Races and Sales!

Dear Partners and Friends,

For ordinary partnerships, Saturday would have been a spectacular day. To have a horse like KEEN ICE make such an incredible finish to win (proving he is made for a mile and a quarter and LOVES Churchill Downs) would have most folks over the moon. And we were for two hours, until we hoped to see Danny Boy do just the same.

Here is the bottom line with Danny Boy as Conor Foley and Jim Hatchett warned us a couple of weeks ago. Danny's explosive Maiden win took a lot out of him. He lost weight and also developed a mild cold. So, while Danny's blood work was all back to normal yesterday he still didn't look tight as you could tell from his final pre-race breeze.

Bottom line: Danny ran a better speed figure yesterday than in his first race. He made a nice closing move. He simply wasn't at peak form allowing him to overcome a crazy wide trip in both the first and final turns. I have not lost one ounce of confidence in what this colt will be. And there was no way to know before the race if he was anything less than 100%.

Next up for these two (if they come out of the race in good shape) is the Grade I Futurity at Keeneland on October 4 (Win and you're in the Breeders' Cup).

I don't intend to ignore our other seven two year olds. We have a lot of excitement coming from them as well. Our two East Coast two year olds (Puca and Brother O'Connell) are both ready to win. La Macchina will move back to the dirt and be a force. Rock Shandy will race in the next month. And so on. Best two year old group EVER.

The SALES:

We are hard at work here at Keeneland. Friday was a brutally hot and humid day to inspect almost one hundred horses, but we got it done. Saturday the team inspected a new group of a hundred and yesterday, Dale Romans and I looked at all that had been short listed. I am grateful to team members Conor Foley, Jim Hatchett, Frank Smith and Dale Romans for putting up with my somewhat militaristic approach to the sales ;).

My best guess is that the sale will start off slowly for Donegal but gather momentum as the week moves to a close.

Thanks to each and every partner for helping make this happen. Donegal has never been stronger and we are here at the sale with the confidence that comes from knowing that what we do works!

Jerry