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Demand Among Buyers ‘Unrelenting’ During Keeneland September Yearling Sale’s Fifth Session

The strong pace at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale continued Saturday when the auction resumed following a one-day hiatus and Donato Lanni, agent, acquired a filly by Curlin for $800,000 to lead positive results.

On Saturday, the fifth session of the September Sale and the first of the two-day Book 3, 269 yearlings sold for $45,003,000, for an average of $167,297 and a median of $135,000. To date, Keeneland has sold a total of 889 yearlings through the ring for $245,422,000, for an average of $276,065 and a median of $200,000.

There were 91 yearlings listed as reserve not attained, 25.3% of the 360 lots through the ring.

“The demand for quality stock from domestic end users has continued to drive the market, and it is unrelenting,” Keeneland Vice President of Sales Tony Lacy said. “There is a lot of positivity around the grounds with an influx of new buyers arriving daily. The Sales Pavilion has been busy every day, and we look forward to tomorrow when we have another exciting group on offer.”

The session topper, who was consigned by Eaton Sales, agent, is out of Grade 3-placed Divine Elegance, by Uncle Mo. She is from the family of Grade 1-placed stakes winner Standard Deviation and Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner Believe You Can.

John Williams paid $775,000 for a colt by Gun Runner consigned by Denali Stud, agent, He is out of the Indian Charlie mare Sapucai, a half-sister to Canadian champion Moonlit Promise, and from the family of Horse of the Year and sire A.P. Indy, Preakness (G1) winner Summer Squall and Grade 1 winner Court Vision.

A colt from the first crop of Grade 1 winner City of Light who is a half-brother to Grade 2 winner Selcourt sold for $760,000 to Donato Lanni, agent for SF Bloodstock/Starlight/Madaket. Consigned by Columbiana Farm, agent, he is out of Azure Spring, by Open Forum, and from the family of Grade 2 winner Fashionably Late.

Two yearlings by Gun Runner sold for $675,000 apiece.

A colt out of the Bernardini mare Secret Jewel sold for $675,000 to West Bloodstock, agent for Repole Stable and St. Elias. Taylor Made Sales Agency, agent, consigned the half-brother to Grade 3 winner Twenty Carat from the family of Breeders' Cup winners Shared Account and Sharing along with Grade 2 winner Sapphire N' Silk.

A daughter of Gun Runner out of stakes winner Happy Mesa, by Sky Mesa, sold for $675,000 to David Lanigan, agent for Heider Family Racing. The filly, who is from the family of Grade 1 winner Perfect Alibi, was consigned by Gainesway, agent.

Gainesway led all consignors Saturday by selling 23 horses for $4,620,000.

A filly by Curlin who is the first foal of Grade 3 winner Berned, by Bernardini, sold for $575,000 to Patrice Miller, E.Q.B., agent. Consigned by Denali Stud, agent for Stonestreet Bred & Raised, she is from the family of Grade 1 winners Harmony Lodge and Magnum Moon.

Two yearlings by Practical Joke sold for $520,000 and $500,000.

Maverick/Siena paid $520,000 for a filly by Practical Joke from the family of multiple Grade 1 winner Zazu and Grade 2 winner Flashback. Consigned by Hunter Valley Farm, agent, she is out of the Lookin At Lucky mare Lucky Rose.

West Bloodstock, agent for Repole Stable and St. Elias, spent $500,000 on a Practical Joke colt consigned by Nursery Place, agent. Out of the Empire Maker mare Queen of the Realm, he is from the family of champion and Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Nyquist, Grade 1 winner Sahara Sky, Grade 2 winner Seeking Regina and Grade 3 winner Seeking the Sky.

Also bringing $500,000 was a colt from the first crop of champion Good Magic out of the Scat Daddy mare Charladora, a half-sister to Grade 2 winner Laoban, who sold to Buffolo Bloodstock. Lane's End, agent, consigned the colt, who also is from the family of Grade 1 winner I'm a Chatterbox and Canadian champion Mr. Hustle.

Mike Ryan, agent, was the leading buyer, spending $3.07 million for 11 horses.

The September Sale continues Sunday and runs through Friday, Sept. 24. All sessions begin at 10 a.m. ET.

The entire September Sale is streamed live at Keeneland.com.

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Violence, Street Sense See Average Prices Soar In Keeneland September’s Early Books

A stallion's performance at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale is a solid indicator of his place in the pecking order among commercial sires, but the auction's first two books indicate who is sitting at the head of the table.

Books 1 and 2 are where the elite of the breed further cement their spots on the list, but it is also an indicator of which stallions' stocks are rising in the eyes of buyers. A stallion who sees a significant jump in average sale price when the industry's deepest pockets are in the building has likely done so because their commercial reputation and racetrack performance have solidified to the point where buyers are landing on several foals and battling for them.

In those terms, the two stallions who made up the most ground in Keeneland September's elite sessions were Hill 'n' Dale Farms' Violence and Darley's Street Sense.

In both 2020 and 2021, Books 1 and 2 consisted of four combined sessions with a similar number of horses cataloged, meaning the comparison between editions is about as apples-to-apples as the Keeneland September sale tends to get.

Violence saw the greatest year-to-year jump in average, improving by $245,000.

The son of Medaglia d'Oro saw five yearlings change hands during the first two books of both sales, and moved up from $160,000 last year to $414,000 in 2021.

That figure was helped greatly on Thursday by the sale of Hip 1057, a half-brother to multiple Grade 1-placed Standard Deviation from the KatieRich Farms consignment who sold to Repole Stable and St. Elias for $950,000. It was the most ever paid for a Violence yearling at public auction.

Though reaching an all-time high certainly helps an average sale price a great deal, the colt was far from an outlier in terms of serious prices. Four of the five Violence yearlings sold through the first two books hammered for $200,000 or more, also including Hip 919, who brought $550,000.

John G. Sikura of Hill 'n' Dale Farms said Violence's breakout year in 2020 likely helped shape opinions of the stallion heading into this year's sale. He was led last year by Grade 1 winners Volatile and No Parole.

“Violence has always been a horse that's had great commercial appeal,” Sikura said. “Last year, we were very bullish. He had two Grade 1 winners who looked like the fastest horses in the country. They were both injured and on the shelf, then Dr. Schivel won the Grade 1 (Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar on Aug. 31), and it got exciting again. Now, we're waiting for the new crop of 2-year-olds. It's great to see the resilient market that has confidence in the horse. He's had several fantastic results in the sale ring, and it's very rewarding. I hope he continues to climb the ladder and get more buyer confidence and great success on the racetrack.”

Violence's expensive colt late in Thursday's session put him up in the final strides over Street Sense, whose average price grew by $198,000 during the first two books.

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The 2007 Kentucky Derby winner jumped up from an average of $117,938 from 16 sold last year to $316,071 from 14 sold during the first two books of 2021.

Street Sense's Keeneland September haul was led by Hip 1022, a half-brother to Grade 1-placed Bajan from the family of champion Forever Unbridled who sold to BSW/Crow Colts Group for $1 million. Offered as property of Farfellow Farms, the colt was the first seven-figure yearling for Street Sense since 2013.

Beneath the top horse, he had four horses that sold for $300,000 or more through the first two books.

Darley's Darren Fox said Street Sense really started to hit his stride at stud after returning from his one-year stint at Darley Japan in 2013. The shape of the stallion's resume shifted dramatically in the years that followed, and Street Sense developed into a sire whose demand has risen just as dramatically. This week's performance just solidified that notion.

“His first five Grade 1 winners were fillies, and when his foals started going to the track after his Japan break, McKinzie set alight a great run of colts for him,” Fox said. “We have Maxfield, who will be a stallion for us at some point, and a colt a little under the radar in Speaker's Corner. When a horse like that puts some sons in the stallion barn, and has some other high-profile ones on the track, it certainly moves him and his progeny up into that next tier.”

Looking at some of the newer faces picking up traction this year, Three Chimneys Farm's Gun Runner, who currently leads the freshman sire race, saw the sixth-largest year-to-year gain in average, rising $108,622 to finish at $397,222. Repole and St. Elias led the way for his yearlings with Hip 574, who was secured for $975,000.

Gun Runner's closest rival, the Ashford Stud resident Practical Joke, saw a gain of $59,980 to finish at $274,091. Talia Racing bought the most expensive one of the sale's first week, going to $750,000 for Hip 1079.

Darley's Nyquist, the leading freshman sire of 2020, also continued to climb, rising $19,417 to $275,667, led by Hip 825, who sold to Dr. Ed Allred and Liebau for $700,000.

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One For The Little Guy: Little Run Debuts Single-Horse Consignment At Keeneland September

Between the ballooning size of the catalog and the deep families that reside within it, it can be hard to stand out in Book 2 of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Fortunately, Little Run has a one-of-a-kind offering.

The one-woman operation of Wendy Clay makes its debut in this year's renewal of the bellwether auction with a single horse. Hip 831, a Gun Runner colt, will go through the ring Thursday, bookending a comeback years in the making.

A native of Okemos, Mich., Clay had accumulated a broad range of experiences in the Thoroughbred business, breaking and galloping horses in Australia, South Africa, and Ireland, working domestically with the stallions at Three Chimneys Farm, and consigning horses under the Amelia's Field Farm banner; but her ties to the business had mostly lapsed by the mid-2010s. She still had friends and family in the Thoroughbred industry, but she'd found gainful employment outside the sphere.

Clay started to get the itch again in 2017, and by January of the following year, she'd purchased a pair of short yearlings to pinhook through consignor Brookdale Sales. She broke yearlings for others in the years that followed, but she never lost the urge to bring up a sale horse of her own.

Then, at this year's Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale, Clay found a Gun Runner colt she couldn't resist, and brought him home for $35,000. She signed the ticket “Little Run,” and the same words would hang from Barn 41 at Keeneland eight months later.

“I had to buy a horse that I enjoyed being around and looking at every day, and that's how I feel about this boy,” she said. “He has such a kind eye and just a warmth about him. I just gravitated to him. It was freezing cold in January, and I just loved the way he walked. He has an elegance, a grace, about him. My favorite movie is 'Phar Lap,' and when I lead him, I feel like I have Phar Lap on my shank.”

There are 689 yearlings cataloged in Book 2 of Keeneland September, not including the horses that sell and show in the sessions immediately before and after the second book. Even a good horse can get lost in the shuffle at that point of the sale, but being a son of leading freshman sire Gun Runner certainly doesn't hurt business, as evidenced by the high-end caliber of buyers that inspected the colt Wednesday afternoon.

Beyond what's on the page, Clay said what she and her horse offered was the physical and mental benefit of individual attention. The colt spent his time between sales at Clay's Winchester, Ky., farm, which has a small creek – or run – at the front of the property, giving the consignment its name.

Working with this colt in particular, Clay reclaimed what she had missed being away from the business. However, she also admitted that this sale might be tougher to get through than the ones she'd worked before.

“I've enjoyed every single day, seven days a week,” Clay said. “My favorite time is just going out and grooming him every single morning. I'm going to miss him.”

“You bond, because you're with them all the time,” she continued. “Sometimes, I think to myself, 'Why am I saying goodbye?' but it's fun. I love prepping them. I love watching them grow and blossom, and doing the best I can for him and his future, not only physically, but mentally. The better behaved he is, and the better he's treated, I believe that he'll be treated kindly in his future, because he'll be well-behaved, trained, and well-fed. I like being a positive influence. It stays with them, like it does for us, their whole life.”

That bond stemmed from her childhood, even if it wasn't quite a straight line from one to the other.

Her family had nothing to do with horses – and they still don't to this day – but everything changed when they moved next to the farm of Irv and Naomi Weitzman, who owned Quarter Horses that ran at the national level, and spearheaded the opening of Mount Pleasant Meadows, a mixed-breed track in central Michigan.

“I was four or five years old, and I would just crouch down into the weeds in the field next door and watch the horses, and I just fell in love with them,” she said. “I would sneak over there, and they knew my dad was a lawyer, so they were worried about liability, and they kept saying, 'No, no, you need to stay away from those Quarter Horses.' I just wouldn't stay away. They let me train their German Shepherds. I would go over and groom and train their German Shepherds, and then it gravitated to taking care of the horses as I got older. They got my first pony for me when I was eight.”

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Clay eventually got in the saddle for the Weitzmans, and she still uses the saddle they gave her to start her yearlings under tack to this day. A set of Kentucky Derby tickets she won in a contest at Mount Pleasant Meadows eventually led to her first summer job in Kentucky at Dixiana Farm.

Now with a farm of her own, Clay commemorates that spark the Weitzmans gave her with a horse charm on her necklace that Irv bought for Naomi when they had a horse running in the All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs, Quarter Horse racing's richest event, in the 1980s.

“He bought this little horse for Naomi, and when she was dying, she gave it to me and said, 'This brought us luck,' and that's why I wear it,” she said.

Working with the horses brings back memories for Clay of the people no longer around, but selling the colt has reunited her with others she hasn't seen in years.

She was being assisted on Wednesday afternoon by Cori Krause, a friend she made back in Michigan during their first years together in 4-H, who was serving as the mouthpiece of the consignment. Even after years apart, when they got back together, their work was practically seamless.

“We haven't seen each other for 25 years,” Clay said. “We talk, but we've just been busy being moms, so she wanted to come down from her busy job and help, which was so kind. She's a natural at greeting people. I'm just really into the horse; the horse husbandry and taking care of them. I prefer to be in the stall, grooming and showing. She likes the grooming part, and I like the horse part. Maybe we'll be doing this again together.”

It might be a brief stay at the Keeneland sale, but it was immediately clear that Clay had returned to a comfort zone when she brought her colt out of his stall.

Clay's doing it the hard way, hanging her own shingle against the current of the name-brand consignors, but she's not at Keeneland this week to topple the giants. The victory comes from being back in the game.

“I have met over the 30 years that I've been in and out of this industry, I've always had a warm welcome, and met lifetime friends,” she said. “I just feel honored to be welcomed to come back. Keeneland has been so kind. I call and ask questions because I haven't done this before by myself, and it's just been a really nice feeling.”

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Ohio Commission Urges Racetracks To ‘Take Immediate Steps’ To Protect Horses From Export Via Cargo Container

The Ohio State Racing Commission released the following statement Tuesday regarding the practice of shipping Thoroughbreds via cargo container, which has become a common method of sending horses from the United States mainland to Puerto Rico and other nearby islands.

In August, The Stronach Group announced that it would ban owners and trainers who sold horses subsequently transported in this manner. The practice came to light last year when a Puerto Rican owners' association filed suit over the deaths of eight horses aboard a container ship.

The Ohio State Racing Commission (OSRC) considers the safety of horses that race and train at Ohio racetracks its top priority. The Commission has serious concerns about the conditions that exist, and care provided to, horses that are shipped via cargo containers.

These conditions represent a significant risk to their health and welfare and as such, the OSRC believes this form of horse transportation is inhumane.

The OSRC is urging, in the strongest terms possible, that all tracks and training facilities within the state take immediate steps to ensure that horses are protected from this practice.

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