No buyer for Sandblom’s Primetime Emmy at Breeders’ Cup Championship Sale

Prominent Australian breeder Matthew Sandblom has retained the quarter share he offered in his Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint contender Primetime Emmy.

The Kingstar Farm principal offered a 25 per cent stake in the daughter of Australian sire sensation Extreme Choice at Keeneland’s Championship Sale held in Kentucky on Wednesday evening (American time).

At the third Championship Sale, held at the historic Castleton Stud in Lexington, Sandblom set a US$500,000 reserve for the share in Primetime Emmy.

Despite the Keeneland auctioneers’ best efforts, bidding did not go past US$425,000.

The highest-priced racing prospects to sell at the boutique 13-Lot evening sale were fellow two-year-old Ballinea Star and a 2.5 per cent share in Englishman, a multiple Grade 1-winning three-year-old who is entered for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

The percentage interest in Englishman sold for US$650,000, the same price received for the outright purchase of Ballinea Star, a Group 3-winning daughter of Space Blues who runs in the US$1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.

She will race at Keeneland on Friday (Saturday morning Australian time), the opening day of the Breeders’ Cup and the same day that Primetime Emmy will run.

A lifetime breeding right in top North American stallion Nyquist also sold for US$1.25 million at the Championship Sale as did a lifetime breeding right in Life Is Good, which made US$775,000.

Primetime Emmy, bred to northern hemisphere time and trained in Europe by Francis-Henri Graffard for Sandblom, made her first start at Deauville in July before contesting two Group 3 races.

A back problem was blamed for her below-par performance in the Prix de Cabourg when fifth on August 2 but Primetime Emmy bounced back with her maiden black-type victory in the Prix Eclipse over 1200m at Chantilly on September 19.

In doing so, the two-year-old created history by becoming the first horse by Extreme Choice to win in the northern hemisphere and her performance put the Breeders’ Cup firmly back on the agenda.

Primetime Emmy, who was born in Australia, barrier trialled at Hawkesbury in March for trainer Matt Vella with James McDonald providing the endorsement Sandblom needed to send the filly to France.

After her breakthrough Group 3 win, Newgate Farm’s Henry Field even floated the possibility of Primetime Emmy, born on January 27, 2024, coming to Australia to run in The Everest.

Sandblom, however, stuck to his original plan, sending Primetime Emmy to America for the Breeders’ Cup meeting, which brings many of the northern hemisphere’s elite horses together to test competing formlines and pedigrees from Europe, Japan and the US.

Held at different US racecourses each year, this year’s two-day Breeders’ Cup is at Keeneland in Kentucky, the home of northern American thoroughbred breeding.

The Australian connection doesn’t end at Primetime Emmy, with Widden Stud’s shuttle stallion prospect Hotazhell set to have his final race start in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf on Saturday (Sunday morning Australian time).

The three-time Group 1-winning son of Too Darn Hot will begin his stud career at Haras D’Etreham in France early next year, then shuttle to the Hunter Valley next August for the southern hemisphere breeding season.

Widden Stud’s Matt Comerford is in Kentucky for the Breeders’ Cup and next week’s Fasig-Tipton and Keeneland breeding stock sales.

Castleton Stud, one of the oldest continuously running horse farms in America and the venue for this year’s Championship Sale, was also auctioned at the Championship Sale, but it was passed in at US$57 million, with negotiations to start with potential buyers.

“We are grateful to Shane Ryan and his family for welcoming us to Castleton as the setting for the Championship Sale, and to Sotheby’s for their collaboration on this truly unique offering,” Keeneland president and chief executive Shannon Arvin said. 

“Castleton provided a spectacular backdrop for an evening that celebrated thoroughbred ownership and showcased Keeneland and Central Kentucky to a global audience.”