Buying things online has become a part of our lives more than ever over the past decade, especially in the isolated time of COVID-19. Like many of its contemporaries earlier this year, Keeneland featured internet bidding during a live auction for the first time at this year's September Yearling Sale, and its effect on the sale's ecosystem was significant.
Over the auction's 12 sessions, a total of 1,857 internet bids were placed, with 126 successful purchases and revenues of $12,165,900. Had the online purchases been broken out into its own session of the sale, it would have grossed more than the final three sessions of this year's auction combined.
“Anytime you try something new, we held our breath a little bit to be sure the technology would work, and we were very happy with our technology partner on that,” said Shannon Arvin, Keeneland's President-Elect and Interim Head of Sales. “We felt like that went just as smoothly as we could have ever hoped. The participation was really significant.”
Like Ocala Breeders' Sales Co., Keeneland called on Xcira, an online auction technology company based in Tampa, Fla., to help bring the bidding into the digital age.
Online bidding gained steam as the auction went on, with nine total successful purchases over the two sessions of Book 1, and a high-water mark of 34 during the two-day Book 5, including 19 during the book's first session. The closing two days of Book 6 saw 29 horses change hands over online bidding.
The most active day for bidding was the second session of Book 4, which saw 213 bids placed online.
Though most of the online transactions were made for the later-book horses, buyers weren't afraid to spend big without being there to raise their hands themselves. Internet bidders in Book 1 accounted for a combined $4,795,000, led by Hip 410, a Tapit colt out of Breeders' Cup Distaff winner Stopchargingmaria, who sold to Japan's Yuji Hasegawa for $825,000. Hasegawa also bought a first-crop Arrogate colt for $750,000 using the online bidding platform.
“On those kind of horses, they had people on the grounds looking at the horse for them and doing all the vet work,” said Geoffrey Russell, Keeneland's director of sales operations. “It really was just the principal at the end making the decision, which we like the principals making those decisions.”
Hasegawa bidding from Japan was the highlight of the online transactions, but successful web bids also came from 17 U.S. states, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Spain.
The September Sale was the first live run for online bidding in a Keeneland auction, after the company offered an online-only racing-age sale in June. Keeneland has also conducted simulated auctions with potential buyers to acclimate them to the system and work out any potential bugs.
“Obviously, you're going to have a learning curve, but I think they did a good job putting out a trial run what that digital racing-age sale they had,” said Zach Madden of consignor Buckland Sales Agency. “Throughout the globe, people say they're buying a ton of horses online in Asia and Australia, but they've also been doing it for 10 years.”
Madden said four of the 12 horses he offered in Book 5 sold to online bidders, and the clientele was diverse, from people he'd never seen before the transaction to buyers who scouted the horses out themselves and simply decided to bid somewhere other than under a spotter.
“That was a good surprise for me,” Madden said. “I had a guy come by the barn yesterday who I'd never seen in my life who said, 'I bought this horse for $10,000 online. Is she sweet?' That never happens. It's helping horses get moved.”
The online component has also changed the way Madden has marketed his horses.
Because the buyers can come from anywhere now, and without warning, Madden said he fielded more personal requests for information on his offerings during this year's sale. In the future, Madden said he planned to do even more to get his horses into the digital space to entice anyone that might decide to forego the sale ring experience for something a little closer to home.
“I've gotten a lot of 'Hey Zach, will you send me a picture or video?'” he said. “We stopped doing the walking videos (for the Keeneland website) after Book 3, but any little arrow in your quiver you can have to throw at this thing has helped.”
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