With the presidential race still wide open, the decision of the year is still more than six weeks away for the average American.

William S. Farish, well-known friend of former President Bush and his family, made a significant decision in April that, five months later, turned out to be both prescient and profitable for his Lane's End consignment and for the Keeneland September yearling sale.

On the second of two selected days at the gargantuan September 11-23 sale, Farish rolled out Lane's End yearlings that were intentionally absent from the Keeneland July selected yearling sale. Farish announced in April that he was not sending yearlings to the July sale, a boutique market where he has been the leading consignor five times in the last decade and where others dream of selling their best yearlings.

Farish said he made the decision to give his yearlings more time to mature, and the calculated risk paid off in a stratospheric way on September 12 when Lane's End rocked the Keeneland sales pavilion with top price after top price for its fancy-pedigreed and athletic yearlings.

By the time the final hammer had fallen to end that session, the Lane's End consignment had produced one of the most astounding performances the Keeneland September sale-or any other horse sale-has ever seen.

Led by a $6.8-million son of Storm Cat and a $4.4-million world-record filly by Storm Cat, Lane's End sold 45 yearlings for a total of $45,697,000, a remarkable average of $1,015,489.

"It really was a big day. We knew we went up there with a good group of horses," Farish said. "The horses were so well received. A lot of it has to do with the fact that they were wonderful individuals. But you need to look at the pedigree, too. They can be good individuals, but if the family hasn't been performing, they don't do as well. Our record speaks for itself. Our horses are going out there (on the track) and getting it done, and that's the bottom line." To put the performance by Lane's End in perspective, the consignment's total sales were more than half of the gross sales for the Keeneland July selected yearling sale and nearly $4-million more than the entire gross at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale.

Of the 27 yearlings that brought seven-figure bids, ten came from the Lane's End consignment, including the top five highest-priced yearlings overall. Receipts for the Lane's End consignment also were nearly half of the sale's stellar second session.

Although the sale's numbers were rising after a strong opening session, the Lane's End consignment certainly paved the way for huge increases across the board. Keeneland reported 443 of 609 yearlings offered during the two selected sessions sold for a record total of $162,142,000, a 34.1% increase over last year's total of $120,889,000.

A record 27 yearlings were sold for $1-million or more during the selected sessions, six more than last year. Five yearlings, including one of the most expensive ever sold at public auction, exceeded the previous Keeneland September record of $3.9-million. Unless something dramatic happens overseas in the coming weeks, Keeneland September will have sold the world's most expensive yearling this year. Among the highlights of the two selected days:

• Record average of $366,009, up 42.6% over last year's record $256,665;
• Record median of $195,000, up 30%;
• Record Keeneland September yearling at $6.8-million; and
• World record for yearling filly at $4.4-million.

The only downside of the opening selected sessions was a slight increase in buy-backs, from 25.1% in 1999 to 27.3% this year.

"It's just a great, great sale," said W. B. Rogers Beasley, Keeneland's director of sales. "The consignors brought us a lot of great horses the first two days, and the buyers responded. We hope it continues for the next 11 days."

The second day of the sale proved to be the most productive, with 225 of 303 yearlings offered sold for a total of $94,590,000, a 35.7% increase over last year's corresponding session, in which 254 yearlings sold for a total of $69,727,000. This year's second session also featured 19 yearlings that landed final bids of $1-million or more, including the eight most expensive of the sale.

The perfect moment

The world of sports is filled with such singular, spectacular, and defining events that they are often labeled as "perfect moments." Mark McGwire launching his 62nd home run on September 8, 1998, to break Roger Maris's single-season record is a perfect example. Michael Jordan knocking down a jump shot-the final of his brilliant professional career-to lead the Chicago Bulls over the Utah Jazz in the 1998 National Basketball Association finals is another.

The Thoroughbred industry was treated to another on September 12 when two of the game's wealthiest and most competitive players locked horns with the goal of purchasing a colt by one of the world's premier sires. The players were Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, who strolled the sale grounds in his Godolphin blue jacket with his typically large entourage of associates, agents, and trainers, and Irish bloodstock agent Demi O'Byrne, representing Coolmore Stud's principals Michael Tabor and John Magnier.

The object of their desire was an athletic colt by Storm Cat out of the Fappiano mare Hum Along, who had already produced champion and Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) winner Storm Song. Farish had purchased a half-interest in the colt from Spendthrift Farm's Ted Taylor when the early June foal was just six weeks old and put a "high figure" on the colt prior to the sale.

O'Byrne and Sheikh Mohammed were the lone bidders after the bidding reached $2.5-million, and the two countered each other with $100,000 or $200,000 bids from that point. Sheikh Mohammed, who purchased 31 yearlings during the first two sessions for $27,675,000 in the name of leading buyer John Ferguson Bloodstock, nodded when the bidding reached $6.7-million, but O'Byrne quickly countered at $6.8-million. Sheikh Mohammed did not answer back, simply raised his hands, palms up, and the bidding was through.

"We would have gone a little higher," O'Byrne said later. "We thought he'd bring a good price. We thought he'd bring more than last year's topper."

Said Ferguson, "Obviously, we both had him rated very, very high. They just had him rated one bid higher than we did."

The $6.8-million bid was a September sale record and the most expensive yearling sold at public auction since 1985. While he is still well behind the all-time record of $13.1-million paid for Seattle Dancer in 1985, the Storm Cat colt still ranks as the sixth-most expensive of all-time.

"He's one of the best we've ever raised," Farish said. "He is just a beautifully made individual, very correct. We had a high figure on him, but at best it wasn't that high. This was the type of situation where we were very fortunate to have two outstanding buyers hook up."

Sheikh Mohammed was able to console himself over losing the record setter when he spent $5.3-million to purchase a colt by Kingmambo out of the His Majesty mare Battle Creek Girl, a multiple stakes producer. Although the sale ticket was signed on behalf of John Ferguson Bloodstock, Sheikh Mohammed did the bidding himself in an area just outside the sales pavilion.

"I like him much better (than the record-setting Storm Cat colt)," Sheikh Mohammed said. "Anybody that knows anything about horses knows (the Kingmambo colt) was a nice horse."

"He's one of those horses that could race on either side (of the Atlantic Ocean)," Ferguson said. "With a horse like him, you have a lot of flexibility at the end of the day. Sheikh Mohammed has been buying horses for a long time, longer than me, and he rated him very highly."

Ending with a record

Long after the $6.8-million Storm Cat colt was sold, a pai