Larry Best

Taylor Made Farm welcomed dual Grade I winner Serengeti Empress (Alternation) home to her birthplace on Monday afternoon. The 2019 Kentucky Oaks victress will be bred to red hot sire Into Mischief. Shipping in from the Tom Amoss barn at Churchill Downs, Serengeti Empress will become barnmates with several other high-profile maiden mares, including Larry Best's recent $1.95 million Keeneland November purchase Concrete Rose (Twirling Candy). "It's just special," said Frank Taylor, the Vice President of Boarding Operations for Taylor Made. "When you get these Grade I winners come to...

LEXINGTON, KY - The Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale's two-session Book 3 section concluded with another day of steady trade Friday in Lexington. Bill Betz made the day's highest bid, going to $270,000 late in the day to acquire the racing/ broodmare prospect Divine Queen (Divine Park) from the Trackside Farm consignment. The mare was one of four to bring $200,000 or more during the session. While only 292 of the 401 catalogued head went through the ring Friday, 235 sold for a buy-back rate of just 19.52%. Through the...

LEXINGTON, KY - The Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale continued to generate steady trade as its two-session Book 3 opened Thursday in Lexington. A pair of mares from the Bluewater Sales consignment brought the day's co-highest price of $300,000 and were joined at that price by a weanling colt from the first crop of Mendelssohn who was purchased by Larry Best from the Four Star Sales consignment. During Thursday's session, 227 head grossed $13,153,000. The session average of $57,943 ticked up 2.29% from last year's corresponding session and the median...

by Jessica Martini, Christie DeBernardis and Brian DiDonato LEXINGTON, KY- Bidding remained steady as Book 2 of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale concluded Wednesday in Lexington. Andrew Cary made the session's most expensive purchase, going to $500,000 to acquire the mare Contributing (Medaglia d'Oro) from the Hill 'n' Dale Sales Agency consignment on behalf of Coteau Grove Farms. Weanlings held the next six top prices of the session and, for the third straight day of the sale, Justify was responsible for the top-priced foal when Chris Baccari went to...

by Jessica Martini, Brian DiDonato & Christie DeBernardis LEXINGTON, KY - The Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale's two-session Book 2 opened Tuesday in Lexington with solid trade and a varied bench of domestic and international buyers. Bloodstock agent Arthur Hoyeau made the day's highest bid, going to $975,000 to acquire the group-winning mare Pollara (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) from the Claiborne Farm consignment. The 5-year-old mare was one of five to sell for $500,000 or more during Tuesday's session. Six reached that level at last year's first Book 2 session. In...

by Brian DiDonato, Jessica Martini & Christie DeBernardis LEXINGTON, KY--OXO Equine's Larry Best took home the top two lots Monday during the lone Book 1 session of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. Early in the day he went to $1.9 million for Indian Miss (Indian Charlie) (hip 32), the dam of champion sprinter Mitole (Eskendereya) and last Friday's GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile runner-up Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow), in foal to Into Mischief and from the Hill 'n' Dale consignment; and towards the end of the session he paid $1.95...

Larry Best continued his spending spree during the early stages of breeding stock sales season, going to a session-leading $1.95 million to secure 2019 GI Belmont Oaks Invitational S. winner Concrete Rose (Twirling Candy) at Keeneland November Monday. The 4-year-old filly, a daughter of GI Humana Distaff S. runner-up Temple Street (Street Cry {Ire}), was consigned to the sale by Lane's End as agent for Ashbrook Farm and BBN Racing as hip 216 and took Best's purchases Monday to four horses for gross receipts of $4.54 million. Best also signed...

by Brian DiDonato, Jessica Martini & Christie DeBernardis LEXINGTON, KY--With four of the day's nine million-dollar-plus horses selling in the final dozen or so hips to be offered, the second and final session of Book 1 of the Keeneland September yearling sale finished strong. The session topper and likely sale topper was hip 435, a son of Tapit out of the GISW and 'TDN Rising Star' Tara's Tango (Unbridled's Song) offered by Eaton Sales on behalf of Stonestreet Bred & Raised and acquired by a partnership between Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners,...

Instagrand (Into Mischief--Assets of War, by Lawyer Ron), a 'TDN Rising Star' and blowout winner of the GII Best Pal S. in 2018, has been retired to Taylor Made Stallions for the 2021 breeding season. He will stand for a fee of $7,500. Instagrand earned his 'Rising Star' after graduating by 10 lengths at first asking at Los Alamitos, covering five furlongs in a swift :56 flat, before validating that performance with a 10 1/4-length romp in the Best Pal. At three, he finished third off a seven-month absence in...

OXO Equine's Travel Column (Frosted) sailed to an impressive 4 1/4-length debut win at Churchill Downs Friday and was quickly awarded the 'TDN Rising Star' label. Sent off at 9-2, the gray filly was third in the early strides as Off We Go (Air Force Blue) jumped out to the early lead. Off We Go briefly had a clear advantage, but Travel Column, racing keenly, rushed up to press the pacesetter through fractions of :21.27 and :44.42. She surged to the lead at the top of the stretch and was...

by Jessica Martini & Christie DeBernardis The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training, an auction most people seemed happy could even be held following all of the uncertainties of the global pandemic, concluded its four-day run in Central Florida with a pair of seven-figure transactions book-ending the session. Early in the day, Kaleem Shah purchased a son of Quality Road for $1.25 million from the Wavertree Stables consignment and, with only a handful of lots left to offer, Larry Best secured a colt by Speighster for...

A New York-bred colt from the first crop of Speightster lit up the board late Friday at OBS as he garnered a $1.1-million final bid from Christina Jelm, who was acting on behalf of Larry Best's OXO Equine LLC. Consigned by Tom McCrocklin as hip 1312, the :20 4/5 breezer turned in a strong gallop out that caught plenty of eyes. A supplemental entry to the OBS Spring sale, the son of MSP Auspicious (Indian Charlie)--already named Fortunate Son--was a $110,000 Saratoga York-bred yearling purchase by McCrocklin.