It is a rare day when a reigning Broodmare of the Year goes through the auction ring. Thus, it naturally generated a wave of interest and speculation when John Stewart announced that his prize mare Puca would be going to the 2025 “Night of the Stars” sale at Fasig-Tipton November. The 2024 Kentucky Broodmare of the Year will be the first bearer of that title to go through the sale ring since 2007 Kentucky Broodmare of the Year Better Than Honour went through the same sale in 2008. (For the record, 2015 Broodmare of the Year Littleprincessemma and 2020 honoree Drumette both sold at auction as broodmares, but neither had earned their titles by the time of their sales.)
Puca, who reportedly will sell with a reserve of at least US$5 million, could but probably will not top Better Than Honour’s record-setting sale price of US$14 million as Better Than Honour’s purchaser, Michael Moreno’s Southern Equine Bloodstock, already owned 70 percent of the mare going into the sale. That meant that some US$9.8 million of Better Than Honour’s purchase price came right back to him, making his actual expenditure considerably less than the price tag. It is interesting to note the similarities between the two mares, though, Both are the dams of two winners of American Triple Crown races (Jazil and Rags to Riches for Better Than Honour, Mage and Dornoch for Puca); they were/are of similar ages at the times of their sales (Better Than Honour was 12, Puca is 13), and both have produced good runners aside from their Classic winners. Also, both sold/will sell as open mares, putting in at least 14 to 18 months’ delay between purchase and getting another foal.
Both Puca and Better Than Honour were good race mares, with Puca capturing a restricted stakes and placing in Grade 2 company and Better Than Honour winning the 1998 Demoiselle Stakes (USA-G2) and placing in Grade 1 company. Both also boast fine pedigrees, though Better Than Honour’s must be accounted the better by an order of magnitude. Few proven broodmares indeed are put on the market that are sired by a two-time American champion sire and champion broodmare sire out of a Kentucky Oaks winner whose dam was herself a Kentucky Broodmare of the Year and a mare of exceptional influence even in that company.
Puca goes into the ring with multiple Grade 1-placed Baeza still in action and following the births of 2024 and 2025 full siblings to Mage and Dornoch—the latter a precious filly, her first—so Stewart’s decision to sell her and try to recoup the US$2.9 million he paid for her in 2023 is understandable. Thoroughbreds are fragile commodities that can go from multimillion dollar assets to valueless or dead very quickly, so cashing in quickly makes good economic sense. Puca is still young enough to be reasonably expected to produce several foals, and any further daughters out of her would have great residual value even if she never produces another black-type runner. For a high-end breeder, she may be an excellent investment even with a high-seven-figures-or-more price tag.
Still, a look at Better Than Honour’s post-sale record would seem to sound a cautionary note. As matters turned out, Better Than Honour produced only three more named foals. The good news was that all of them were fillies, two by Street Cry and one by Bernardini. The bad news is that none of them were fast enough to beat the proverbial fat man; one, the Bernardini mare Empathy N Respect, never even made it to the track. Dogged by repeated barrenness after producing a dead foal from her first mating, Empathy N Respect has yet to produce a live foal. Her two half sisters by Street Cry both failed to win. They have produced three winners between them from eight named foals of racing age, topped by 2021 Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth Stakes (USA-G2) winner Greatest Honour (out of Tiffany’s Honour).
No one ever knows how a good broodmare will continue producing by the time she is in her early teens. Many top producers have already given much the best they have to give by that point. Others, like Somethingroyal (who threw Secretariat at age 18), No Class (who threw Grade 1 winner Always a Classic at age 19), Battle Creek Girl (who threw Grade 2 winner Parade Leader, the last of her six stakes winners, at age 20), and Courtly Dee (whose final stakes winner, multiple Grade 2 winner Twining, arrived when she was 23), retain fertility and reproductive vitality into old age. Whatever the price she commands, Puca will represent a huge gamble for her purchaser. But such is the nature of the Thoroughbred industry, whether on the track or in the breeding shed.
Puca, who reportedly will sell with a reserve of at least US$5 million, could but probably will not top Better Than Honour’s record-setting sale price of US$14 million as Better Than Honour’s purchaser, Michael Moreno’s Southern Equine Bloodstock, already owned 70 percent of the mare going into the sale. That meant that some US$9.8 million of Better Than Honour’s purchase price came right back to him, making his actual expenditure considerably less than the price tag. It is interesting to note the similarities between the two mares, though, Both are the dams of two winners of American Triple Crown races (Jazil and Rags to Riches for Better Than Honour, Mage and Dornoch for Puca); they were/are of similar ages at the times of their sales (Better Than Honour was 12, Puca is 13), and both have produced good runners aside from their Classic winners. Also, both sold/will sell as open mares, putting in at least 14 to 18 months’ delay between purchase and getting another foal.
Both Puca and Better Than Honour were good race mares, with Puca capturing a restricted stakes and placing in Grade 2 company and Better Than Honour winning the 1998 Demoiselle Stakes (USA-G2) and placing in Grade 1 company. Both also boast fine pedigrees, though Better Than Honour’s must be accounted the better by an order of magnitude. Few proven broodmares indeed are put on the market that are sired by a two-time American champion sire and champion broodmare sire out of a Kentucky Oaks winner whose dam was herself a Kentucky Broodmare of the Year and a mare of exceptional influence even in that company.
Puca goes into the ring with multiple Grade 1-placed Baeza still in action and following the births of 2024 and 2025 full siblings to Mage and Dornoch—the latter a precious filly, her first—so Stewart’s decision to sell her and try to recoup the US$2.9 million he paid for her in 2023 is understandable. Thoroughbreds are fragile commodities that can go from multimillion dollar assets to valueless or dead very quickly, so cashing in quickly makes good economic sense. Puca is still young enough to be reasonably expected to produce several foals, and any further daughters out of her would have great residual value even if she never produces another black-type runner. For a high-end breeder, she may be an excellent investment even with a high-seven-figures-or-more price tag.
Still, a look at Better Than Honour’s post-sale record would seem to sound a cautionary note. As matters turned out, Better Than Honour produced only three more named foals. The good news was that all of them were fillies, two by Street Cry and one by Bernardini. The bad news is that none of them were fast enough to beat the proverbial fat man; one, the Bernardini mare Empathy N Respect, never even made it to the track. Dogged by repeated barrenness after producing a dead foal from her first mating, Empathy N Respect has yet to produce a live foal. Her two half sisters by Street Cry both failed to win. They have produced three winners between them from eight named foals of racing age, topped by 2021 Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth Stakes (USA-G2) winner Greatest Honour (out of Tiffany’s Honour).
No one ever knows how a good broodmare will continue producing by the time she is in her early teens. Many top producers have already given much the best they have to give by that point. Others, like Somethingroyal (who threw Secretariat at age 18), No Class (who threw Grade 1 winner Always a Classic at age 19), Battle Creek Girl (who threw Grade 2 winner Parade Leader, the last of her six stakes winners, at age 20), and Courtly Dee (whose final stakes winner, multiple Grade 2 winner Twining, arrived when she was 23), retain fertility and reproductive vitality into old age. Whatever the price she commands, Puca will represent a huge gamble for her purchaser. But such is the nature of the Thoroughbred industry, whether on the track or in the breeding shed.
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