to Charles Kenneys stallion Johns Joy . . . Foaling has been completed at the Spendthrift Farm of Leslie Combs n., with a score of 15 colts and 17 fillies. One of the latest and most prominent to arrive is a chestnut colt by Alibhai from Crepe Myrtle. Combs, by the way, is in New York and will attend the sale of horses in training by the Fasig-Tipton Company June 9 and 10 at Belmont, and witness the running of the Belmont Stakes . . . Former heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey will again assist the stall of Crown Crest Farm during the Keeneland summer sales . . . William Gabby, who for several years has brought the Almahurst Farm yearlings into the Saratoga sales ring in condition to arouse the envy of other breeders, will again handle the consignment. AAA Named to appraise the entire Kentucky holdings of the late Royce G. Martin are Howard Reineman, Charles A. Asbury and Leslie Combs II. . . . Charlton Clays juvenile filly Lea Lane was very impressive in her debut in which she covered five furlongs at Lincoln Fields over a track rated good in :59. This is only three-fifths of a second slower than the track mark established in 1938 and the fleet daughter of Nasrullah Lea Lark, by Bull Lea, won by eight lengths. She is trained by Price Sallee and back of her were seven rivals, all of whom were colts . . . K. G. Marshall, of Birmingham, Ala., whose Coffee Money is at stud at the Hurstland Farm of the Nuckols Brothers, was well pleased by the success of War of Roses in the Jersey Stakes. War of Roses is out of a mare by The Phoenix which prompted Marshall to express in a wire to the Nuckols, his confidence in the bloodlines of his stallion who is also by The Phoenix.
