LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Keeneland September yearling sale concludes what has been a robust first week with its second and final Book 2 session Thursday. The sale takes its traditional dark day Friday before continuing with daily sessions through Sept. 24.
Here are some of the horses to watch in the Thursday session, largely based on their pages and the market trends seen thus far. The selections reflect catalog updates and sale outs through Wednesday morning.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas saddled his fifth Kentucky Oaks winner with Secret Oath this spring, and on Saturday is expected to send her in the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga Race Course. Meanwhile, the legendary trainer is looking ahead to his 2023 and 2024 3-year-old crops.
Champion Essential Quality will be retired following the Breeders' Cup and will join the Kentucky stallion ranks for Sheikh Mohammed’s international Godolphin racing and Darley stallions operation, along with Maxfield, the farm announced Monday.
A filly from the first crop of Collected sold for $320,000 to lead Tuesday's session as the Keeneland September yearling sale closed out its Book 4 portion with continued gains, moving toward its finish line with momentum.
Keeneland reported that 313 yearlings sold through the ring on Tuesday, the eighth of 11 sessions, for gross receipts of $20,569,000. In last year's corresponding eighth session, 255 horses were sold for a gross of $11,823,500 before any private sales were factored in.
Following are horses to watch during the Keeneland September yearling sale’s first week, comprising the upper-market Book 1 and Book 2 sections of the marathon sale. Tapit, War Front, Medaglia d’Oro, Curlin, and Galileo, who have led Keeneland September by average price each year since 2013, are all well represented on this list, as is two-time reigning leading sire Into Mischief. Horses were selected primarily based on the strength of their pedigrees and the racing or commercial results of notable family members. The selections reflect catalog updates through Aug. 25.
A filly from the first crop of Practical Joke sold for $425,000 to lead the way as the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.'s June sale of 2-year-olds in training and horses of racing age opened its three-day run Wednesday.
OBS reported that 176 horses sold in the session and grossed $7,268,400. In the corresponding opening session of this sale last year - pushed back to July by the coronavirus pandemic - 163 sold for a total of $5,037,800.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Keeneland September yearling sale is considered a bellwether for the North American Thoroughbred market, as it tests the marketplace at a number of levels over a nearly two-week run. With the coronavirus pandemic touching every aspect of the business, the community braced for this year's sale and the long-term forecast it would provide as the market tends to react with restraint to turbulence in the world at large. The sale, which experienced a shift to a largely domestic marketplace this year, finished with declines that were not unexpected, but some bright spots.
A $1.8 million Snitzel colt became the highest-priced horse ever sold in an online auction as the high-profile Inglis Easter yearling sale in Australia, conducted digitally due to the global coronavirus pandemic, recorded relatively solid results as it was keenly watched by the global bloodstock community.
Quality Road, a rising star in the stallion ranks for Lane’s End Farm over the last several years, will again see his stud fee spike in 2020, with his advertised fee of $200,000 placing him among the most expensive sires in North America.
Quality Road, a multiple Grade 1 winner by Elusive Quality, stood for an advertised fee of $70,000 in 2018 – up from $35,000 the prior year – after a career season in which he was represented by champions Abel Tasman and Caledonia Road.
