Stallion Access does not disclose the buyers of the seasons or shares. While there was plenty of activity in the sales ring, a good portion of the bids came via telephone.
A share in Distorted Humor that brought $500,000 was the highlight of the Stallion Access Champagne Sale of selected seasons and shares that was held Friday evening in Fasig-Tipton's Humphrey S. Finney Sales Pavilion in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.Distorted Humor, the sire of Kentucky Derby and Preakness (gr. I) winner Funny Cide, stands at Bill Casner and Kenny Troutt's WinStar near Versailles, Ky. A stakes-winning son of Forty Niner, out of the Danzig mare Danzig's Beauty, Distorted Humor is also the sire of other 3-year-old graded stakes winners Go Rockin' Robin and Awesome Humor from his first crop. In the only other share offered at the sale, a share in the 18-year-old Private Terms brought $1,700.Thirty no-guaranteed seasons were sold, grossing $682,400, good for an average of $22,474. Last year, 33 seasons were sold for an average of $29,197. The 2004 no-guaranteed season auction is often a barometer for where stud fees will be heading for next year. Topping the season portion of the sale was Claiborne Farm stallion Seeking the Gold. Two individual 2004 seasons sold for $125,000 and $100,000. A season that offered a limited warranty to 26-year-old Danzig sold for $94,000. The warranty was guaranteed that Danzig would be physically capable of breeding through June 30, 2004. A season that did not offer a warranty failed to meet it's reserve at $87,000.A no-guarantee 2004 season to Distorted Humor brought a hammer price of $40,000. Other no-guarantee seasons of note were: Dixieland Band, $36,000; Gulch, $29,000; Smart Strike, $25,000; and Mt. Livermore, $22,000.
