The Keeneland September yearling sale isn’t exactly the pressure cooker of Kentucky Derby week, where hordes follow the favorite’s every move on the grounds, the walkover is an emotional gauntlet, the paddock is packed, and finally, a crowd of more than 150,000 belts out “My Old Kentucky Home” in one voice just before the horses enter the starting gate. But the auction is its own kind of high-pressure environment. Sale yearlings, most venturing away from their home farms for the first time, must be on their best behavior for prospective buyers, navigating a crowded shed row among other anxious young horses to show dozens of times in a day. On sale day, they make the hike across the grounds to the crowded back ring, with buyers and spectators taking one last look, and then step into the small auction ring with an unfamiliar handler, faced with a cacophony of bid spotters calling out in concert with the auctioneer’s booming voice. American Pharoah’s famously mellow and kind nature allowed him to handle the maximum pressures of the racetrack with ease, one contributing factor in his 2015 Triple Crown sweep, breaking a 37-year drought in the classic series. And he has passed that personality on to his offspring, allowing them to showcase themselves at their best in the commercial market. His first crop of yearlings is averaging $626,338 heading into the Keeneland September sale. Summerfield Sales sold an American Pharoah colt for $1 million at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale and a filly for $450,000 at the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred sale just a few days later. “Mentally, they handled everything,” said Francis Vanlangendonck of Summerfield. “She got out 94 times [to show], and she never backed up, she never slowed down, just like the colt did at the first sale. They have a great mental capacity. That’s what Bob Baffert told me about American Pharoah – he’d just run and go home and go to sleep. This filly and the colt, we’d show them all day, and as soon as we’d shut down, they’d lay down and go to sleep. No issues with the mental part of it.” American Pharoah, who stands at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud, has 81 yearlings cataloged at Keeneland September, 66 in the first four days that make up the marquee Book 1 portion. The group includes a half-sister to last year’s sale-topper, sold to Coolmore for $2.7 million. Last year’s topper and her half-sister are out of the Grade 2-placed Beau Genius mare Pretty ’n Smart, whose eight foals to race are all winners, led by Grade 1 winner Cupid, Grade 3 winners Heart Ashley and Ashley’s Kitty, and stakes winner Indianapolis. VanMeter-Gentry Sales consigns the filly, as agent. Tom VanMeter delivered American Pharoah, by Pioneerof the Nile and out of the Yankee Gentleman mare Littleprincessemma, at his farm on Feb. 2, 2012, for breeder Ahmed Zayat. “I delivered him,” VanMeter said, holding his hands up. “These hands, right here, delivered American Pharoah. . . So it’s really special.” Taylor Made Sales, a perennial leading consignor in the United States, offered American Pharoah at the 2013 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale, where he ultimately went back to Zayat with a final bid of $300,000. Taylor Made will offer 14 American Pharoah yearlings at Keene-land September, including a half-brother to Eclipse Award champion Points Offthebench and a colt out of Grade 1 winner Joyful Victory. “It kind of seems like yesterday that we had him,” Mark Taylor said. “I think he’s putting a lot of himself into his foals. The things that stick out are just awesome shoulders, really good walks. They’re all movers. I’ve seen probably 40 American Pharoahs, and I haven’t seen one that had a below-average walk, 90 percent of those are above average. He had that walk. And I think the other thing is just, mentally, they’re very good, they seem to handle stress great. Just very sound horses mentally. So that’s a great combination – if he’s consistently passing on those traits right there, I think he’s a slam dunk. “If you go look at his yearling picture from when he was with us, they all have the exact same shoulder. And then, when you see them move – he just unhinges that shoulder and really has a good overreach behind. You can’t say for sure, but they’ve got all the parts you’d be looking for.” American Pharoah covered 208 mares in his first Northern Hemisphere season, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred, and 55 were Grade 1/Group 1 winners or the dams of winners at that level. His other star offerings at Keeneland September include a half-sister to two-time Eclipse Award champion Songbird; a half-sister to dual classic winner and champion I’ll Have Another; a half-brother to Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Mucho Macho Man; a half-brother to two-time Breeders’ Cup winner Secret Circle; a half-brother to Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint winner Bar of Gold; and a half-sister to Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Hootenanny. He also is represented by half-siblings to Grade 1 winners I’m a Chatterbox, Ice Box, Iotapa, Mani Bhavan, Salty, and Wedding Toast, as well as yearlings out of Grade 1 winners Cat Moves and Harmony Lodge. Buyers and consignors don’t expect the market demand for the young stallion to let up anytime soon. Anticipating that continued excitement, Taylor said he already has plans to breed mares to American Pharoah in spring 2019. “Usually, I don’t like breeding to horses when they have their first-crop 2-year-olds – it’s just dangerous,” Taylor said. “But I’m going to be breeding to American Pharoah next year. If he doesn’t get runners, I’ll be shocked. “He got the mares, and he’s doing his job. He’s putting quality into every one of them. I think big things are on the horizon.”