$95K filly tops Keeneland day

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Keeneland's November breeding stock rolled into its second week Monday with young bloodstock still proving popular even as the auction faced continued declines across the board.

The seventh session's top price was the $95,000 stakes winner Champagne Eyes, a 4-year-old Flatter filly. Justin Richardson bought the filly, a half-sister to Grade 2-placed Betty Van. Champagne Eyes, a daughter of the stakes-placed Sensitive Prince mare Corking, won the 2009 Santa Lucia Handicap at Santa Anita and sold as a racing or broodmare prospect.

The day's second highest price of $90,000 also was for a stakes-winning racing or broodmare prospect, Cocktail Attire, by Distorted Humor. A 4-year-old filly, she is out of the stakes-placed El Prado mare Seventh Choice and sold to agent Luis Seglin. Cocktail Attire won the 2008 P. G. Johnson Stakes at the Meadowlands.

Bluewater Sales, agent, sold both fillies.

Monday's session sold 260 horses for a total of $6,039,700, a 15 percent decrease from last year's aggregate for 240 horses. The average price fell 25 percent to $23,230, and the median declined 20 percent to $20,000. Buy-backs improved again, as they had over the weekend, falling from 21 percent last year to 16 percent.

Cumulatively, the first seven sessions of the two-week sold 1,545 horses for a total of $145,456,800, a 10-percent fall from the total for 1,397 at the same point in 2008. The 2009 seven-day average of $94,147 was down 19 percent from 2008's figure, and the $45,000 median was off by 25 percent. But buybacks were down substantially overall to 20 percent, as compared to last year's percentage of 31 percent at the same point in the auction.

The 13-day auction was to continue through Nov. 22 with sessions starting daily at 10 a.m.