Sunday, October 19, 2008

Equestrian Website Launched.


We launched the Sterling Silver Stables website and are having a blast updating it with lots of family and competition photos.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Calzone's Thoroughbred Race Horse Breeders Bucks National Trend On A Day When The Economy Tanked!

Total Receipts Soar at Louisiana Yearling Sale
by Jeff Apel

The Breeders Sales Company of Louisiana yearling sale overcame the slumping economy to post double-digit increases in gross receipts and average, reversing a downward trend experienced in other recent yearling auctions.

The one-day sale concluded Monday with 171 of 258 Louisiana-bred yearlings offered selling for total receipts of $2,086,300, a 63.6% increase compared with last year’s sale, when 149 of 246 horses offered sold for $1,275,300. This year’s average price of $12,201 increased 42.6% compared with last year’s $8,559 average. Monday’s median price was $6,000. No comparable figure was available from last year’s sale. Buy-backs increased from 74 last year to 87 on Monday.

The double-digit increases in total receipts and average price prompted Tom Early, the sale director and secretary/treasurer of the Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders Association, to call the sale “the best we’ve had in Louisiana for yearlings.” He credited lucrative purses offered at Louisiana tracks for the big increases, which came on the heels of steep declines at the Keeneland September yearling sale.

“We attracted the buyers,” Early said. “We have a quality product that can earn a lot of money.”

Early said increased advertising also helped to bolster the sale. “We worked this sale,” Early said. “We did a whole lot more advertising for it. No one in the country could say they didn’t know we had a sale.

“We also, for the first time, had a [public relations] guy that went around to the various sales talking to various buyers and consignors.”

Fillies by Lemon Drop Kid and Leestown each sold for $65,000 to top the sale. Tony Richey, agent for Oak Leaf T.C., purchased the Lemon Drop Kid filly, who is out of the winning Majestic Light mare Royal Flex. Consigned by Red River Farm, agent, the bay filly is a half sister to stakes-placed winners Flexible Princess and Our Colors and is from the female family of Grade 1 winners and sires General Assembly and Chief Honcho, multiple graded stakes winner and sire American Chance, and multiple Grade 3 winner Expressive Dance. Lee Young Farm purchased the Leestown filly, who is out of the unplaced With Approval mare Bussalma. A half sister to Caribean Sea, a dual champion imported older horse and dual champion stayer in the Dominican Republic and multiple stakes winner We’ll See Ya, the Leestown filly was consigned by Red River Farm, agent for breeders Jay Adcock and Neal McFadden.

-Jeff Apel is a Thoroughbred Times assistant daily news editor

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

We just love food clients!

Cafe Vermilionville and owner, Ken Veron, are back at Calzone using our latest eMarketing tools to showcase a new menu and the return of Alex Patout to Acadiana.

Alex is now the head chef at Cafe V. He's famous for his prior restaurants, Patout's in New Iberia and Alex Patout's in New Orleans. A group of us experience a tasting last night and it was fantastic. The crawfish bisque rivals moms and the duck there is like not other.

Check out their first newsletter!