Tag: yearlings

Keeneland January Sale Kicks Off Tuesday

The Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale gets underway at 10 a.m. Tuesday with the first of four sessions. The sale was originally scheduled to kick off Monday, but was delayed due to a winter snow storm in Lexington, which also pushed back the ship in date. The 1,631-horse catalogue is comprised of broodmares, racing/broodmare prospects, newly turned yearlings, horses of racing ages and stallions/stallion prospects.

“It is a very solid catalogue with a lot of depth,” said Cormac Breathnach, Keeneland's Director of Sales Operations. “The January Sale catalogue doesn't always have major highlights like we would in November, but we do have strong offerings at the top, like Co Cola (Candy Ride {Arg}). She is the dam of Search Results (Flatter) and is in foal to Flatter, so she is carrying a full-sibling to that Grade I-winning filly. She is a real standout offering who fits a lot of programs. We have a lot of good race fillies who could retire as broodmares or who could go on and be a lot of fun in 2022, such as Hello Beautiful (Golden Lad). She has won eight stakes and she is either an attractive broodmare prospect or race filly. We have Inthemidstofbiz (Fed Biz), who won the GII TCA here at Keeneland. We are excited about what we have and the momentum from November carrying over.”

It was a strong Keeneland November Sale from top to bottom, but many people left that auction with unfulfilled orders, according to Breathnach.

“That sale finished before people fulfilled all of their orders,” he said. “We took supplemental entries to this sale on the back of the strength of November. The entries for November happen early. They happen before the September Sale. The market had not revealed how strong it was going to be at that point, so through the November Sale, a lot of people were interested in selling horses and participating from a buying angle. The sale in November was a record median and a really healthy market from top to bottom. It did not feel overheated, but was really strong in terms of supply and demand. That is giving us a lot of confidence going forward into January.”

At last year's pandemic-affected Keeneland January Sale, 998 horses grossed $46,482,600. The auction was highlighted by three dispersals and was topped by a member of the Paul Pompa dispersal, MGSW Regal Glory (Animal Kingdom), who summoned $925,000 and is now a Grade I winner.

Travel restrictions will not impact this year's auction, though the COVID-19 pandemic has taken another upswing.

“The travel restrictions have basically gone away aside from fulfilling testing requirements,” Breathnach said. “People will make their own personal decisions, but if there is an advantage through COVID, it is the ability to bid online or over the phone. People have found a way to make sales work for them despite these difficulties.”

The Keeneland January Sale runs from Tuesday, Jan. 11 through Friday, Jan. 14 with each session starting at 10 a.m. Book 1 is Monday and Tuesday followed by a pair of Book 2 sessions.

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McPeek Shopping For Yearlings in Argentina

More so than perhaps any top trainer in the sport, Ken McPeek is always thinking outside the box. And he's at it again. McPeek is in the midst of a three-day excursion to Argentina, where he is shopping for yearlings.

It's not at all uncommon for American trainers to buy yearlings overseas, but to do so in the Southern Hemisphere is largely unchartered territory. That's because Southern Hemisphere horses are born primarily in the months of August, September, October and November. For U.S. racing purposes, they turn a year older every Jan. 1, meaning they will be considered 2-year-olds when they may be no more than 13 or 14 months old. It's a huge disadvantage for a young horse, and one they may not be able to overcome until they are into their 4-year-old season.

“These are horses you have to be very patient with,” McPeek acknowledged.

This isn't the first time McPeek has shopped for young horses in South America. He bought Einstein (Brz) (Spend a Buck) as a yearling at auction in Brazil in 2003. Trained by Helen Pitts and managed by McPeek, Einstein, who made his debut in the fall of his 3-year-old year at Keeneland, went on to win five Grade I stakes and earn $2.9 million.

He came back all these years later in part because of the strength of the U.S. dollar in relation to the Argentine peso. One U.S. dollar equals 101.72 pesos.

“The U.S. dollar is extremely strong right now against the Argentine peso, so there could be some real value buys,” McPeek said. “The dollar is so strong that it is a buyer's market.”

There are no major yearling sales at this time in Argentina. Instead, McPeek has been going from farm to farm looking to buy horses privately. He says that is a common practice in Argentina. He plans on visiting six farms before returning to the U.S. Thursday.

“We are looking at all the top breeding farms down here,” he said Monday. “We haven't decided yet what we're going to buy, but today I looked at over 100 yearlings. Some of the farms we are looking at, they have horses with extremely high-quality pedigrees.”

As of Monday, he had yet to decide how many horses he was going to buy or how much he was going to spend. Much of that would depend on how many horses he saw that checked enough boxes.

“If I see a horse that is what I call a 'wow horse,' a horse that could run anywhere, then we'll ask for a price,” he said. “We'll see if where they value the horse matches where we value the horse. If the market meets you do business. If it doesn't, it doesn't. Einstein was an exceptional horse. That's what we are looking for over here, exceptional horses.”

McPeek said it will cost between $10,000 and $15,000 per horse to ship them from Argentina to the U.S. Once they arrive, the process will begin and McPeek will not be in any hurry.

“You just have to take your time with these horses,” he said. “They won't start to be prepared until next fall in U.S. When they begin racing they're going to be about six months behind the curve age-wise. They're going to have to start out running against horses that are older than them. What I have found is that a good horse can handle that and an average one can't.”

In time, the Southern Hemisphere horses will catch up.

“The added time you'll have to give them will cost you more, but you also get good value as opposed to overpaying for a horse at the 2-year-old sales,” McPeek said. “If these horses are meant to be stakes horses they'll be stakes horses. If they're meant to be claimers, they'll be claimers.”

McPeek was among the first U.S. trainers to send horses to Europe to race. He went against conventional wisdom with Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) throughout her career, running her twice against males and winning the GI Preakness S. with her. There are numerous examples of him proving you don't need to spend seven figures to come up with a star at the yearling sales. He's not afraid to throw a 70-1 shot into a big race, which is how he won the 2002 GI Belmont S. with Sarava (Wild Again). Now he's buying Southern Hemisphere yearlings.

“I believe a good horse can be found anywhere,” he said. “Sometimes you have to go extra lengths to find them.”

 

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Keeneland 2022 January Horses of All Ages Sale Catalog Now Online

Keeneland has cataloged 1,516 horses–broodmares and broodmare prospects, yearlings and horses of racing age along with stallions and stallion prospects–for its 2022 January Horses of All Ages Sale, which will present four sessions from Jan. 10-13.

The January Sale catalog is available online at Keeneland.com. Print catalogs are scheduled to be delivered the week of Dec. 20.

“Given the dynamic markets we've seen in September and November, the January Sale will offer breeders another terrific opportunity to acquire quality broodmares and broodmare prospects in advance of the breeding season,” Keeneland Vice President of Sales Tony Lacy said. “Additionally, horsemen with an eye toward the race track can shop a nice selection of short yearlings and horses of racing age to round out their orders.”

For the January Sale, Keeneland once again will offer online and phone bidding to accommodate buyers who cannot attend. More information for prospective buyers, including accessing the Keeneland Sales Portal, can be found by clicking here.

Sale schedule

The four sessions of the January Sale all begin at 10 a.m. ET. The sale schedule is as follows:

Book 1 on Monday, Jan. 10 and Tuesday, Jan. 11.

Book 2 on Wednesday, Jan. 12 and Thursday, Jan. 13.

The entire January Sale will be livestreamed at Keeneland.com. TVG2 will feature live coverage of the first two days of the sale, and the entire sale will be shown on the Watch TVG App.

Successful stallions represented

A number of prominent stallions and emerging young sires are represented in the January Sale catalog with in-foal mares and yearlings. Among them are mares in foal to GI Kentucky Derby winner and Horse of the Year Authentic, the leading covering sire at the November Breeding Stock Sale.

Additional covering sires include American Pharoah, Audible, City of Light, Constitution, Ghostzapper, Gun Runner, Hard Spun, Into Mischief, Justify, Kitten's Joy, Liam's Map, Medaglia d'Oro, Mendelssohn, Munnings, Speightstown, Street Sense, Twirling Candy and War Front.

Also cataloged are broodmares carrying the final foals by Bernardini, English Channel, Laoban and Malibu Moon.

Yearlings in the catalog include those by stallions whose first weanlings were popular at the November Sale. Sires include Audible, Catalina Cruiser, Mitole, Omaha Beach and Vino Rosso.

Other cataloged yearlings are by such popular stallions as American Pharoah, City of Light, Constitution, Ghostzapper, Good Magic, Gun Runner, Hard Spun, Justify, Liam's Map, Medaglia d'Oro, Mendelssohn, Munnings, Not This Time, Nyquist, Practical Joke, Quality Road, Speightstown, Street Sense, Twirling Candy, Uncle Mo and War Front.

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Tattersalls Ascot December Adds 21 Wildcards

A total of 21 wildcards were added to the Dec. 6 Tattersalls Ascot December Sale which will now feature 89 lots. Comprised of 11 yearlings, 58 horses-in-training, 12 horses-out-of-training, two stores and five point-to-pointers, selling will begin at 11 a.m. local time at Ascot Racecourse Stables. One of the wildcard entries of note is lot 47, No Nonsense (GB) (Acclamation {GB}) from George Boughey's Saffron House Stables. Sporting an official BHA Rating of 85, No Nonsense was placed the G3 Pavillion S. at Ascot. For the full catalogue, please visit the Tattersalls Ascot website.

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