Breaking out of the pack to kick off Monday's opening session of Book 4 at the Keeneland November sale in Lexington, Act Now (Street Sense) (Hip 2184), dam of recent runaway winner at Del Mar and TDN Rising Star Coach Prime (Quality Road), brought $610,000 from Mark McStay's Avenue Bloodstock. The 8-year-old mare was consigned by Nardelli Sales, acting agent to dissolve a partnership with Bill Werner.
“We thought she could make that much, because Coach Prime was a such a lovely horse,” said Kim Nardelli. “We did know all the major players we on her, so we were suspicious she was going to go out of our price range.”
She continued, “Oddly enough, we were disappointed. When you sell a mare that well, it's a shame to be disappointed. Hey, that's part of the business, right? It's hard to find mares like that and it's hard to replace them but it's also nice to make some money.”
Giving legs to Nardelli's earlier suspicions, McStay explained that the mare's recent winner factored into the decision to buy her.
“She's a quality mare, I loved [Coach Prime] with Bob Baffert as a yearling,” he said. “She's been purchased for a commercial breeder who's being trying to buy a mare good enough to visit Justify over the past week. Let's hope she's lucky–the 2-year-old looks exciting.”
Act Now, who sold in foal to City of Light, was bred by Colts Neck Stables. Nardelli and her brother Rodney, in partnership with Werner, purchased Act Now in foal to Kitten's Joy for $150,000 at Keeneland January in 2020.
“Since our partner needed to tie some things up now, we had to run her through the ring,” said Nardelli, explaining the decision to part with the 8-year-old mare. “We were going to try and buy her back, but Coach Prime ran way to well for us to do that.”
Act Now's first foal, Dr Oseran (Kitten's Joy), finished third in this season's Texas Glitter S. at Gulfstream. Her subsequent foal, a colt by Quality Road, brought $1.7 million from agent Donato Lanni at Keeneland September in 2022.
Named Coach Prime, the bay finished third for Zedan Racing at Santa Anita last month before becoming a TDN Rising Star with an impressive 7 1/4-length win at Del Mar Nov. 10. Her most recent offspring, a colt by Union Rags, sold for $80,000 this past September.
A half-sister to stakes placed The Right Path (Quality Road), Act Now is out of unraced Always Trouble (Bernardini), herself a daughter of a half-sister to Group 1 winner and English and Irish Highweight Minardi and GSW Tale of the Cat. Granddam Spunoutofcontrol (Wild Again) is also responsible for Grade II winner Fed Biz (Giant's Causeway) and SW Spun Silk, dam of GI Vosburgh S. scorer Joking (Distorted Humor).
Clearly a standout in Book 4, Nardelli explained that at the time the catalog was printed, the picture was still unclear.
“We requested to be in Book 3 or 4, mainly because, at the time, Coach Prime had not started and City of Light was still a little quiet,” she said. “It worked out for us from that point of view. We knew if she hit, people would find her and they certainly knew where she was.”
In addition to Monday's session topper, the Nardelli's sold four other mares, including a pair that were re-purchased by the Nardelli's Springwood LLC–Afleeting Lisa (Afleet Alex) (Hip 2186 i/f to Liam's Map) and Now Now (Tiznow) (Hip 2024 i/f to Mandaloun).
They also sold a pair of weanlings, a filly by Bolt d'Oro (Hip 2027) for $87,000 and a colt by McKinzie (Hip 2145) for $72,000.
“We had another group that we were selling to dissolve the same partnership and they were more suited for the later books rather than the earlier ones,” she explained. “We are small consignors so we needed a 'one and done' group sale. We didn't want them all spread out through the sale.”
Nardelli Sales was the second leading consignor of the session, amassing a gross of $891,000 with an average of $127,286.
She concluded, “We are happy with how things went. We had two mares we bought back ourselves out of the partnership. But they were not the same quality as Act Now. We had weanlings that sold well, so we are happy with the way things went.”
Looking for Another Forte?
At this sale three years ago, a weanling colt by Violence out of Queen Caroline (Blame) was purchased for an unassuming $80,000 before going on to become the 2022 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile champion and Eclipse Award winning juvenile for that season. Hoping the sale's Gods might smile on them again, Monday's buyers continued to show interest in the day's weanling selection, led by Najd Stud who paid $155,000 for a colt by Vino Rosso (Hip 2258). Out of Celia's Song (Distorted Humor), the May 1 foal was consigned by Greenfield Farms. The chestnut is a granddson of GSW and MGISP Warbling (Unbridled's Song), a half-sister to SW Arianna's Passion, who in turn is responsible for MSW and MGSP Distorted Passion, dam of MGSW Mrs McDougal.
Clay Scherer paid top price of $110,000 for the highest priced weanling filly of the session. By Midshipman (Hip 1925), the Feb. 8 foal was offered by Legacy Bloodstock, acting on behalf of Hermitage Farm. The chestnut filly is the first foal out of Heartful (Bandbox), who is a daughter of stakes winner Love's Reason (Not For Love). The 5-year-old mare is a half-sister to Grade III winner Majestic Reason (Majestic Warrior) and the stake-placed duo of Jump for Love (Jump Start) and Good Reasoning (Scat Daddy).
At the conclusion of Monday's session, a total of 285 horses through the ring sold for $9,044,100, decreasing 5.76% from the sixth session last year when 246 horses brought $9,596,900. The average decreased 18.66% from $39,012 to $31,734, and the median of $23,000 is 23.33% lower than $30,000 last year. There RNA rate for Monday's sixth session was 25.47%.
Through six sessions, a total of 1,343 horses have sold for $163,792,100, for an average of $121,960 and a median of $65,000. The gross decreased 14.71% from $192,033,900 through the corresponding period last year, while the average is 18.26% below $149,210 in 2022 and the median is 15.58% lower than $77,000.
The Keeneland November Sale continues through Thursday, with sessions beginning at 10 a.m. It will be followed by a single-session Horses of Racing Age Sale Friday.
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