NEWS: SALES

Keeneland Book 1 by the numbers: a stellar showing for New York-bred cohort

Friday, September 14th, 2018

Keeneland photo

By Sarah Mace

A Friday dark day following the four sessions that comprised Book 1 of the 13-day Keeneland September yearling sale offers an opportunity to take stock. The upshot is that New York-breds more than held their own among what Geoffrey Russell, Keeneland Director of Sales Operations, calls the “cream of the North American crop” of yearlings. The small but select New York-bred cohort posted an average price well over $300,000, and a median that outperformed the general yearling population of Book 1.

Eight New York-breds in all were among the 596 horses who changed hands from Monday to Thursday. The top New York-bred colt sold in Session 1, a $500,000 American Pharaoah yearling bred by Chester and Mary Broman who is a half-brother to Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint winner Bar of Gold. The top filly, went through the ring in Session 3 selling for $485,000. Bred by William B. Wilmot, Joan M. Taylor and the Tiznow Syndicate, the top filly is half-sister to multiple stakes winners Midnight Disguise and Holiday Disguise.

The main indicators were outstanding. The New York-breds sold for an average price of $336,873. The average for the general population of the sale came in at $363,780 (up 25.98 percent over $288,759 in 2017). The New York-bred median price of $320,000 outperformed the overall Book 1 median of $300,000 (up 50 percent from $200,000 last year).

The one blemish on the New York-bred Book 1 numbers was that six of the fourteen offered went unsold, translating into alarming-sounding buyback percentage of 42.9. That said, the situation is reminiscent of the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred yearling sale in Saratoga, where consignors and breeders who did not get what they considered a fair price for their stock knew they could rely on other lucrative avenues for their New York-breds, like prepping them for juvenile sales and the race track.

A case in point is Book 1’s most eye-catching New York-bred RNA: Hip 976, a Curlin colt bred by Newtownanner Stud Farm. Out of Graciously Soft, he is a half-brother to stakes winner Justin Squared and his dam is a half-sister to multiple Grade 1 stakes winner Spoken Fur and multiple graded winner Unbridled’s Note. The final bid of $300,000 did not did not meet his connections’ reserve.

Keeneland’s leadership is pleased, of course, with the strong numbers generated by their first book, as well as this year’s format tweak. The 2017 September Sale opened with a one-day elite Book 1 followed by a three-day Book 2. This year Book 1 spanned all four days of the sale’s opening week. A total of 1,203 yearlings were cataloged in Week 1 in 2017 versus 989 in Week 1 this year.

“Our new format worked very well,” Russell said. “We sold fewer horses for more money, more average and more median and had less buybacks. So, all indicators are very positive.”

The sale resumes on Saturday with the first of the two-day Book 2 beginning at 10 a.m. The entire sale, which runs through Sunday, Sept. 23, is streamed live at Keeneland.com.

New York-breds catalogued for the Keeneland sale (listed by hip number and dam with links to catalogue pages), may be found here.

 

 

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