The five grade 1 prep races for the 138th Kentucky Derby were won by five different horses\u2014Dullahan in the Toyota Bluegrass, Take Charge Indy in the Florida Derby, I\u2019ll Have Another in the Santa Anita Derby, Gemologist in the Wood Memorial and Bodemeister in the Arkansas Derby. But there is one common thread for that group\u2014all five were sold at Keeneland.<\/p>\n
Dullahan, Bodemeister, Take Charge Indy and I\u2019ll Have Another all were offered at the September sale while Gemologist was purchased at the 2009 November Breeding Stock Sale as a weanling.<\/p>\n
Walt Robertson, Keeneland\u2019s vice president of sales, proudly notes that 20 of the 28 graded stakes races on the Derby prep trail were won by graduates of the sales ring here.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe\u2019re going to have 20 in the gate and 12 of them are going to be ours,\u201d Robertson noted.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just absolutely love it when your horses do well and to have that many different horses do that well for so many different people, and we\u2019ve had some others that dropped off the Derby trail that we\u2019ll see this summer, we\u2019re talking about 15, 20 really, really nice horses that came through this sales ring,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
This comes a year after the top three finishers in the Triple Crown races were all products of a Keeneland sale.<\/p>\n
And eight of the fillies on the list for the Kentucky Oaks, including possible favorite Grace Hall, were also products of a sale at Keeneland.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis weekend, we\u2019ll have a lot of horses to cheer for,\u201d Robertson said.<\/p>\n