us yearling buyers
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HEN WAR OF WILL overpowered his competitors in this year’s Grade 1 Preakness Stakes, his win proved significant for a couple of reasons. For one, it was a redemption of sorts for the horse’s controversial trip in a roughhouse Kentucky Derby. To recap, coming out of the home turn, War Of Will’s wet-sail run was all but obliterated by Maximum Security’s wayward antics immediately in front – what War Of Will’s trainer Mark Casse later likened to finding oneself caught behind a drunk driver. The other reason? That the son of War Front was purchased at last year’s Arqana Breeze-Up Sale in May representing just the latest example of an American racing industry widening its embrace of the European yearling and two-year-old markets. “We’re not stratified,” says the US-based bloodstock agent Marette Farrell, about racing’s global reach, and the boundaryshifting impact that has had on the bloodstock world. When it comes to who or what played a seminal part in focusing America’s attention across the Atlantic once again, Farrell has in mind one man in particular. “What Wesley [Ward] did opened up American people’s eyes to what can be done,”
Crossing the high seas US buyers are turning up at European yearling and two-year-old sales in growing numbers. Dan Ross discovers the reasoning behind the cross-Atlantic trips
Justin Casse bought the Grade 1 Preakness Stakes winner War Of Will (right) at the Arqana Breeze-Up Sale. Casse, brother to trainer Mark, attends all the major European yearling, breeding stock and horses in training sales
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