For many stallions, the commercial appeal of second-crop yearlings is not as high as a year earlier, when the same horse's debut foals were the shiny new thing on the commercial market.
City of Light managed to buck that trend in the deepest waters of the 2022 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, where he posted the biggest year-to-year gain in average sale price during the auction's select Book 1 sessions (among those with two or more sold in Book 1 both years), and he did it with his second crop.
The resident of Lane's End saw six yearlings change hands for an average price of $662,500 during this year's two-day Book 1, which marked an improvement of $301,786 from his debut sale in 2021, when he had seven horses sell for an average of $360,714.
Of course, City of Light's 2021 Keeneland September sale was something of an anomaly in the sale's history. He was responsible for the highest-priced offering of the sale, a $1.7-million colt now named Prosper, but that colt did not go through the ring until Book 2.
Had last year's sale-topper been offered a day earlier in Book 1, City of Light's average price for that portion of the catalog would have been $528,125. His year-over-year average still would have improved by $134,375, which would have been the third-biggest jump among qualifying stallions.
With or without the spike of last year's sale-topper, City of Light proved in 2022 that he could make himself comfortable among the market's top commercial sires.
City of Light's slate of Book 1 offerings this year was led by a pair of seven-figure yearlings.
The partnership of Repole Stable, St. Elias Stables, and West Point Thoroughbreds landed a colt out of the unraced Medaglia d'Oro mare Numero d'Oro for $1.1 million. The bay colt is a half-brother to Grade 3 winners Wit and Barkley.
The colt was offered as property of Rosilyn Polan's Sunday Morning Farm, which also offered last year's sale-topper by City of Light.
Courtlandt Thoroughbreds bought the other seven-figure City of Light yearling from this year's Book 1, a colt out of the stakes-winning Pulpit mare Tea Time, for $1 million. Consigned by Betz Thoroughbreds, agent, the colt hails from the family of champion Covfefe and Grade 1 winners Arch and Acoma.
City of Light, an 8-year-old son of Quality Road, currently sits in fifth in the freshman sire standings by progeny earnings, with $826,793. He is also the top freshman sire by turf earnings and turf stakes winners through Sept. 14.
The greatest contributor to the stallion's numbers thus far has been Chop Chop, who held on by a nose to win the Aristocrat Gaming Juvenile Fillies Stakes on Sept. 3 at Kentucky Downs and took home the winner's share of a $500,000 purse.
Chop Chop, a filly out of the Giant's Causeway mare Grand Sofia, has won both of her career starts, also taking a maiden special weight at Ellis Park, and earning $336,700 to date.
On the same card at Kentucky Downs, Gaslight Dancer won a $150,000 maiden special weight to further boost his sire's coffers.
All three of City of Light's black type earners thus far have done so over the turf. Chop Chop was joined among the ranks of the stallion's stakes winners by Sendero, who romped to a 2 1/4-length score in the Jamestown Stakes on Sept. 7 at Colonial Downs.
City of Light earned his first graded black type at stud with Battle of Normandy, who finished second by a neck in the Grade 3 With Anticipation Stakes on Aug. 31 at Saratoga Race Course. That effort came after a 2 1/4-length maiden special weight score over the Saratoga turf.
Though his most successful runners have come over the turf in the early months of the freshman sire race, City of Light's success has not been limited to that surface. His main-track maiden winners have struck at venues including Saratoga, Gulfstream Park, and Ellis Park.
City of Light has 67 yearlings cataloged in this year's Keeneland September sale.
The post City Of Light Sees Biggest Year-Over-Year Gain In Average During Keeneland September’s Book 1 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
