LEXINGTON, Ky. – Graded stakes winners Pretty Birdie and Delahaye each sold for $700,000 to lead the opening session of the Keeneland January horses of all ages sale, which posted very promising figures to kick off a three-day run Monday.
Keeneland reported 200 horses sold in Monday’s opening session for gross receipts of $18,087,000, prior to any private sales that will later be factored in to official results. Monday’s session was the stand-alone Book 1 portion of this sale, with a two-session Book 2 following on Tuesday and Wednesday. There were a total of 1,317 horses cataloged for this sale, prior to outs.
True year-to-year, session-to-session comparisons for this sale are difficult, as last year’s sale took place over four sessions, split evenly between Books 1 and 2, with 1,478 horses cataloged. Last year’s opening session, the first half of Book 1, had 225 horses sold for $17,575,500, prior to private sales.
Monday’s average price was $90,435, a gain of 16 percent compared to the Book 1 opener last year, despite the lack of seven-figure horses. Last year’s Book 1 opener had two horses sold for seven figures through the ring, and another added as a private sale later. That suggests a strength in the middle marketplace, an impression borne out by the median figure, which jumped to $62,000 from $32,000 last year.
“Overall, it was a good, solid day,” said Tony Lacy, Keeneland’s vice president of sales. “We’ve been talking to the buyers and consignors during the day. I think it’s a continuation of November, in large part. We saw good, solid trade for quality horses. The demand was high, reflected in the median. . . . Our clients are happy for the most part, and that’s the core of it all. That’s what makes it all work.”
The buyback rate showed that a marketplace that has long been described as selective is still so, at 32 percent compared to 30 percent in last year’s opener.
“There definitely is a little bit of protectionism, as we’ve always mentioned, and it’s been evident here again,” Lacy said.
Pretty Birdie made her second trip through the Keeneland auction ring in the past three months and sold for $700,000 late in the session as a supplemental entry. Coolmore’s Adrian Wallace signed the ticket as Avenue Bloodstock and said the mare was purchased for David Nagle of Barronstown Stud.
Pretty Birdie, a 6-year-old Bird Song mare offered from the estate of the late John Hendrickson, drew a high bid of $1.1 million from Stonestreet Farm at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale. However, Pretty Birdie, who had not previously been observed as a cribber, was seen to crib post-sale, resulting in the transaction being voided and the mare being re-offered at the January sale, with Gainesway again consigning for the Hendrickson estate.
“She was returned to us after the November sale,” Gainesway general manager Brian Graves said. "She learned how to crib, I guess, sometime. These things happen. The trust that we were selling her for felt most comfortable if she was re-offered in the sale.”
Cribbing is a vice wherein horses will set their upper teeth against a stationary object, arch their neck, and pull back, with many also inhaling air during the process. Experts aren’t sure why horses crib, but many hypotheses suggest that horses learn the behavior out of boredom or frustration. The behavior then rewards the horse by releasing endorphins. While cribbing can be somewhat controlled by the use of neck collars or changes in management, it is considered a highly undesirable behavior. Not only can cribbing be destructive to various structures, it also can affect the physical well-being of the horse, with potential strain including excessive wear of the teeth, stress on various neck muscles and the esophagus, or even digestive upset.
Keeneland’s conditions of sale state that a horse who is known to be a cribber must be clearly identified by the consignment. The condition also is announced from the auctioneer’s stand before bidding begins and is displayed in prominent red letters on the bid board, along with the horse’s hip number and current bid. A limited warranty for buyers in the conditions of sale states that Keeneland must be notified within seven days from the date of sale if a horse is found to be a cribber and a winning bidder wishes to pursue the return of the horse.
“There used to be a different time period that a horse was seen cribbing – it was 48 hours or something like that, and those policies have changed to a week,” Graves said. “I think that it’s quite possible that a horse can become a cribber in that period of time in a new situation, with anxiety, new friends, and whatnot. . . . At the end of the day, everybody should be happy with what they bought.”
Cribber or not, Pretty Birdie, who is carrying her first foal, to a March cover by Candy Ride, represented an opportunity to buy into one of the Whitney stable’s major families. – a rare opportunity over the years. Hendrickson, widower of Marylou Whitney, died in August at age 59. Hendrickson had continued to campaign horses in the Whitney blue following his wife’s death in 2019.
Pretty Birdie was one of Hendrickson’s successes, winning the Grade 3 Schuylerville Stakes in 2021. She won the Purple Martin and the Poinsettia stakes the following year and also was second in the Grade 2 Eight Belles and the Leslie’s Lady stakes as a 3-year-old. In her final season of racing, at 4, Pretty Birdie was second in the Carousel Stakes and third in the Roxelana Stakes.
The mare is out of Bird Sense, a great-granddaughter of Whitney’s Broodmare of the Year Dear Birdie, dam of Belmont Stakes winner Birdstone and Kentucky Oaks winner Bird Town. Pretty Birdie has a double dose of the family – homebred Bird Song, by Unbridled’s Song, is out of Bird Town.
After bidding on Pretty Birdie in November, Wallace said he was “delighted” to sign the winning ticket this time on behalf of Nagle, who will board the mare at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky.
“This obviously was her second go-around,” Wallace said. “She was a lovely mare. We loved her the first time we saw her. She was a very precocious racemare herself, and obviously coming from the estate of the late John Hendrickson, we’re privileged to buy into one of his great families and that of Marylou Whitney’s as well. She was a mare we loved from the moment we saw her.”
Wallace, who indicated that Pretty Birdie is likely to be bred to Triple Crown winner and outstanding young Ashford sire Justify after delivering her Candy Ride foal, said the cribbing factor did not bother the buyers.
“You take it into account, but we’ve got lots of fence posts at Ashford Stud and hopefully she won’t do too much damage,” he joked.
Less than an hour prior, another supplemental entrant, Delahaye, had sold for $700,000 to set that as the bar to match in the session. The 5-year-old daughter of Medaglia d’Oro was purchased by Three Chimneys Farm, which bid via the internet to buy out a partnership. The mare was bred by Three Chimneys and then raced in partnership with William Lawrence. She was consigned as a broodmare prospect by Four Star Sales, as agent.
“That is the nice thing about having the supplements – they felt like the time had come to retire her and send her to the breeding shed,” said Kerry Cauthen of Four Star. “It is a partnership, and one of them breeds and one doesn’t. So that is why we supplemented her.”
Delahaye won the Grade 3 Mint Julep Stakes and the Tom Benson Memorial Stakes in 2024 and recorded third-place finishes in three other graded stakes on the turf – the Grade 2 Churchill Distaff Turf Mile, Grade 2 Ballston Spa Stakes, and Grade 3 Matchmaker Stakes.
Delahaye is out of the unraced War Front mare Bella Carina, a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Malibu Prayer and graded stakes winner Valid. Grade 1 winner Swagger Jack also appears on the catalog page.
For hip-by-hip results, click here.
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