2-year-old colt by Into Mischief sells for $1 million to top Keeneland horses of racing age sale

LEXINGTON, Ky. – A 2-year-old colt by Into Mischief sold for $1 million to lead the way as Keeneland continued to fine-tune its November horses of racing age marketplace with a stand-alone auction Thursday.

Keeneland reported 161 horses sold for gross receipts of $11,029,500 in Thursday's single-session sale, which immediately followed the conclusion of its 10-day November breeding stock sale. The average price was $68,506, while the median was $35,000. The buyback rate was 20 percent.

This was the first time these fall horses of racing age have been broken out into their own sale with stand-alone figures, rather than being absorbed into the latter end of the November breeding stock sale. As thus, there are no truly comparable year-to-year figures. Last year's highest concentration of racing stock offerings, on the final day of the November breeding stock sale, were led by the $825,000 colt Strava. That session of the sale, which also included broodmares and weanlings, posted an average of $39,491 and a median of $14,000.

“This segment is its own sale now, and we think it’s off to a really good start,” said Cormac Breathnach, Keeneland’s director of sales operations. “It’s contiguous with the breeding stock sale, but it’s a different market with a later entry deadline and more flexibility with supplements. There’s now a concentration of racehorses before trainers rather than before when the racehorses were spread out over days with breeding stock. We did a little over $6 million in gross last year when we put the racehorses at the end of the breeding stock sale, and this year we did just over $11 million. That’s significant."

Keeneland broke out the horses of racing age into its own sale this year to continue to spotlight a portion of the marketplace that has been increasingly popular in recent years and to allow for what sales staff called a "dynamic and flexible" catalog. The entry deadline for the November breeding stock sale was Aug. 1. It was felt that continuing to ask sellers to make plans that far ahead of actively racing horses would continue to lead to a high scratch rate for that portion of the sale. Instead, Keeneland created a separate catalog, allowing for later entries for active racehorses, and continuing to accept supplemental entries as people fine-tuned their plans. The horses of racing age catalog grew from an initial 295 horses announced in the initial book on Oct. 18 to 356 in the final catalog, with the last 13 supplemental entries added Tuesday. There were 154 withdrawals prior to sale time, compared to 176 withdrawals from last year's final session of the sale, which also included the mixed breeding stock offerings.

The effects of the flexibile catalog were easily seen, as the top three highest-priced horses, all unraced juveniles, were all among the group of supplemental entries added this week. The three were all part of a partnership buyout, as Gandharvi Racing and China Horse Club had purchased all three as yearlings.

Gandharvi Racing walked away with the sale-topper, the $1 million son of perennial leading sire Into Mischief. Gandharvi and China Horse Club had purchased the colt for $350,000 at the Keeneland September yearling sale.

China Horse Club bought out the partnership on the next two horses on the sale leaderboard, a $560,000 Practical Joke filly and a $450,000 Street Sense colt. All of these offerings were handled, as agent, by Highgate Sales, Jacob West and Jill Gordon's consignment operation that debuted in February and has enjoyed an outstanding first year.

The sale-topping Into Mischief colt does not have any published works, but, according to Highgate, has been galloping regularly, with two recent unpublished three-furlong breezes. The colt is out of the unraced Distorted Humor mare Gaudete, dam of Group 3-placed Snowboarder and three other winners, including Bottle Rocket Man, a full brother to this colt. She also is the second dam of Japanese stakes winner Pungxiang.

Gaudete is a half-sister to multiple graded stakes winner and successful sire Munnings, increasing this colt's potential residual value. It is the immediate family of Grade 1 winner Icon Project.

“It was a very healthy day of trade,” said Tony Lacy, Keeneland’s vice president of sales. “There was plenty of action in the barns, in the back rings, and a lot of action in the repository. We know this is a really good time of year for people who are trying to reorganize their barn to transition horses in or out of their programs. They are looking for horses to run at Oaklawn or Fair Grounds or other winter tracks, and here they are able to do their homework and be well educated on the horses that are in front of them. It’s very welcome for both buyers and sellers.”

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