Brian Graves

During the 127th Warrenton Horse Show in Virginia the inaugural $7,500 William E. "Bill" Graves Memorial Thoroughbred Hunter Derby, sponsored by Gainesway Sales Company, will be held on Thursday, Sept. 3, according to a press release from the show on Monday. The event will be a two-round hunter derby class at the three foot height and is open to any Thoroughbred horse. Warrenton plans to continue to hold the Back From the Track hack, the Too Slow to Go hack, the Thoroughbred Hunter Division--2'6'" or 2'9", the $2,500 Take2 Thoroughbred...

LEXINGTON, KY - The 2026 Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale concluded its compressed two-day run Tuesday. "Another really good day," said Keeneland Vice President of Sales Tony Lacy. "Overall, it was a great, solid day of trading. Everyone felt like it was a very honest and strong market overall." That market strength and diversity was on display with as the top 25 horses came from 18 different consignors and sold to 24 individual buyers. The top 13 yearlings were also each by different stallions. After a three-day sale...

The Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale concluded its two-day Book 3 Saturday, already surpassing the total gross of the 2024 sale with still three days remaining in Lexington, KY. Through five days, the gross for 1,125 horses sold through the ring is up 31.54% from the same period last year when 1,055 horses sold for $163,353,500. Average price rose 23.25% from $154,837 to $190,996. The median of $130,000 increased 36.84% from last year's $95,000. On Saturday, Keeneland sold 259 horses through the ring for $25,328,500, a 29.55% jump from the...

When She Feels Pretty (Karakontie {Jpn}) first burst onto the scene, Christian Erickson received several substantial offers for her dam, Summer Sweet (More Than Ready). The first calls came in after She Feels Pretty's debut win and the numbers grew after her victory in the GI Natalma Stakes. Still relatively new to the sport, having taken on the role of trustee for the Virginia Kraft Payson Children's Trust earlier that year, Erickson reached out to his new acquaintance Brian Graves of Gainesway Farm for advice. "We were being offered basically...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - After a few days to recover from a blockbuster Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, bidding returns to the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion Sunday evening for the first of two sessions of the Fasig-Tipton New York-Bred Yearlings Sale. The auction is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m with 100 catalogued yearlings set to go through the ring, and it will continue Monday at noon with an additional 203 catalogued head on offer. Buyers--both pinhookers and end-users, with new shoppers joining those that were shut out during the record-setting select...

System seems to work pretty well. Donato Lanni buys their standout for Amr Zedan, and on they go: win their Grade Is, make another ton of money at stud. In 2022, it was the $2.3- million Uncle Mo colt we now know as Hill 'n' Dale stallion and 'TDN Rising Star' Arabian Knight; a year later, it was a $2-million son of Good Magic, 'Rising Star' Muth, meanwhile underway at Gainesway. With horses, however, there's always something you could do to make things even better. Last year Zedan called Jimbo...

When graded-stakes winner Pretty Birdie (Bird Song) went through the sales ring at Keeneland in November as part of the dispersal of the estate of the late John Hendrickson, she sold for $1.1 million to Stonestreet, but after the mare was observed cribbing at her new home, the sale was nullified and breeders will get a second chance to bid on the 5-year-old at next week's Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale. Again consigned through Antony Beck's Gainesway, she will go through the ring as hip 453 during Monday's...

With four new stallions standing at the farm in 2025, perhaps no farm had a better recruiting year than Gainesway. Their general manager, Brian Graves, appeared on this week's TDN Writers' Room podcast to discuss those new recruits-Muth, Seize the Grey, Tapit Trice, and Charge It. But the quartet isn't all that's going on at Gainesway, where their first-crop stallion McKinzie is one of three stallions vying for 2024's leading freshman sire, along with Vekoma at Spendthrift and Coolmore's Tiz the Law. "We're busy here," said Graves. "You know, that's...

Gainesway's General Manager Brian Graves looks ahead to breeding season with a stallion roster that includes four new recruits on this week's TDN Writers' Room.

The 2-year-old filly Alyeska (Vekoma), an eye-catching, come-from-behind debut winner carrying the famed Marylou Whitney silks at Churchill Downs Sept. 20, brought a sale-topping $675,000 from bloodstock agent Steve Young at Keeneland's single-session November Horses of Racing Age sale Thursday, which produced substantial across-the-board increases. Fellow Marylou Whitney homebred and the once-raced 2-year-old colt Captain Cook (Practical Joke), a troubled sixth on debut beneath the Twin Spires Oct. 27, was also purchased by Young for $410,000, the second-most expensive lot of the day. The duo were both previously trained by...

LEXINGTON, KY -The two-session Book 3 section of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock concluded Saturday, producing double-digit increases in average and median compared to its 2023 counterpart. Keeneland sold 499 horses through the ring during Book 3 for a gross of $37,747,000. The section's average was $75,645--up 20.98% from last year's Book 3--and the median was $60,000, an increase of 20% from a year ago. During the two Book 3 sessions in 2023, 494 horses sold through the ring for a total of $30,888,000. The section average price was $62,526...

The breeding rights to MGISW Muth have been acquired by Gainesway and the son of Good Magic and out of Hoppa (Uncle Mo) will stand at the Lexington farm upon his retirement from racing. Bred by Don Alberto Corp., Muth was a $2-million OBS March 2-year-old purchase by Donato Lanni on behalf of Zedan Racing Stables, Inc. Muth, who earned TDN Rising Star status when breaking his maiden with a front-running 8 3/4-length victory in his debut at Santa Anita, returned to post a 3 3/4-length score in the GI...