LEXINGTON, Ky. – They represented nearly one-quarter of the North American Thoroughbred foal crop, according to The Jockey Club’s projections. They shipped across town to Keeneland from some of the best nurseries in the heart of Kentucky horse country, and they fetched the prices that their blue-blooded ancestries demanded – such as the $5 million son of Hall of Famer Curlin.
But they also came from more modest operations, as far afield as Alberta, British Columbia, Arkansas, Minnesota, or Montana, and they sold for more modest prices, down the scale to $2,000 or $3,000.
But they had one thing in common: All their breeders and owners entrusted the Keeneland sales team with their stock and thus their livelihoods at its September yearling sale.
“That’s the core of what we do – that’s why we’re all here,” Keeneland vice president of sales Tony Lacy said. “We know the huge responsibility Keeneland, as an organization, has toward the breeders and the industry as a whole. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves, knowing … the success of the September sale is a big factor in how their years turn out. They’re farmers bringing their crops to market. That’s something that is critical to the core of what Keeneland’s structure is. We’re here to support the market. Everything we do is put back into the industry and breeders at all levels.”
Those Thoroughbreds and breeders at all levels helped the 81st edition of the bellwether Keeneland September yearling sale come to its conclusion on Saturday afternoon with record figures for its gross and average, and a record-tying median.
“The support of our breeders – hats off to them,” Lacy said when asked to explain the success.
In addition to the high-water numbers for gross, average, and median, those figures were up 4 percent, 5 percent, and 5 percent, respectively, from those categories in 2023. At that time, the industry was reeling from a spate of high-profile fatalities through the season, with clusters at the Churchill Downs spring meet, including Kentucky Derby week, and major Saturdays during the Saratoga summer meet. This year, the events, and the mood, are different.
“I think there’s a lot of positivity in the industry,” Lacy said. “When you look back at last year, there was a lot of stuff we were worried about. But I think with very healthy, safe racing seasons, and very positive stories – syndicates are getting very much involved, and if you look through the buying bench, there’s a lot of partnerships and groups coming together, which is allowing them to diversify their risk and investment over a number of horses. So I think there is renewed positivity .... and I think you see a lot of new people getting in the game at a significant level, and that was encouraging to us.”
Keeneland reported 2,735 horses sold through the ring at this 12-session sale, which began on Sept. 9 and concluded Saturday afternoon, for record gross receipts of $411,749,500. That smashed the previous mark of $405,495,700 from 2,847 traded through the ring at the 2022 edition of the sale. Neither set of figures includes private sales that Keeneland will ultimately factor in to its official historic results. The conditions of sale state that horses must be shipped off the sale grounds by 24 hours after the hammer falls; therefore, private sales from Saturday's closing session could still take place into Sunday.
Fueled by 35 yearlings sold for seven-figure price tags – not counting one added to that total in a private sale – the through-the-ring average price finished at $150,548. That bests the record of $143,111 from 2023. The median finished at $70,000, equaling the mark set in 2022.
The buyback rate in a highly selective marketplace – buyers outlined their strict criteria, and sellers noted their horses had to be near-perfect – finished at 23 percent, compared to 20 percent in 2023.
“It all has to add up,” Peter O’Callaghan of consignor Woods Edge Farm said. “They want the sire, they want the physical, and the vetting. If you have that, you get paid. There can be no hole in it.”
Cormac Breathnach, Keeneland's senior director of sales operations, noted that the median and average are key in evaluating the health of the market.
“We look at the median because that’s more indicative of the real power in the middle market,” Breathnach said. “The median and the RNA rate are what better allow you to compare year-to-year. With our consistent format, we can begin to identify things. The median has increased every single session. The RNA rate tends to be a tick higher through each session, which might be a sign there’s a few [sellers] that aren’t getting exactly what they wanted out of this, which is obviously something we’ll be working on. But also, with a stronger market, you can tend to set a little higher reserve, so it’s a bit of both. And our [private sale] activity is up.”
A diverse buying bench lined up for the yearlings that were recruited. The 35 seven-figure lots went to 23 different buyers, with no single entity able to dominate, despite the discretionary spending ability of many buyers at the top end of the market. The international Coolmore group and its partners emerged with the most seven-figure lots, with four, but by no means dominated.
“I hope we got the right horses, I’ll put it that way,” Coolmore’s M.V. Magnier said. “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.”
While the top end of the marketplace was largely domestic, with the usual annual participation from some high-end Japanese and European entities, a number of new international buyers made themselves known in the second week of the sale. According to Breathnach, buyers from more than 30 countries purchased horses.
“We rely on the support of our breeders, and then it’s incumbent on us to reinforce the strength of the sale year on year, and attract more and more buyers from around the world, as well as domestically,” Breathnach said. “Our international outreach is paying dividends. We had sales team members go all over the world.”
Breathnach, alluding to the positivity in the industry Lacy discussed, was also pleased to see new buyers at the sale – including those with interest perhaps sparked by popular professional athletes in Thoroughbred ownership, such as retired Major League Baseball player Jayson Werth, part-owner of Belmont Stakes winner Dornoch, and current National Football League star Travis Kelce, who entered minority Thoroughbred ownership in August.
“I think that positivity comes from a lot of angles,” Breathnach said. “Jayson Werth … has been so positive and has spoken about how great the industry is and the level of adrenaline you can get, even if you were a professional athlete, that it really fills that void for him as a retired athlete. And you’ve got Travis Kelce, who is promoting the sport and defending it in an effective way as well. We can defend the sport, but it typically is only in our bubble. There are people outside of that getting to spread a positive word.”
New players, international buyers and other typical middle- and lower-market buyers, such as yearling-to-juvenile pinhookers, found increased competition. With the battles at the top of the market, many of those buyers reached deeper into the sale to find quality stock. Of the 23 buyers who purchased the seven-figure horses, 11 of those made purchases in Book 3 of the sale, and more than half were active beyond that. Those included the sale’s leading buyer by gross, the “Avengers” partnership of SF Racing, Starlight Racing, and Madaket Stables; with Donato Lanni as agent, that team spent $11.33 million on 18 horses. That trickle-down momentum ultimately contributed to the sale’s strong figures.
Buyers at all levels also got to appreciate the renovations to the Keeneland sale pavilion, with renovations taking place over the summer to add new reserved table seating areas, where buyers can easily confer with their team and spread out their information.
“It's been awesome,” John Stewart of Resolute Racing said. “Everyone has an iPad now, so that’s been really nice [to have room at a table]. They did champagne and brunch on the first day, and they were passing around cookies earlier - it’s a long day. It’s good Kentucky hospitality and everything you would expect at the biggest and greatest horse sale in the world.”
Mandy Pope, who breeds and races as Whisper Hill Farm, utilized the reserved seating area to make the auction’s most show-stopping bid, situated alongside her manager and farm trainer Todd Quast as she went to $5 million to acquire the colt by two-time Horse of the Year and perennial classic sire Curlin during the Sept. 10 session of the auction’s elite Book 1 portion.
Not only do Curlin’s sons now have added cachet as he emerges as a sire of sires, the chestnut colt also brought in an elite female family. He 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.
The colt’s $5 million price tag would have topped all but one edition of the Keeneland September 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. This 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 after that sale.
But Pope said it is worth stretching to those heights to play the long game – giving more insight into the commitments breeders make over decades, and why sales teams such as Keeneland’s are proud to be entrusted with that life’s work. 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.”
Pope, in her quest for colts, also landed the second-highest price of the September sale, a $2.2 million Gun Runner colt from the immediate family of Grade 1 winner Pure Clan. He was consigned by Four Star Sales, as agent for breeder Three Chimneys Farm.
Rounding out the top five prices were a $1.75 million Into Mischief half-brother to four graded stakes winners, including Grade 1 winner Girvin, purchased by Monique Delk, as agent for St. Elias, from Summerfield for breeder Stonestreet; a $1.5 million Gun Runner filly out of Grade 1 winner Dream Dancing, purchased by Douglas Scharbauer from the consignment of Gainesway, as agent for breeders John and Debby Oxley; and a $1.5 million Into Mischief filly out of Grade 1 winner and producer Shared Account, purchased by David Lanigan, as agent for the Heider Family Stables, from breeder and consignor Gainesway.
“The market is very strong. They always want the right horse,” Gainesway chairman Antony Beck said. Those are the ones that generally run. I think Keeneland has done an outstanding job bringing a really great group of athletes [together].”
Gainesway and Hill ‘n’ Dale Sales each consigned four seven-figure horses. Taylor Made Sales Agency, which sold horses through to the last day of the sale, ultimately finished as the leading consignor by gross sales for the 18th time in the last 21 years. With 333 yearlings sold, more than twice that from runner-up Gainesway, the operation grossed $53,133,200.
With seven seven-figure lots, newly enshrined Hall of Famer Gun Runner, who stands at Three Chimneys, finished as the September sale’s leading sire by gross sales, with 62 lots sold for $32,665,000. The sire is poised for an upswing, as these yearlings represent the crop conceived after the classic sire’s record-setting freshman season.
Not This Time (Taylor Made), Curlin (Hill ‘n’ Dale), Into Mischief (Spendthrift Farm), and first-crop sire Charlatan (Hill ‘n’ Dale) rounded out the top five leading sires by gross. Into Mischief, the nation’s five-time reigning leading sire, had a four-year run atop this leaderboard snapped.
Curlin, whose $5 million colt topped his five seven-figure lots, averaged $579,432 from his 44 yearlings sold to top the leaderboard in that regard. Rounding out the top five leading sires by average, among those with three or more yearlings sold, were Into Mischief, Gun Runner, Tapit (Gainesway), and Uncle Mo (Coolmore’s Ashford Stud).
For hip-by-hip results from Keeneland September, click here.
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