Champion Will Take Charge’s first in-foal mare of 2016 to sell at auction brought a winning bid of $420,000 during the Tuesday session of the Jan. 11-15 Keeneland January Sale.
Consigned by Lane’s End, agent, as hip No. 422, Mother Ruth is a three-time stakes winner of nearly $300,000. The now 10-year-old mare is due to foal sometime in early February.
“She was all class, perfect conformation, perfect walk,” said winning bidder Highland Yard LLC’s Lindsay LaRoche. “Hopefully it traces through to her babies. She’s got the 2-year-old at the farm and they love her. Hopefully she will run well and we will have a good broodmare here.
“She will go to McCauley Farm to have the baby,” LaRoche continued. “We sell some, we race some. We tend to keep the fillies and sell the colts. We are just building up a bit of a broodmare band. We want to get seven or eight quality broodmares. We think we did that here.”
Will Take Charge, whose first foals arrive this year, was champion 3-year-old male of 2013 on the strength of four graded stakes wins that year, including the Travers S. and Clark H., as well as a very close second in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, all Grade 1 races. He is standing this year at Three Chimneys for $30,000 live foal, stands and nurses.
