DAUGHTER OF EMPIRE MAKER MAKES $1.7 MILLION
Kelly Sees the Light...
Article taken from the TDN
Jon Kelly made only one bid yesterday when hip 126 was in the ring, but it was the only bid that mattered. Kelly went to $1.7 million to bring home the daughter of GI Belmont S. winner EMPIRE MAKER out of Aurora (Danzig). The filly is a full sister to this years GIII Dogwood S. winner Acoma.
"She’s got good conformation and she has a great family, and a trusted friend bred her," Kelly said. Graded-stakes placed on the track, Aurora is the dam of Grade I winner and sire Arch (Kris S.), as well as group winner Festival of Light (A.P. Indy) and stakes winner Alisios (Kris S.). Kelly, a former television executive, owns about 70 horses. He and his wife Sarah campaigned multiple Grade I winner Borrego. Kelly went to $2.8 million to buy Grade I winner Vacare (Lear Fan) out of the 2006 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November sale. Now five, Vacare recently won the GII Palomar H. for the Kellys. Yesterday ’s seven-figure price tag was not a big surprise to Kelly.
"I expected it would be about there," he confirmed. The yearling was bred by Alexander- Groves Thoroughbreds and was consigned by Helen Alexander’s Middlebrook Farm. –JM
Date: 09 September 2008