Big Day for Bandoroffs- Keeneland September Book 1

 By Brian DiDonato 

Excerpt from TDN 

Hip 138 sells for $2.15 million, book 1 session 1- TDN photo 

The Bandoroff family’s Denali Stud enjoyed a banner day at Keeneland September Monday, selling a $2.15-million colt by Medaglia d’Oro (hip 138) and a Curlin colt (hip 68) and filly (hip 76) for $800,000 each. Hip 138 was offered on behalf of Barbara Banke’s Stonestreet and purchased by Godolphin, which also purchased the session-topping Curlin colt. “He’s by Medaglia d’Oro, who stands at [Darley] Jonabell, Sheikh Mohammed really liked him and he’s a very smooth going horse,” said agent Anthony Stroud after signing the ticket. Hip 138 is the first foal out of GI Santa Margarita S. heroine and  TDN Rising Star Tara’s Tango (Unbridled’s Song). A half-sister to GISW Visionaire (Grand Slam), GSW/MGSIP Scarlet Strike (Smart Strike) and GSW Madison’s Luna (Tapit), Tara’s Tango is a half to hip 68, who was also bred by Stonestreet. “It’s always nice to get off to that sort of start, said Conrad Bandoroff. We knew coming into the day that we had three very nice horses with the right pedigrees. Over the past few days we’ve had great showing activity at the barns. Keeneland has done a really good job promoting the sale and all the right people are here a lot of international entities there’s been good energy around the grounds. I haven’t looked at the results, but I know at least from our perspective, it’s correlated”. Bandoroff continued, “The first two horses brought $800,000, and then obviously you knew on 138 that he was popular and had all the right people [interested], but you never let your expectations get that high. He was an incredible physical. Stonestreet raises as good a horse as anybody in the business, and he’s really a testament to the evolution of their program: a homebred, who was a Grade I winner from one of their best mares.”

“The Curlin colt we sold earlier in the day was from the same family. It really is a feather in the cap for the Stonestreet Bred & Raised program and we were just very fortunate that we got to represent them and their whole team. Give them all the credit.” While hip 76 wasn’t bred by Banke’s operation, she was sired by Stonestreet superstar Curlin out of a Tapit half-sister to champion Honor Code purchased by Bridlewood Farm for $3 million at the 2014 Keeneland November sale. Of hip 138, Bandoroff said, “He was just all class. For a first foal, he was just a tremendously balanced horse. Every time he would come out, he was a wow horse. He acted like a true professional for every show ,his first show was the same as his last show. When horses do that, and they’re bred the way that they are, they make our jobs easier.” Denali also sold $1.5-million and $1-million colts by Curlin at Fasig-Tipton Saratoga the latter was Stonestreet-bred. “We’re very blessed to get to represent the people that we do, Bandoroff said. “It’s extremely gratifying for our team and my father [Craig] and I. How lucky am I to work alongside my dad? To have days like this, we’ll remember it for the rest of our lives.”