A big bay mare by retired leading sire Storm Cat fetched the highest price as of mid-morning of the first session of the Keeneland January horses of all ages sale Jan. 11.
Named Spherical, the mare is out of the grade I-winning Carson City mare City Band, and was bought for $300,000 by Norman Owens, agent from Three Chimneys Sales, agent.
“I bought the mare because she’s by Storm Cat out of a grade I-winning mare, but the main reason I bought her was because she’s in foal to Distorted Humor , and he’s one of the best values around,” said Owens, who purchased Spherical on behalf of an undisclosed client. “(Distorted Humor) has got a lot of good 2-year-olds that are coming, and he’s just a good sire.”
The stallion ranked second on the leading sires by earnings list of 2009.
Owens said Spherical, who is a full sister to stakes winner Weather Warning and Storm Tide, the dam of recent Hollywood Prevue Stakes (gr. III) winner American Lion , will stay in the United States, but would not reveal the exact location where she would be sent.
“This mare is quality, and any time you can find a mare at this kind of price, you need to buy her,” said Owens. “The price was fair enough with the way the market is right now…we all know a couple of years ago that if that mare was in here, you couldn’t have bought her for that kind of money.”
Bred in Kentucky by the Young family's Overbrook Farm, Spherical had a modest two-start racing career in which she finished second once and earned $2,620. The Distorted Humor foal she is carrying will be her first offspring.