LEXINGTON, Ky. – The accomplished racemares and broodmares selected for the elite single-session Book 1 that kicked off the Keeneland November breeding stock sale got their fair share of the headlines, and their dazzling price tags – nine brought the hammer down with seven figures – sparked the auction with plenty of chatter.
But three was the charm for this strong edition of Keeneland November. Oh, and four and five.
The auction showed major gains in the crucial middle market of the sale, notably in Book 3 of five overall, and the middle and lower sectors helped power the sale to gains across the board in the four major economic indicators, including a record median.
“As we look to the future, we’re building this sale from the inside out, from the core out,” said Tony Lacy, Keeneland’s vice president of sales. “We want to make sure those foundations are absolutely rock solid. Through the September yearling market, but also November, we’re responsible for the entire market, not just one sector. And it’s really important to us that the industry is as healthy and positive as possible as we move forward.”
Keeneland reported that the nine-session November sale finished with 2,050 horses sold for gross receipts of $187,557,400. The 2023 November sale had 2,128 horses sold for $176,571,000. Both sets of figures include only horses sold through the ring, not including private sales that Keeneland will later factor into official results.
The cumulative average price finished at $91,491, up 10 percent from $82,975 in 2023. After Book 1 and the first session of Book 2 showed single-digit declines in year-to-year average comparisons against the corresponding session, each remaining session had a gain in the average. Strong gains were seen in the two Book 3 sessions – the fourth and fifth days of the sale overall – which each posted a 21 percent gain in the category. Books 4 and 5 also showed double-digit gains in the average, including a 33 percent session-to-session jump on the final day of the sale.
The crucial median figure was up 25 percent, at $40,000 compared to $32,000 in 2023. That eclipsed the prior record mark of $37,000 from 2021.The Book 2 finale and both of the Book 3 sessions boasted a 20 percent gain in the median, and the Book 4 finale – the seventh session overall – spiked 21 percent.
“That really shows that there’s strength and the horses are marketable, and there’s a buying bench here to pick them up,” said Cormac Breathnach, Keeneland’s senior director of sales operations. “The averages are great for headlines, but the median will give you a better, more objective viewpoint.”
The buyback rate improved in a majority of the sessions – five of the nine days. Overall, the figure finished at 21 percent, a tick better than 22 percent last year.
The private sales market also continued to be robust. When a horse goes through the auction ring and fails to meet its established reserve, bidders may approach the consignor or owner to negotiate. For a private sale to be published in Keeneland’s official results, it must take place while the horse is still on the auction grounds. The conditions of sale state that horses must leave the grounds within 24 hours of the fall of the hammer. Entering Wednesday’s final session, an additional 105 horses who were originally buybacks had changed hands for an additional $8,872,500 that will ultimately be added to the gross.
With horses from the final sessions still remaining on the grounds, more could be added to that tally. The 2023 sale finished with 93 private sales for additional gross of $12,320,000.
The overall highest prices of the sale came during Book 1, and the top lots will be stablemates for Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm. Pope purchased multiple graded stakes winner Roses for Debra for $2.4 million in the opening session on Tuesday, Nov. 5. Less than an hour later, she went to $1.8 million, tied for the second-highest price of the day for Grade 1 producer Lady Tapit. The Grade 1 winner Anisette also fetched that price in the session, with Australian-based Willingham Stud acquiring her.
Roses for Debra, a 5-year-old daughter of Liam’s Map, won five stakes, all on turf or synthetic surfaces. Those were highlighted by scores in the Grade 3 Caress last year on the Saratoga turf; the Grade 3 Giant’s Causeway this spring on the Keeneland course; and the Grade 2 Presque Isle Downs Masters in September, in which she set a track record on Tapeta.
The mare was consigned as a racing or broodmare prospect by Candy Meadows Sales, as agent for owners Cheyenne Stable and John O’Meara.
Pope purchased Lady Tapit, consigned by Paramount Sales, as agent, in partnership with Gainesway, where she boards her stock in Kentucky. The 12-year-old Tapit mare, a Grade 3-placed winner herself, sold in foal to young classic sire Good Magic.
Lady Tapit is already the dam of three winners from as many starters. Those are led by millionaire Kingsbarns, whose multiple graded stakes wins are highlighted by this year’s Grade 1 Stephen Foster and last year’s Grade 2 Louisiana Derby.
The highest-priced weanling of the sale was a $900,000 Into Mischief colt purchased in Book 1, but six-figure prices for young horses continued to be drawn as deep into the sale as the Book 5 finale. Overall, 11 weanlings sold for $400,000 or more.
“It’s great to see the breeders getting a good return, because that’s critical as we build the foal crop . . . and as those breeders re-invest in the mare market,” Lacy said.
The Into Mischief colt was purchased by Glen Hill Farm, from the dispersal of Ed Seltzer’s Solera Farm, with Taylor Made Sales as agent. He led four of the top five weanlings purchased by end users – those who intend to retain the stock for racing – as opposed to pinhookers, one of several reactions to a strong yearling marketplace that helped bolster weanling sales.
“There were some major weanling buyers who said they struggled to buy yearlings,” Breathnach said.
There was diversity among buyers, with the nine seven-figure mares purchased by eight different buyers. Pope was the only buyer to walk away with two of those lots, and she added a ninth buyer to the mix in her partnership with Gainesway. The 11 weanlings who sold for $400,000 or more went to nine different buyers. Overall, Whisper Hill did emerge as the leading buyer by gross in a sale with high levels of participation from North America, Australia, Europe, and Japan, landing 13 horses for a total of $6,635,000.
Newer buyers and programs made an impact on the sale as well. Travis Boersma’s Flying Dutchmen purchased six horses, including five mares, for a combined $2,805,000. Boersma previously purchased horses and raced as Boardshorts Stables, but has rebranded his operation and is now building a broodmare band for his recently acquired farm in Lexington.
Meanwhile, Greg Tramontin, whose current stable is led by Grade 1-placed juvenile filly Quickick, is finalizing an agreement to purchase Siena Farm near Paris, Ky. He added three horses for a total of $1.11 million. Siena Farm was previously headed by Anthony Manganaro, who died last year. Siena’s remaining partners plan to pull back from breeding and focus on racing. Their breeding stock was offered in a dispersal at Keeneland November; 30 lots from the farm grossed $5,517,000, and the buyers of the stock included Tramontin, who picked up one of its mares.
The Siena dispersal was one of several high-profile divestments during the November sale. Prominent owner and breeder Stuart S. Janney III, chairman of The Jockey Club, also plans to focus on his racing stock, and a dispersal of his breeding stock finished with 15 sold for $2.63 million. The Estate of John Hendrickson sold 18 horses for a gross of $2,254,500. The dispersal of Florida-based Solera Farm, the operation of 90-year-old Seltzer, sold 40 horses for $4,627,500.
“A lot of farms have been purchased over the last few years by new interests, and they’ve been very active in building their programs and developing their programs,” Lacy said. “Obviously, it’s bittersweet to see some of the organizations like Mr. Manganaro’s and John Hendrickson’s, obviously, with [some operations] dispersing, but when you see the next wave of investors coming through, building up, investing in those, I think that’s very, very encouraging. Farmland is being very sought after . . . and we’ve got a whole new group of people coming through. We saw that in September, and it’s great to see people breeding to race as well as commercially.”
Taylor Made Sales, which handled the Siena consignment, as well as part of the Solera consignment, was again the sale’s leading consignor, for the second year in a row and the seventh time in the last eight years. The operation, which sold horses from Book 1 through the sale’s final day in Book 5, finished with 323 horses sold – more than twice any other consignor – for $32,859,600.
The sale’s leading sire by gross, in figures that factor in both the sires of mares and weanlings, was Gainesway’s Tapit, with 51 horses sold totaling $7,276,500. The leading sire by average, among those with three or more sold, was Claiborne Farm’s Mastery, with three averaging $556,667.
The leading first-crop weanling sire by gross was Coolmore’s Golden Pal with 29 sold for $3,035,200, while the leader of the class by average, among those with three or more sold, was Lane’s End resident Flightline, with four from his highly anticipated first crop averaging $412,500.
The sale’s leading covering sire by gross was Coolmore’s Justify, with 15 broodmares in foal sold for $7.78 million. By average, the leader was Hill ‘n’ Dale’s Curlin, at $755,000 for five sold.
Leading the class of first-year covering sires by both gross and average was Juddmonte’s Elite Power, with 15 mares in foal sold for $3.9 million, an average of $260,000.
Keeneland now turns its attention to its single-session November horses of racing age sale, which was broken out into its own session with separately reported figures in 2022. The sale, which added supplemental entries as recently as Tuesday, begins at noon Thursday.
“We’re excited about the sale tomorrow,” Breathnach said. “Obviously, the racing and purses drives a lot of the economic benefits we’ve been seeing in” the various sales.
For hip-by-hip results from the November breeding stock sale, click here.
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