LEXINGTON, Ky. – There’s something for everyone at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale.
There are racemares and broodmares to fit a number of programs – including Breeders’ Cup entrants and close relatives to runners. There are weanlings who will sell for every price point, to both end users and pinhookers. There are a handful of active stallions, who will most likely go to regional and international marketplaces.
And after the traditional November sale, the single-session horses of racing age sale, broken out into its own stand-alone event, provides further opportunities to acquire racing or stallion prospects.
Keeneland has cataloged 3,384 horses, including supplemental entries as of Oct. 28, for the nine sessions of the November breeding stock sale. The run begins with the elite single-session Book 1, on Tuesday, Nov. 5. Books 2, 3, 4, and 5, each two sessions, follow.
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Tony Lacy, Keeneland vice president of sales, noted that the catalog provides “numerous opportunities at all levels of the market,” regardless of whether buyers are seeking breeding or racing stock.
The horses of racing age sale on Nov. 14 will have separate figures as a result of the market’s growing popularity. There are 221 horses cataloged as of Oct. 28, with supplements continuing to be reviewed up to sale day in a dynamic process the company has also used with its April horses of racing age sale.
Ties to the Breeders’ Cup are always a feature of the fall sales, and this edition of Keeneland November is no exception. Book 1 alone boasts Breeders’ Cup entrants Anisette (Filly and Mare Turf) and Vahva (Filly and Mare Sprint), both Grade 1 winners this year, as well as Violent Wave, the dam of Sprint entrant Raging Torrent.
There are also a number of close relatives to Breeders’ Cup entrants who could get a major update from the races, including half-siblings to two race favorites in Book 1. Charlee O, a winning Tourist mare, is a half-sister to Kentucky Oaks winner and Distaff favorite Thorpedo Anna. She sells in foal to Bolt d’Oro, who, like Thorpedo Anna’s sire Fast Anna, is a son of Medaglia d’Oro. Empire of My Own, a winning Classic Empire mare, is a half-sister to Turf Sprint favorite Cogburn. She sells in foal to Curlin.
While the mares in the catalog have the résumés and star power that garner much of the attention, the weanling marketplace also plays a key role at Keeneland November. The length of this sale, as opposed to some shorter breeding stock sales, allows for many more weanlings to be cataloged at different levels of the marketplace, providing a gauge for the continued interest in young stock.
The North American yearling season, which ran from July through October, was generally strong, leading to optimism for weanling sales, as many buyers will seek to get a jump on the market demand. Keeneland director of sales operations Cormac Breathnach noted that the depth of quality in the shrinking foal crop leading to higher demand.
“The floor – meaning the bottom sector of the horses coming to market – is so much higher than it was even five or 10 years ago,” Breathnach said. “A lot of older mares whose produce record has shown they are not successful are no longer being bred, or those yearlings are not coming to market. . . . The breeders, and we say this all of the time, are very sophisticated. Production costs are high, they cannot afford to raise horses that won’t be commercial. So there really is a very high floor and a high ceiling in what is there.”
The larger number of weanlings on offer creates a better chance to evaluate offerings by first-crop sires. Those are led by unbeaten 2022 Horse of the Year Flightline, who provided a glimpse as to his commercial appeal when 13 mares carrying foals from his first crop brought an average of $1,074,231 at sales last year. There are six weanlings from Flightline’s first crop on offer at Keeneland November, all but one of those in Book 1.
Other Eclipse Award champions joining Flightline with first-crop weanlings at Keeneland November are Corniche with 29, Epicenter with 37, and Jackie’s Warrior with 25. American classic winners with first-crop weanlings cataloged are Early Voting with 29, Mandaloun with 29, Mo Donegal with 33, and Sir Winston with two.
This year’s first-year covering sires are led by a Horse of the Year, as Cody’s Wish has 16 mares in foal to him cataloged throughout the sale. Other Eclipse Award winners in his class are Arcangelo with 24 mares in foal cataloged, Elite Power with 25, Forte with 27, and Up to the Mark with 34 – including Violent Wave. Along with Arcangelo, another of last year’s classic winners with first mares in foal is Mage with 22.
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