The final mixed session of the Standardbred Horse Sale wrapped up on Saturday in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania with trotting mare Maven setting a sales record.
Purchased for $750,000 by Herb Liverman of Montreal, Que. from the Preferred Equine Marketing consignment, Maven (Hip 1,682) is the most expensive trotting mare ever sold at auction in North America.
Maven is now tied with Moon Beam as the third most expensive racehorse sold at auction behind pacer Total Truth ($900,000) and trotting filly Cameron Hall ($1.1 million).
“That was probably my last bid and probably a hundred more than I thought,” said Liverman after signing the sales slip. “I own [2013 Horse of the Year] Bee A Magician and I wanted them to not race against each other, so we’re probably going to race her against colts.”
The five-year-old Glidemaster-M Stewart mare, who competed in Europe this past Spring, has won 28 of her 51 races while earning $1,598,406 purses for former owner William Joseph Donovan of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She was trained by Jonas Czernyson for most of her career before recently moving into the Ron Burke stable for her latest 1:52 track record victory in the Muscle Hill Trot at Vernon Downs.
Reports from Harrisburg indicate that Maven may be trained by Jimmy Takter for her new owner.
“That’s not set in stone, but I want Bee A Magician to be in one race and Maven in another," said Liverman. "I hate to look ahead with horses, you know. I once bid a million and didn’t get a horse at auction, Cameron Hall, remember that?"
Donovan described the sale of his O'Brien and Dan Patch award-winning trotting mare as "bittersweet."
"She brought some victories that most people only dream of," he said. "She was a storybook, but every book has an ending and I guess it ended today. I actually bought a filly out of her three-quarter sister, bought her at $55,000 last year and didn’t make the races. Even though I’m getting out of the commercial breeding business, I’m still keeping a few mares so that I can raise them and race them myself, so that filly is one I will keep.”
Another top seller during Saturday's session was two-year-old trotting filly Boccone Dolce (Hip 1,554), who was purchased for $250,000 by Diamond Creek Farm of Paris, Kentucky. Consigned by Northwood Bloodstock Agency, the lightly raced filly has a lifetime mark of 1:56.4, taken at The Red Mile. Boccone Dolce is sired by Donato Hanover out of the Kadabra mare Bella Dolce (1:54.2 - $753,133), who is a full sister to Miss Paris ($869,923 - 1:54.2).
Josies Joy (Hip 1,649), another two-year-old trotting filly, rounded out the top three highest priced racehorses of the session, garnering a final bid of $180,000 from Ole Bach of East Windsor, New Jersey. Consigned by Walnridge Farm, the Muscle Hill-Gerris Joy filly has won four of her 12 starts this year, including back-to-back 1:54.1 victories at The Red Mile. She is a half-sister to four-year-old Muscles Yankee son Smilin Eli ($754,499 - 1:52.1), who sold for $160,000 to Brixton Medical as Hip 1,894 in the sale.
A total of 649 horses sold during the two mixed sale sessions on Friday and Saturday for $17,863,500, producing an average price of $27,525. Last year, 828 horses were sold in the mixed portion of the sale for $19,840,500, with the average price at $23,962.
“Racehorses are selling like crazy,” said Paul F. “Pete” Spears, CEO of the Standardbred Sales Company. “There seems to be a 33 per cent or even 50 per cent premium over what I’ve seen in recent years. It used to be you could use a horse’s yearly earnings as a gauge, but they’re selling far in excess of that.”