Courtesy of the TDN

Book 5 of the Keeneland September Sale came to a close yesterday with Kitty Taylor’s Warrendale Sales and Frank Stronach’s Adena Springs pulling a consignor/buyer daily double on a pair of $110,000 fillies. First through the ring was hip 3553, a chestnut daughter of Proud Citizen–In Return who went to Adena representative Mark Roberts.

Later, with the session drawing to a close, Roberts returned with an identical bid that secured hip 3644, a statuesque filly by Midnight Lute– Per Se. It is the third time during the sale that Adena purchased a session topper. A day earlier, Adena landed the Big Brown–Cold Awakening colt that made $140,000. Adena also purchased the $1.35 million Awesome Again–Legs Lawlor colt who topped session five. Roberts commented on the Proud Citizen miss. “She was a lovely filly,” he said. “She’s from a good family that, all the way down the page, produced good fillies.We thought she was a standout today.” Roberts admitted the price was a bit more than he expected. “I thought she’d probably go for $75,000 or $80,000, but on the day, both pedigree wise and as an individual, she was a standout. And those are the ones that sell.”

The filly’s 8-year-old dam, the Horse Chestnut (SAf) mare In Return, was a classy performer on the track for Jayeff B Stables and trainer Alan Goldberg, setting or equaling course records at Monmouth not once but three times. She broke her maiden in 1:46.70 going nine furlongs in July of that year, equaling the previous mark, then came back to win the 1 1/16-mile Eatontown Staybridge Suites S. in 1:39.91 a month later. Produced by a sister to GISW Auntie Mame, In Return also equaled a course record the following season at Monmouth. In Return was put through the Keeneland November Sale in 2009 with this filly in utero. Tall Oaks acquired her for a modest $32,000, and recouped the purchased price over three times over yesterday.

Tall Oaks, aCanadian-based operationowned by the Hungarian-bornIvan Dalos, is best known asthe breeders of Classic winnerVictory Gallop. “I only get a horse from Ivan every now and then, which I greatly appreciate,” said Kitty Taylor. “Ivan races a lot in Canada, but this filly is a Kentucky-bred–she was raised at Nick and Rose Lotz’s Briarbrooke Farm out in Paris. She was a really correct filly with very good vetting, and big for a Proud Citizen, which is unusual. And she really stood out in this book.”

Taylor’s second score on the afternoon, the MidnightLute–Per Se filly, was also being sold for a Canadianbased owner. “I’ve never met him [breeder Beclawat Stable’s Leslie Pereira], but Tonya Johnson from Red Gables Stud gave him to us as a client, which again I really appreciate. Tonya had raised and prepped her. This filly was another one where the owner wasn’t really happy with the placement in Book 5, and didn’t decide until about 30 days ago to send her. But it worked out, because she was just a star in this book. She had eight scopes. I’ve seen a number of the Midnight Lutes myself, and my feedback from people was that she looks just like her father.”

The filly was produced by the 9-year-old Deputy Commander mare Per Se, a full-sister to MGSP Holiday Lady and SW My Main Starr, and a half to group winner Putra (Dixie Brass). She hails from her champion sire’s first crop.

Leslie Pereira is the retired owner and CEO of Beclawat Manufacturing Company, a manufacturer of windows and doors for ships, airplanes, buses, etc. Pereira has bred, among others, 2005 Canadian Horse of the Year A Bit O’ Gold, as well as Eishin Missouri, an earner of over $1.5 million in Japan.

Taylor added of her fine Book 5 afternoon, “I want to especially thank Mark Roberts and Adena Springs for buying the fillies and wish them all the best.”

Adena was plenty busy Thursday, buying four of the five top-priced yearlings and 12 prospects overall. That pushed Adena’s overall ledger to 37 horses bought for $4,466,000. While that’s an average of $120,703, Adena has played at every level of the market; no fewer than 14 of those buys, for instance, came on bids of $50,000 or less. “We’re focusing on just buying athletes,” said Mark Roberts. “Pedigree’s important, but first and foremost we’re going for athletes.”