Aided by four yearlings that sold for $300,000 or more, Keeneland’s September yearling sale in Lexington maintained some of its earlier momentum Saturday as Book 3 kicked off. The sixth of 13 sessions posted more gains as compared to the first session for Book 3 last year.
The auction’s sixth of 13 sessions had a $400,000 session-leader at of 3 p.m. Saturday. Mike Pegram bought that filly, a daughter of first-crop sire War Pass and unraced stakes producer Avenging Tomisue, by Belong to Me.
Bullish results out of the Keeneland September auction’s first week suggest that the market for yearlings might have turned the corner. Through Thursday, the first five sessions had easily outpaced last year’s opening week results.
The Keeneland September yearling sale showed no signs of slowing down on its fifth day of selling Thursday, with a pair of million-dollar-plus yearlings providing a surprising bump to figures that would have been strong even without them.
Two horses, a colt by Awesome Again and a filly by Unbridled’s Song, sold for multi-million-dollar prices within 30 minutes of each other early in the afternoon of the sale’s fifth session on Thursday. The horses were the second- and third-most expensive horses sold at the marathon auction, which started on Sunday.
North American Thoroughbred breeding activity continued to decline in 2010, according to breeding statistics released Thursday by the Jockey Club.
At the Keeneland September yearling sale, consignors use everything from traditional advertising to detailed buyer databases to help them attract bidders for their horses.
Keeneland’s two-week September sale kicked on Wednesday, posting more gains. Led by a $650,000 full brother to graded stakes winner Hightap, Wednesday’s fourth session sold 215 horses for $32,819,500, up 38 percent from last year’s aggregate for 196.
Keeneland’s marathon September auction rolled into its fourth day Wednesday with momentum from the previous day’s double-digit gains and appeared to be on its way to another strong day of selling.
With its two select sessions already in the books, Keeneland got down to the nitty gritty of selling horses on Tuesday, the third day of its marathon September yearling sale. And the nitty gritty was good. Average price for the 200 horses that went through the ring on Tuesday was $163,783, an increase of 22.4 percent over the comparable figure from last year’s third session.
