LEXINGTON, Ky. – A $2.2 million colt and $1.5 million filly, both by champion Gun Runner, led a parade of blue-blooded yearlings as the Keeneland September yearling sale opened its marathon run Monday with strong figures.
“We’re very, very pleased with how it came out of the gate,” said Tony Lacy, Keeneland’s vice president of sales.
Keeneland reported 98 yearlings changed hands through the ring in this first of 12 sessions overall at the bellwether auction. The session was the first half of the Book 1 portion comprised of the yearlings judged by the company’s inspection team to be the finest based on pedigree and physical factors.
Monday’s sales resulted in gross receipts of $54,795,000. In last year’s opening session, which had the same overall format, 110 horses sold for a gross of $55,330,000. Both sets of figures represent only horses sold through the ring, not including any private sales that Keeneland will later factor into its official historic results.
Gun Runner had a phenomenal day, with a quintet of seven-figure lots. Those were among 14 yearlings reaching that threshold Monday, by 10 different sires overall. In last year’s opening session, eight yearlings met or exceeded that mark. Additionally, another six horses flirted with that barrier, selling for $900,000 or more, compared to three in that bracket in 2023. Bolstered by those results, Monday’s average price was $559,133, jumping 11 percent from $503,000 in the comparable session last year.
The median, considered a key figure for market health as it is impacted by outlying prices less than the average may be, spiked 13 percent, to $450,000 from $400,000.
The buyback rate, also considered an important figure, was 31 percent in what has been a selective marketplace, compared to 26 percent last year.
“That was a fun day,” Lacy said. “We thought it was going to be energetic, and we thought it was going to be a good, solid, healthy market. . . . There were a lot of smiling faces before the sale. Obviously, it’s tense, [but] I think at the end of the day, looking at the numbers, they were incredibly healthy.”
A strapping gray colt by Horse of the Year Gun Runner, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame last month, came to the ring in the final hour of the session and took command, selling for $2.2 million to Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm.
“He’s an amazing horse,” said Todd Quast, general manager and farm trainer for Whisper Hill. “He’s got everything – the looks, the shoulder, the hip, the movement. We do a lot with [breeder] Three Chimneys, so we know he was raised right. We’re just super happy to have him. He sure looks the part.”
Gun Runner was the record-setting leading freshman sire of 2021 with Eclipse Award champion Echo Zulu to his credit. His current yearlings represent the crop conceived in 2022, after that early success. The stallion is the sire of four Grade 1 winners this season to rank third on the general sire list through Sept. 8. He is the sire of 10 Grade 1 winners overall, also including 2022 Preakness Stakes winner Early Voting. Grade 1 winner Society, and four of his other graded stakes winners, are out of mares by Tapit; Monday’s session-leading yearlings are both out of Tapit mares.
Gun Runner was raced in partnership by Winchell Thoroughbreds – which also campaigned Tapit – and Three Chimneys Farm. He now stands at Three Chimneys, and his session-topper was bred and raised there. Four Star Sales handled consigning duties, as agent.
“We brought the right horse, by the right stallion, out of the right mare, with the right physical,” Three Chimneys chief operating officer Chris Baker said. “He’s a big-framed colt, with a lot of bone and foot underneath to support him. He is really fluid-moving and athletic like the Gun Runners are. He’s got a good mind. He’s got everything you need to be a really fast race horse. It is pleasantly surprising, but not shocking he did that well. It’s very gratifying for the team at home.”
The colt is out of the Tapit mare Princesa Carolina, winner of the Dueling Grounds Oaks and also Grade 1-placed during a solid turf career. Her first starter is a winner.
Princesa Carolina is out of Grade 1 winner Pure Clan, and additional Grade 1 winners Finley’sluckycharm and Sky Diva appear on the catalog page.
Coming to the ring in the first hour of the day’s trade, and nearly keeping the lead throughout, was the $1.5 million filly by Gun Runner, purchased by Douglas Scharbauer.
“I’m very impressed with her,” said Scharbauer, who said the filly will eventually go to trainer Steve Asmussen. “She’s nice. The way she’s bred, out of that Tapit mare, I’m excited.”
The filly, who was bred by John and Debby Oxley, was consigned by Gainesway, as agent. Her dam, the Tapit mare Dream Dancing, raced as a multi-generation Oxley homebred, winning the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks.
Dream Dancing, now the dam of two winners from as many starters, is a granddaughter of champion Beautiful Pleasure, who the Oxleys purchased as a juvenile and campaigned to six Grade 1 wins, including the 1999 Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
“She’s out of a young Grade 1 winner with a huge family, and she looked the part,” Gainesway general manager Brian Graves said. “The Oxleys have done it again. When it all matches up, it’s nice to see them break through.”
Rounding out the session’s top five prices were a $1.4 million colt from the first crop of Charlatan and out of Grade 1 winner Guarana, purchased by the partnership of Coolmore, Peter Brant’s White Birch Farm, and Brook Smith; a $1.35 million filly by Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, purchased by AMO Racing; and a $1.35 million Medaglia d’Oro colt who is a full brother to Hall of Famer Rachel Alexandra, purchased under the stable moniker Epic Horses.
When the dust settled, the day’s 14 seven-figure horses were headed to 14 different buyers.
“Huge diversity, domestic and international,” Keeneland president and CEO Shannon Arvin said. “Had some good, healthy Japanese participation, participation from the Middle East, and then, of course, our domestic buyers were there.”
Keeneland September’s Book 1 portion wraps up with Tuesday’s session.
For all the seven-figure lots, and complete hip-by-hip results, click here.
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