Princess Janie, a stakes-winning Elusive Quality mare who is in foal to Tiznow , brought $330,000 early in the afternoon of the Keeneland January horses of all ages sale’s second session in Lexington. At that point, she was the most expensive horse that had been sold Jan. 11.
Lincoln Collins signed the sale ticket on behalf of Kern/Lillingston Association, agent.
“It’s a fair price,” he said. “I’m not elated with the price and I’m not disappointed; it was about how we valued her.
“I bought her for an English client, an undisclosed client who is relatively new to the game and wants to breed sprinters, so she fit that bill perfectly,” he continued. “We’ll probably breed her here this year – we haven’t decided what stallion yet, but it will be a fast horse -- and then send her to England. We’ll probably leave the Tiznow (foal) here. She’s a real sprinting type; she was very fast, which is what we wanted. She was the right article in the sale for us. We actually had tried to buy her once before.”
Collins added that “Luke Lillingston and Ed Sackville, who work for Kern/Lillingston in England, are the ones who are primarily dealing with this client.”
The 7-year-old Princess Janie won two six-furlong added-money events, the Mongo Queen and Just Smashing Stakes, at Monmouth Park in 2007. A half sister to Canadian grade III winner Raylene (by Tabasco Cat), she is out of the winning Dayjur mare Petite Princess, who finished third in the 1996 Omni Irish Racing Club Curragh Stakes (Ire-III).
Collins said the market at the Keeneland sale so far “is certainly good if you’ve got the right article. But people just don’t want a horse to have a horse at the moment,” he added. “They want something that has got some quality and some potential. Other people’s castoffs aren’t finding any buyers.”
Four Star Sales, agent, consigned Princess Janie. Totem Thoroughbreds purchased her for $280,000, while she was in foal to Harlan’s Holiday, from the Vinery, agent, at the 2009 Keeneland November breeding stock sale. She produced a Harlan's Holiday filly, who is named Donotpushme, in 2010.
“It was a business decision by a South American client of ours,” said Four Star Sales’ David Greathouse, explaining why Princess Janie was sold. “The price was about what we expected; it was close, maybe a little bit above. We thought she would sell well.
“There aren’t that many quality stakes-winning mares in the sale and she’s in foal to Tiznow,” Greathouse continued. “She isn’t a great big mare, but she’s very well put together. She’s a nice mare. I would say she was typical Elusive Quality sort of mare.”
