NEWS
Record yearling Seattle Dancer dies at 23
Posted: Friday, July 13, 2007 11:55 AM
SEATTLE DANCER IN THE 1985 KEENELAND JULY SALE
Photo by Z
by Jeff Lowe
Seattle Dancer, the most expensive yearling ever sold at public auction, died on June 2 from a heart attack at Gestut Auenquelle in Roedinghausen, Germany. The half brother to Seattle Slew was 23.
The British Bloodstock Agency (England) purchased Seattle Dancer on behalf of a partnership for $13.1-million at the 1985 Keeneland July selected yearling sale.
The price was a world record for any horse at public auction for nearly 22 years until The Green Monkey brought $16-million at the 2006 Fasig-Tipton Calder sale of selected two-year-olds in training.
Seattle Dancer stood his final five seasons in Germany after stints at Ashford Stud in Kentucky, Coolmore Stud in Ireland, and East Stud in Japan. His fertility declined to the point that he impregnated only one mare this year, said Tanya Sramek of Gestut Auenquelle.
The Nijinsky II horse out of My Charmer, by Poker, sired 37 stakes winners from 310 winners and 573 starters who earned $29,244,732 through Thursday.
Among 17 group or graded stakes winners, Seattle Dancer sired 1996 Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner Pike Place Dancer, 2000 Ramona Handicap (G1) winner Caffe Latte, and English Group 1 winner Seattle Rhyme.
Warner Jones Jr., William S. Farish, and William Kilroy bred Seattle Dancer in Kentucky. Jones consigned the colt at Keeneland July, and BBA outlasted partners D. Wayne Lukas, Mel Hatley, Eugene Klein, and L. R. French to buy him for a group consisting of Coolmore, Stavros Niarchos, and Danny Schwartz.
Seattle Dancer raced only as a three-year-old for trainer Vincent O’Brien. He won the Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial Stakes (Ire-G2) and Windfields Farm Gallinule Stakes (Ire-G2) in consecutive starts in May 1987 before finishing sixth in the Prix du Jockey Club (Fr-G1) (French Derby) and second in the Grand Prix de Paris (Fr-G1).
Seattle Dancer returned to the United States to begin his stud career with a $20,000 fee at Ashford in 1988. He spent seven seasons in Kentucky before being moved to Ireland to stand at Coolmore in 1995 and ’96. After six-year stint in Japan, Philipp Stauffenberg bought Seattle Dancer and moved him to Germany.
Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer
