LEXINGTON, Ky. – “He speaks for himself.”
So said Mandy Pope as the latest acquisition for her Whisper Hill Farm, a Curlin colt who is a full brother to multiple Grade 1 winner Clairiere, strode away from the sale pavilion after commanding $5 million, one of the highest prices in recent years at the Keeneland September yearling sale, putting an exclamation point on Tuesday’s smashing action.
As the marathon Keeneland September sale concluded its elite Book 1 portion – comprised of the yearlings judged by the company’s inspection team to be the finest based on pedigree and physical factors – the company saw gains across the board for gross, average, and median – the latter, a key figure for market health, spiking 19 percent.
“This won’t hit home for a little while,” said Tony Lacy, Keeneland’s vice president of sales. “These are numbers we just dream of. And again, it’s not for us, but for our clients, the people that entrust us with these horses.”
Keeneland reported that 204 yearlings changed hands through the ring in the two sessions that made up Book 1, for gross receipts of $119,565,000. In last year’s two-session Book 1, 221 horses sold for a gross of $116,925,000. 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.
The sale thus far is by no means a one-hit wonder. After 14 horses sold for seven figures on Monday, the $5 million Curlin colt led another 16 yearlings who brought seven-figure price tags in Tuesday’s Book 1 finale, for a total of 30 horses to meet the threshold.
Last year, 23 yearlings brought seven figures during Book 1. The next bracket on the result chart expanded as well to boost the averages, as 11 yearlings sold for prices between $900,000 and $1 million, compared to five in that group last year.
Fueled by that strong upper echelon, Book 1’s cumulative average was $586,103, a gain of 11 percent from $529,072 in the book last year.
“It’s been a good sale – there’s plenty of good horses here,” said M.V. Magnier of the international Coolmore group, who, with its partners or alone, landed six horses during Book 1. “I hope we got the right horses, I’ll put it that way. We’ve underbid on a few, and we’ve got a few. We’ll know this time next year if we made the right decisions or not.”
The median, which is impacted by outlying prices less than the average may be, was a cumulative $475,000 for Book 1, a remarkable jump of 19 percent from $400,000 last year.
The buyback rate, also considered a key figure, was fairly steady at 29 percent overall for the book, compared to 27 percent last year in a marketplace buyers and consignors still described as selective.
“Everybody seems to be on the same ones,” said David Lanigan, who, as agent for Heider Family Stables, signed the ticket on a $1.5 million Into Mischief filly who was Tuesday’s third-highest price. “The good ones that vet and jump through all the hoops are making plenty of money, and the ones what don’t are sort of falling between a rock and a hard place. But it seems healthy and strong, and that’s what this Book 1 is usually about. We’ll see as the week goes on what it’s like.”
With the buyback rate solid, the smaller number of horses sold compared to 2023 was due to a smaller book up front, as well as some pre-sale scratches, which Lacy admitted were “frustrating.” However, he acknowledged that sellers at this upper end of the marketplace often have more financial wherewithal to decide whether or not to sell a horse and where to place the reserve, and that there are plenty of incentives to racing the horse themselves.
“If the action is not exactly what they want . . . they will figure, ‘I’ll race it,’ ” Lacy said. “And a lot of people have got confidence in the racing circuits now that the prize money is there. In some cases, they’ve got high expectations, and they’re happy to run.”
The show-stopping Curlin colt stepped into the ring in the closing hour of Tuesday’s session, bringing with him a strong catalog page that garnered high expectations. Two-time Horse of the Year Curlin has been a steady source of Grade 1 winners and classic performers, and his sons now have added cachet as he emerges as a sire of sires.
The chestnut colt is out of the multiple Grade 1-winning Bernardini mare Cavorting, dam of three stakes horses from as many starters. Those are led by four-time Grade 1 winner Clairiere, who earned more than $3.2 million. Cavorting also is the dam of stakes winner La Crete and Grade 2-placed Judge Miller.
“I knew he was going to be a lot,” Pope said. “He should be the sales topper because he’s the best horse in here, and we pretty much knew everybody was going to want to be buying him so they could have that great race record that’s in his future and his furtherance in becoming a wonderful stallion.”
The bidding swiftly leaped past seven figures on the colt and, in contrast to some earlier top lots where bidders seemed to work with restraint, it did not slow as it swept past the previous top mark for this year’s sale and surpassed last year’s high-water mark of $3 million. Although a phone bidder dropped out near the $4 million threshold, Pope, sitting with Whisper Hill manager and trainer Todd Quast in a new reserved table seating area in the Keeneland pavilion, still beat out other live bids in the house. The auctioneer let her last bid of $5 million hang in the air for a long moment before the hammer fell to a smattering of polite applause from a horse-savvy crowd.
The colt would have topped all but one edition of the Keeneland September yearling sale since 2007. America’s Joy, an American Pharoah filly out of Broodmare of the Year Leslie’s Lady, brought $8.2 million to top the 2019 edition of the sale. Whisper Hill’s new purchase is the most expensive colt sold at this auction since 2006, when the Kingmambo colt Meydan City topped the sale at $11.6 million during a booming market prior to the recession of 2008.
“The energy in the pavilion today, that was just – it was from another era,” Lacy said.
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But Pope, who has purchased the sale’s top two lots this week after landing the $2.2 million Gun Runner colt who led Monday’s session, said it is worth stretching to those heights to play the long game. A little more than a decade ago, Pope began making major investments in her broodmare band with the goal of developing an elite homebred racing and commercial operation. That phase is now coming to fruition, with Pope’s eye-catching pink silks in the winner’s circle of major stakes, and others seeking to secure stock from her operation. Four yearlings she bred fetched seven-figure price tags at the 2023 Keeneland September sale, building her capital to reinvest back into the program. Now, she is seeking to add stallion prospects to the operation.
“We’re looking for some colts,” Pope said. “We need colts to become stallions to get the numbers to all work in this. They’re what makes it work, so we have to do that. This is not a short game in any manner, unless you’re just going in to flip it once or twice and get out, like day-trading. It’s a very long game. You can’t be faint of heart in this at all.”
The Curlin colt was bred by Barbara Banke’s Stonestreet Farm and was consigned by Indian Creek as agent for that outfit, which spreads its yearlings among several different consignors.
“I can’t keep everything,” Banke said. “As my financial adviser and my team tells me, ‘You need to sell to pay the bills so we can make more and do it again next year.’ ”
Banke, who quickly made her way through the pavilion to hug Pope, smiled as she described the chestnut raised at her farm, who she said is a laid-back individual.
“He was the best horse we raised this year,” Banke said. “He’s from a great family, and he looks great. He eats like a pig. He sleeps. Nothing fazes him. I think he will be a great racehorse.”
The St. Elias Stable of Vinnie Viola, which was among the underbidders on the Curlin colt, did emerge with another stellar offering from the Stonestreet paddocks. Just two hips before tussling on the Curlin colt, Monique Delk signed as agent on a $1.75 million colt by five-time reigning leading sire Into Mischief who finished as the day’s second-highest price overall.
“Shopping has been tough today, a tough day at the office,” Delk said.
The colt is out of the unraced Malibu Moon mare Catch the Moon, dam of six winners from as many starters, led by Grade 1 winner Girvin. She also is the dam of classic-placed graded stakes winner Midnight Bourbon and graded stakes winners Cocked and Loaded and Pirate’s Punch.
Summerfield handled consigning duties as agent for Stonestreet.
“Stonestreet does a fantastic job and people seek out these horses,” Summerfield’s Francis Vanlangendonck said. “He was a model show horse. He’s all class.”
Between them, Curlin and Into Mischief sired the top four lots of the day, and six of the top 10 prices of the session. The $1.5 million Into Mischief filly purchased by Heider took the day’s third-highest slot. She is out of Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf winner Shared Account, the dam of Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies turf winner Sharing.
Next on the chart was a $1.4 million Curlin colt purchased by Bradley Thoroughbreds. Curlin also was represented by a $1.3 million colt purchased by Coolmore and Peter Brant’s White Birch Stable; and by a $1.2 million half-sister to Kentucky Derby winner and champion Nyquist, purchased by AMO Racing.
While the gains to start the sale were encouraging, and, in past years, have caused a trickle-down effect into the next books of the sale, buyers at the upper end of the marketplace are generally more insulated from the economic concerns that play a larger role in the middle and lower markets that will play a larger role deeper in the sale.
Brian Graves, general manager for consignor Gainesway, said he is optimistic heading into Book 2, due to an urgency he saw in the bidding on Tuesday and the foot traffic to view Gainesway’s next offerings.
“The traffic’s been good, and with the momentum carrying through the second half of the second day here, I think Book 2 is going to be realistic but competitive,” Graves said.
The 12-session Keeneland September sale continues with a two-session Book 2, about twice the size of Book 1, on Wednesday and Thursday before taking its single dark day Friday. After that, the sale continues with Books 3, 4, 5, and 6, consisting of two sessions each, through next Saturday, Sept. 21.
For hip-by-hip results from Book 1, click here.
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