It’s a Long Way to Keeneland, and Some Top Colts Never Make It, Even Though They Pass the Test

Just getting a yearling accepted to be sold at Keeneland’s major sale is an exhilarating experience. Applications were received this year for 1,633 horses bred in 32 states, Canada and England.

A five-man Keeneland committee narrowed the group to 650 horses. Individual inspections of the survivors brought the total to the 306 that were listed in the catalogue.

But even some of those didn’t make it to the auction on July 22-23, when the prices ranged from $40,000 to $13.1 million with an average of $537,129 and a median price of $325,000.

Hip No. 64, a bay colt by Seattle Slew out of Parrish Princess, figured to surpass both the average and the median prices by plenty. Having the same dam made this colt a half-brother to Princess Rooney, who won the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff Stakes by seven lengths at Hollywood Park last November and was voted the champion older filly or mare for 1984.

“We figured he might have brought $4 million, maybe even $5 million,” said Tom Roach of Parrish Hill Farm in Midway, Ky. Roach and his father, Ben, were the consignors of the nicely bred colt, along with Spendthrift Farm of Lexington.

But hip No. 64 never made it to the sale. Three weeks before, the colt died as the result of a freakish spinal-cord injury while surgeons were preparing him for a test to determine if they could rectify the problem. The colt never survived the anesthesia.

“It was painful for us both emotionally and financially,” Tom Roach said. “This was going to be our first big chance at the sales. We knew there was a lot of interest among some of the top buyers--(Wayne) Lukas, (Allen) Paulson, the Europeans.”

No one really knows exactly what happened to the colt. “He either flipped over in his stall or banged his neck, I guess,” Roach said. “It was enough damage that the vets knew he’d never race, but at least we hoped to save him for breeding.”

Neil Drysdale, who trained Princess Rooney, remembers a horse of his suffering a similar injury at a San Francisco track a few years ago.

“There was a storm, and it blew some of the roofing off and it hit the horse in the neck,” Drysdale said. “He was paralyzed. But that was just a horse. This colt was going to be something special.”

According to Roach, the Seattle Slew colt was insured in the six-figure range. “But that won’t be for full value,” he said. “I figured that my father and I still lost over a million dollars.”

The Roaches, who own Parrish Princess, bred Princess Rooney, who was bought for $38,000 by Paula and Jim Tucker of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., at a yearling auction. Princess Rooney was retired after the Breeders’ Cup with earnings of $1.3 million and is now at Stone Farm in Paris, Ky., in foal to Danzig.

“The Tuckers have turned down offers of many millions for Princess Rooney,” Tom Roach said. “Any time I get down, I get out tapes of her races, and that cheers me up. What did Wayne Lukas say? You gotta store away the good memories in this game to tide you over during the bad times?”