Godolphin sells 17 mares for $1.1 million at Keeneland January

LEXINGTON, Ky. – A draft of broodmares from Godolphin’s powerhouse operation added interest to the second half of the Keeneland January sale. The international outfit sold 17 mares out of its Kentucky broodmare band for a total of $1,103,000.

Godolphin’s renowned operation will seek to sweep the Eclipse Awards as outstanding breeder and owner for the third straight time when those awards are presented Jan. 25. This also was the third straight year Godolphin brought a contingent to Keeneland January, as it sold 26 mares in 2022 and 27 last year.

Godolphin tries to keep a broodmare band where it will have about 100 2-year-olds in training each year. The program is constantly adding accomplished racing fillies from its homebred program back into the broodmare band or adding new mares at a high level – and thus, the band must be managed to keep the numbers in line.

“They’re families that have been curated over a number of years, and they can’t keep them all – it’s impossible,” said Tony Lacy, Keeneland’s vice president of sales. “So it allows [other buyers] to be able to participate in those families and hopefully to develop a program of their own at a high level. It’s a great opportunity.”

Leading the Godolphin offerings, and the Wednesday session overall, was the winning young mare Marvelous Time, sold for $220,000 to Centofantic Thoroughbreds, as agent for Brittlyn Stable. The mare, carrying a foal from the first crop of Godolphin’s Dubai World Cup winner Mystic Guide, is out of Folk, winner of the U.A.E. 1000 Guineas and U.A.E. Oaks before finishing third in the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks.

Other top lots included $130,000 Pin Up, in foal to the operation’s rising young sire Nyquist, and $110,000 Keepshercool, carrying a foal from the first crop of Speaker’s Corner. Pin Up, sold to Imagine, with Donato Lanni as agent, is out of Grade 1 winner and Broodmare of the Year Cara Rafaela, best known as the dam of champion and successful sire Bernardini.

Keepshercool, sold to Winning Direction, is out of Grade 1 winner Composure, dam of Grade 2 winner Penwith and others.

Other Godolphin mares offered were out of champion and stakes producer Ashado and Grade 1 winners and stakes producers Indy Five Hundred and It’s Tricky. In addition to Mystic Guide, Nyquist, and Speaker’s Corner, Godolphin’s other Darley stallions represented by offerings in foal included Frosted, Hard Spun, Maxfield, and Midshipman.