Abel Tasman sells for $5 million as prices surge at Keeneland sale

Powered by the auction-record-tying $5 million sale of champion Abel Tasman, the Keeneland January horses-of-all-ages sale wrapped up its Book 1 portion this week with year-over-year gains.

The Monday and Tuesday sessions that made up Book 1 closed with 465 horses sold for $38,857,300, a gain of 37 percent from $28,302,000 paid for 415 horses through the first two sessions last year. The sale’s cumulative average price was $83,564, up 23 percent from $68,198 through two sessions last year, while the median price sat unchanged at $37,000. The cumulative buyback rate was 26 percent, improved from 32 percent.

“It was very solid all across the board,” said Keeneland’s director of sales, Geoffrey Russell. “Even taking [Abel Tasman] out of the numbers, the sale is very well up. Short yearlings were very much in demand; there’s a great appetite for them still.

“January always, to me, follows on from November, I think. You can look at the [Keeneland November breeding stock sale] and look at this sale and say today was a good continuation.”

Abel Tasman was the undisputed star of the show and lived up to her advance billing, as Coolmore went to $5 million to acquire the 5-year-old daughter of Quality Road. The price tied the auction record Britton House Stud paid in 2000 for Grade 3 winner Mackie, a half-sister to Kentucky Derby winner Sea Hero in foal to the great Mr. Prospector.

“She’s a queen though, isn’t she?” Dermot Ryan, manager of Coolmore’s Ashford Stud, said after signing the ticket on Abel Tasman. “They’re very rare when they come across like that, animals like her. She had everything. She’d be anybody’s dream filly to own, wouldn’t she?”

Ryan said Abel Tasman will be bred this winter or spring. Coolmore stands Triple Crown winners American Pharoah and Justify at Ashford Stud. American Pharoah’s first foals, who have been a commercial success, are juveniles of 2019, while Justify debuts next month as the most expensive new stallion on the continent.

“Hopefully, she’ll go on and produce herself from one of our own stallions,” Ryan said. “American Pharoah, Justify, Uncle Mo, Galileo – all those directions.”

Abel Tasman concluded her career with a record of 16-8-4-0 and earnings of $2,793,385. Simon Callaghan trained her to win the Grade 1 Starlet Stakes as a juvenile. Transferred to Bob Baffert early in her 3-year-old season, she won the 2017 Kentucky Oaks, Acorn Stakes, and Coaching Club American Oaks and finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff to champion Forever Unbridled. She was honored with the 2017 Eclipse Award as outstanding 3-year-old filly.

In 2018, Abel Tasman added Grade 1 triumphs in the Ogden Phipps and Personal Ensign stakes.

Abel Tasman was bred in Kentucky by Clearsky Farm, with China Horse Club buying into the filly early in her 3-year-old season. Sending a high-profile horse through public auction is a common way to fairly dissolve partnerships. The mare was consigned by Taylor Made Sales as agent for her owners.

Abel Tasman is from a productive female family, boding well for her second career as a broodmare. She is out of the Deputy Minister mare Vargas Girl, also the dam of Grade 3 winner Sky Girl and stakes-placed Moonlight Sky. Vargas Girl is a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Bevo, Grade 3 winner Moonlight Sonata, and stakes-placed Carson Hall. Moonlight Sonata, in turn, is the dam of Grade 2 winners Beethoven and Wilburn as well as stakes winner La Appassionata.

Other top prices during Book 1 included $750,000 for A Star Is Born, a well-related Galileo mare in foal to War Front and purchased by Summer Wind Farm; multiple graded stakes winner House Rules, sold for $750,000 to WinStar Farm; and Grade 1 winner Fatale Bere, purchased by Shadai Farm for $700,000.

A $390,000 Union Rags colt led the yearlings, selling to Albert Racing. The colt, consigned by Indian Creek as agent, is the first foal out of the Bernardini mare Zondaq, a half-sister to Grade 2 winner Discreet Dancer and stakes winners Travelin Man and Sweet N Discreet.

◗ Race announcer Michael Wrona took a turn behind the Keeneland microphone on Tuesday as a pedigree announcer during the January sale, working alongside Keeneland announcer Kurt Becker and others. Wrona said it was “enjoyable and enlightening to experience a different style of announcing.”

Wrona, who was let go from his race-calling position at Santa Anita in November, will return to Kentucky later this year to call the meet at Kentucky Downs.

◗ Ask the Question, the dam of multiple Grade 1 winner Heart to Heart, sold for $150,000 to Calumet Farm during Tuesday’s session. Calumet stands Heart to Heart’s sire, turf champion English Channel. Ask the Question sold carrying a foal from the first crop of champion and leading money winner Arrogate.