Clarence Scharbauer Jr., 82, a past president of the American Quarter Horse Association, created quite a stir in Lexington, Kentucky on Monday, September 10, when he purchased a half-sister to champion Afleet Alex for $1.4 million, on opening day of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
Twenty-two years ago, Scharbauer, along with his wife Dorothy and daughter Pam, attended the Keeneland Yearling Sale and paid $500,000 for an Alydar colt named Alysheba. It was their first time to attend the sale and they hit the jackpot. Alysheba went on to win 11 stakes races, including the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Breeders Cup Classic and earn $6,679,242, a new world record at the time.
“Dorothy wanted to get back into the Thoroughbred business,” said Scharbauer of his wife, who passed away in 2005. “We’d been running Quarter Horses for 40 years, but since her dad had won the Kentucky Derby, she thought she’d like to get a horse to run (in the Derby).”
Dorothy Scharbauer’s father, Fred Turner Jr, a West Texas oil magnate, owned 1959 Derby winner Tomy Lee.
Scharbauer’s grandfather and great uncle founded the Scharbauer Cattle Company near Midland, Texas. The operation introduced Hereford cattle to West Texas and established one of the largest herds in the country. In 1928, oil was discovered on Scharbauer property. Today, the family-owned cattle and oil enterprise encompasses hundreds of thousands of acres in five counties.
“I was raised on a ranch and on horses,” said Scharbauer, who bred the great early-day cutting champion Marion’s Girl. “It doesn’t make any difference if it’s a Quarter Horse, a Shetland, a Percheron or a Thoroughbred, I know what I’m looking at.”
The last time Scharbauer attended the Keeneland Yearling Sale was in 1996, when he and Dorothy purchased Magic Cat for $800,000. The Storm Cat son stands at Scharbauer’s Valor Farm near Pilot Point, Texas, along with Gold Legend, whose son Coyote Gold recently set a track record at Lone Star Park, while winning the Texas Stallion Stakes by 12 lengths.
The Keeneland Yearling Sale continues through September 25. The 2006 sale was the highest grossing Thoroughbred auction in the world, with sales of $399 million. Thirty-two yearlings brought $1 million or more, including a Kingmambo colt that sold for $11.7 million, the second-highest price ever paid for a Thoroughbred yearling at public auction.