LEXINGTON, Ky. - A red-hot weanling marketplace and a trio of Grade 1 winners who sold for $3 million or more provided the engine as the Keeneland November breeding stock sale opened with double-digit gains on Tuesday.
The Keeneland November sale, which began Tuesday with the single-session Book 1 portion and runs over eight sessions overall through Nov. 11, offers something for everyone, with weanlings, racing or broodmare prospects, active broodmares, and stallions or prospects on offer.
Keeneland reported 122 horses sold on Tuesday for gross receipts of $72,737,000. In last year's Book 1 session, 143 horses brought $62,370,000. Both sets of figures represent only horses sold through the ring and does not account for private sales that will later be included in Keeneland's official records.
Tuesday's average price was $596,205, soaring 37 percent compared to $436,154 in the corresponding session last year. Tony Lacy, Keeneland's vice president of sales, said that about half of the horses sold in the session brought 50 percent or more above their reserve.
The median spiked 21 percent, to $422,500 from $350,000. The buyback rate in a discerning marketplace did tick up slightly, to 24 percent compared to 22 percent a year ago.
Although several accomplished racemares and broodmares added a level of hype to the catalog, one of the stories of the day was the strength of the weanling marketplace, which recorded one of its highest prices all-time at Keeneland November and helped to drive the figures upward overall. This activity followed a strong yearling marketplace from July to October, including a record-shattering run at the Keeneland September sale.
Factors driving that yearling marketplace included changes in the tax code that benefit Thoroughbred owners, strong purse structures in many jurisdictions, and an increased interest in ownership fueled by celebrity participants and other influencers. Many of those same factors apply to the weanling marketplace. Lacy also noted that a continually shrinking foal crop comes into play.
"The one sort of issue we have is lack of inventory," Lacy said. "So there's a supply and demand issue. The demand is outstripping the supply by a great deal."
Some buyers took advantage of an opportunity to get ahead of the curve, by buying weanlings for clients for whom they also purchase yearlings.
"I think this is the kind of horse who, in September, would probably have brought double," bloodstock agent Donato Lanni said after signing the $2.2 million ticket on a weanling Gun Runner colt on behalf of owner Amr Zedan. "It’s a lot of money, don't get me wrong, but he’s a special-looking horse."
The price made the colt the fourth-highest-priced weanling colt ever sold at Keeneland November, behind $2.7 million Amour Malheureux to Globe Equine Management in 2006, $2.6 million Declarationofpeace to Coolmore in 2015, and $2.4 million Carpocrates to Dromoland Farm in 2003.
Counting fillies, led by the North American record-priced Lady Take Charge, at $3.2 million to Whisper Hill Farm in 2015, the colt was the ninth-highest-priced weanling overall at this sale.
"The weanling market was incredibly strong," Keeneland president Shannon Arvin said, noting that the other high-water weanling prices came a decade ago. "I think it showed an overall confidence and continuation of excitement about our sport and our industry."
Lanni said he didn't come to the November sale specifically seeking out weanlings, but he said Zedan desires to compete in races such as the American classics, and this colt, specifically, caught his eye.
"You've just gotta be open-minded at every sale when you see one that fits the profile," Lanni said. "So, we adjust - you know, we’ve never really bought a weanling for Zedan. We usually buy yearlings or 2-year-olds, but this guy showed up and thought he needed to be there in his band. . . . So we got everybody on board.
“He was just a horse that, if you want to win those kind of classic races, that’s the kind of horse you need to buy. I mean, I’m just lucky that we got to buy him."
The colt, consigned by Denali Stud, as agent, is out of the Grade 1-winning Scat Daddy mare Nickname. She is already the dam of two winners from three starters, including Group 3 winner Ides of March.
"We brought him to the November sale thinking that he could be a premium offering and that he would suit some end-users," Denali's Conrad Bandoroff said. "We thought if we could bring him over here and get yearling money, then we would sell him, and if not, we'd be very much happy to watch him grow up and take him to a yearling sale.
“But look, you certainly never think you're going to bring a weanling in here and get that kind of money."
Trainer Wesley Ward was active at the top of the yearling marketplace in September for new clients, as he said he desires to make a more concerted effort to target the American classics. He also showed up at the top of the weanling marketplace on Tuesday, signing for a $1.25 million Curlin filly from a prolific family, who was consigned by Hill 'n' Dale, as agent.
"This particular filly, when we saw her I fell in love with her out at Hill ‘n’ Dale," Ward said after signing for an unnamed client. "She was stellar, awesome, and we’re really lucky to have her. I’ve been out to several of the farms, sort of looking into [young horses].
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“These are all going to race, they’re not going to be pinhooks. And we’re just going to raise them from this point forward like racehorses. They’ll be out eating grass and growing in a field, fillies in one field and the colts in the other. Hopefully we got some good ones for racing in the following year."
Ward, who is based at Keeneland year-round, owns a farm adjacent to the track where the young horses will be raised.
The filly is out of the unraced Victory Gallop mare Galloping Ami, who was named outstanding broodmare in Canada. In addition to Kopion, a Grade 1 winner this year, the mare has produced Canadian champion Amis Gizmo, a Grade 3 winner and a Canadian classic winner; Grade 3 winner Ami's Flatter; and stakes winner Aragorn Ami.
Led by the two seven-figure offerings, overall, 10 weanlings sold for $500,000 or more during the session, already more than doubling the four to meet that mark across the entire sale last year, when a $900,000 colt led the weanlings.
The weanlings were among 17 horses sold for seven figures, up from nine to cross the threshold last year.
The market was also strong for racing or broodmare prospects, with Grade 1 winners Lush Lips, Vahva, and Kilwin selling for $3.7 million, $3.1 million, and $3 million, respectively. At last year's November sale, the top price was $2.4 million for graded stakes winner Roses for Debra.
Lush Lips and Kilwin, both 3-year-olds, were offered as racing or broodmare prospects, and will remain in training for 2026. Lush Lips, who topped the session, was purchased by Dixiana Farm, and will remain with trainer Brendan Walsh, with whom the operation already has horses. Eventually, the British-born daughter of Ten Sovereigns will be a solid addition to the farm's broodmare band.
"We’ve been trying to get grass fillies that really can run," Dixiana's William Shively said. "We bought two today, and you know, that’s the future for Dixiana. Some grass mares from Europe."
Lush Lips, racing for a partnership of Medallion Racing, Parkland Thoroughbreds, Hoffman Thoroughbreds, and Coolmore affiliates, was consigned by Taylor Made Sales, as agent. She was first or second in all six starts this year, all but one of them stakes. In two forays into Grade 1 company, she won the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland, and was second, beaten a half-length, in the Del Mar Oaks.
“She’s one that, she travels the ground so light, she doesn’t hurt herself, I think she could have a long career," Shively said. "Very smooth with her action. In the QEII, she really accelerated at the end, it’s what you need in a grass horse. She’s all class.”
Kilwin is expected to remain with trainer Rusty Arnold after selling for $3 million to Rick Howard, who indicated that he intends to partner with the filly's owner BBN Racing. The filly was consigned to sale by the Royal Oak Farm of Damian and Braxton Lynch, who is the founding partner and racing manager for BBN.
"I’m excited to go in together and keep her," Howard said.
Kilwin, a Twirling Candy filly from the family of Belmont Stakes winner Sir Winston, is a three-time stakes winner on both dirt and turf. Her biggest victory came in the Grade 1 Test in August at Saratoga, as she improbably rallied for the win after a poor start.
Vahva sold for $3.1 million to Boyd Racing, a newer player that intends to build a high-end broodmare band along with its racing stock. The 5-year-old daughter of Gun Runner is expected to be bred in 2026, but the door was left open to race her a time or two more.
“She was everything we could have wanted in a broodmare prospect," said Killora Stud's Hannah Jennings, who signed the ticket for Boyd Racing. "Jenny and Randy Boyd, they’re getting into the game and they want to have a broodmare band at the top level and she fit the bill for sure. . . . We’ll leave that option [of racing again] open. We’ll leave that option open, but she’s done enough."
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Vahva won five graded stakes, including the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff at Churchill Downs. She was a closing second in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint last Saturday at Del Mar, running well on a track that seemed to favor speed. The effort pushed her career earnings past $2.2 million for trainer Cherie Devaux and owners Belladonna Racing, Lynne Hudson, Edward Hudson Jr., West Point Thoroughbreds, Twin Brook Stables, W.S. Farish, LBD Stable, Runnels Racing, and Manganaro Bloodstock.
The mare was consigned as a racing or broodmare prospect by the Farish family's Lane's End, for which Devaux's husband, David Ingordo, serves as a bloodstock adviser.
"What was really encouraging was that the domestic market, the domestic breeders were very active," Lacy said. "They were very much the main players here today - international [buyers made purchases] as well, but most of those big mares that we always saw leave the country are now staying, they're coming back into the broodmare bands. The ecosystem is sort of self-reliant a lot more.”
For hip-by-hip results from Tuesday's session, click here. The Keeneland November sale continues with two-session Books 2 and 3 and a three-session Book 4. The stand-alone Keeneland November horses of racing age sale follows on Wednesday, Nov. 12.
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