by Karsten Bønsdorf

Tough Rain (former named Dusted Busted) ,a Danish-bred colt sired by Deweycheatumnhowe, was the sales topper at the annual Elitsale in Stockholm Friday night. Swedish trainer Stefan Hultman had the final bid at $124,000.

90 yearlings went through the ring and unfortunately for the breeders there was a lack of buyers – 30 yearlings were bought back by their breeders – one didn’t get a bid. The average price dropped 22% from last year to $28,000.

Among the ten most expensive yearlings, five were sired by North American based sires.

The most popular stallion at the sale was Going Kronos, as seven of his offspring from his first crop sold for an average of $41,800, four of them landing in the top ten.

Going Kronos is an Italian-bred horse sired by Viking Kronos out of Bell Power – she by Pine Chip. Going Kronos was a very popular trotter in Sweden – he holds a record of 1.51.3f, 21 wins from 40 starts, and earnings of $1.06 million.

A full sister to Going Kronos, Lantern Kronos was campaigned in the US by Jimmy Takter and won stakes races like the American-National, Dunroven Stud Trot, Elegantimage Stakes and World Trotting Derby.