Acting Out sells for $600,000 to top Keeneland April horses of racing age sale

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Keeneland's motto is “racing as it was meant to be.” But Keeneland is uniquely situated as both a racetrack and a major Thoroughbred sales company, and on Friday, director of auctioneers Ryan Mahan offered an addendum to that motto.

“Racing and sales as it was meant to be,” Mahan intoned into the mic as he opened the Keeneland April horses of racing age sale less than two hours following the close of the track’s spring race meeting.

Fittingly at the auction, which shifted to a new date this year, the sale-topper offered appeal in both the racing and bloodstock arenas for her buyers. Acting Out was a $600,000 purchase by Lane's End Farm to race in its colors and eventually join the broodmare band.

Keeneland reported a total of 58 horses sold Friday evening for gross receipts of $5,349,000. At last year's April sale, which was held the week following the race meet, 37 horses sold for a gross of $2,440,000. Both those figures represent horses sold through the ring, before any private sales.

Friday's average price was $92,224, leaping 40 percent from $65,946 last year. The median was $50,000, up 11 percent from $45,000.

The buyback percentage also improved, checking in at 18 percent, compared to 23 percent in 2021.

"I think from start to finish, the energy was really strong," said Tony Lacy, Keeneland’s vice president of sales. "The enthusiasm all the way through, from every level, I think, was really encouraging."

Lacy was pleased to see that enthusiasm after a 2021 April sale that he said "lacked energy, lacked an enthusiasm we needed to get back." He said the sale immediately following a race card "really, really worked.

"There was a real buzz, it felt like the old days," Lacy continued. "That's something we want to keep and replicate and build on."

Acting Out was purchased in the first hour of the sale in the name of Will and Sarah Farish, who own Lane's End Farm. Bill Farish, their son, sat alongside the farm's bloodstock agent, David Ingordo, to do the bidding, and said that Acting Happy will race the remainder of this year in Lane's End colors before joining the broodmare band in 2023.

Acting Out, a Blame mare, has blossomed this year at age 5, winning both her starts at Oaklawn Park while returning to the races off a seven-month layoff. The mare, who was already stakes-placed at Golden Gate last year, won an allowance race on March 11 in her return. She followed up with a half-length victory over Frank's Rockette in the Carousel Stakes on April 2. Those wins came for owners Sherman Racing, Zvika Akin, and Robert Harkins and trainer Jerry Hollendorfer.

Bill Farish said that no decision has been made as to who will train Acting Out moving forward.

"She's a six-furlong specialist, so she'll be sprinting, and we'll hopefully be back here at Keeneland for the [Grade 2] Thoroughbred Club of America in the fall," he said.

"She's won two in a row, she looks fabulous," he continued. "Really correct. And she goes back to a Stuart Janney family, and we liked that. We hope to breed her one day."

Acting Out, who was consigned by Taylor Made Sales, as agent, is out of the Speightstown mare Riding Point, dam of three winners from as many starters. Riding Point is a half-sister to Grade 3 winner Onus, dam of stakes-placed Gun Boat; and to Hold Harmless, dam of Grade 2-placed Limited Liability. This is the immediate family of Grade 2-winning millionaires Ironicus and On Leave, as well as Grade 3 winners Hunting and Quiet Harbor and stakes winner Seal Cove.

Other top prices for active runners at the sale included the placed 3-year-old colt Blue Devil, sold for $260,000 to Rocket Ship Racing, agent, and William Danzik; Primacy, a winning Union Rags racing or broodmare prospect sold for $250,000 to Finn Green, as agent for Kingsport Farm; and El Camino Real Derby winner Blackadder, headed to trainer Christophe Clement and Manzanita Stable after selling for $250,000.

Keeneland accepted supplemental entries up until sale time, offering sellers the flexibility to keep their assets liquid and to perhaps strike while the iron was hot with racehorses. A perfect example was seen in the final horse through the ring, Summer Anthem, who sold for $150,000 to Three Diamonds Farm less than seven hours after winning Friday's fourth race at Keeneland.

"Being able to be flexible, entering these horses that had shown form during the meet, especially, or at various times over the last month, it made a lot of sense," Lacy said.

Few Thoroughbreds in Kentucky are hotter right now than the young sire Upstart, who is represented by leading Kentucky Derby candidate Zandon and unbeaten Kentucky Oaks candidate Kathleen O. from just his second crop. A share in the 10-year-old Flatter horse, who stands at Airdrie Stud, was offered as the final lot in the Keeneland April sale, selling for $450,000 to Mike Freeny of Dunquin Farm in Paris, Ky.

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