Catalog still in flux for Keeneland horses of racing age sale

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The third renewal of the Keeneland November horses of racing age sale will be held Thursday afternoon, with a catalog that should continue to shift until sale time.

Supplemental entries are being considered until the day of the sale, which has grown from an original catalog of 209 hips released in mid-October to 234 hips with the latest round of supplemental entries released last week. However, as of Sunday morning, there also were 70 early withdrawals from the catalog – including graded stakes winner Reincarnate, who sold for $375,000 to K.O.I.D. at the inaugural Keeneland Championship sale on Oct. 30 at Del Mar.

The catalog also will continue to change as some of the entrants are still actively racing and training. For example, the latest round of supplemental entries included the 3-year-old filly Tripolina, who won the 2023 Display Stakes and finished second in that year’s Grade 3 Mazarine Stakes. Less than a week before the sale, the filly finished third in the Grade 3 Bessarabian Stakes on Saturday at Woodbine.

Horses will be offered both in the ring at Keeneland and remotely from various training locations.

“This [sale] combines the excitement of the brick-and-mortar auction event with the versatility of selling horses from remote locations,” said Cormac Breathnach, Keeneland’s senior director of sales operations. “This sale will provide buyers the opportunity to replenish their racing stock with the best horses available ahead of the winter racing season.”

Horses of racing age became an increasingly important component of the second week of the Keeneland November breeding stock sale for several years, and in 2022, the auction house broke the market segment out into its own single-session sale with separately reported figures. The inaugural edition was topped by the $1 million colt Extortion. Last year’s sale was led by a pair of $350,000 lots, in the 3-year-old filly Double Down and the 2-year-old colt Edgartown.

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