Graded winner House Rules brings $750,000 at the Keeneland January horses of all ages sale

Multiple graded stakes winner House Rules brought the house down, selling for $750,000 late in Tuesday's session of the Keeneland January horses of all ages sale to push the auction's Book 1 portion across the finish line with year-to-year gains, including a double-digit spike in average price.

A group of 242 horses changed hands on Tuesday for gross receipts of $17,805,100, marking a gain of 18 percent from $15,036,900 in the second session of the 2018 auction. That session was led by two seven-figure horse. What this year's comparable session lacked in fireworks, it made up for in competitiveness. Five horses sold for $400,000 and up, compared to four during last year's second session. An additional five horses sold for prices between $300,000 and $400,000, compared to two in that bracket in the comparable 2018 session.

"It was very competitive bidding on these mares," Keeneland's director of sales Geoffrey Russell said. "That was a very strong part of the market today - and a lot of them, too."

The session's average price was $73,575, up 12 percent from $65,663 in this session last year. The median price was $35,000, up 40 percent from $25,000 last year. The buyback rate was 22 percent, compared to 26 percent last year.

With Tuesday's action in the books, the two sessions that made up Book 1 of Keeneland January closed with 465 horses sold for a total gross of $38,857,300, a gain of 37 percent from 415 horses sold for $28,302,000 through the first two sessions last year. Book 1 was, of course, led by the auction-record-tying $5 million sale of champion Abel Tasman to Coolmore on Monday evening.

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The January sale's cumulative average price is $83,564, tracking upward 23 percent from $68,198 through two sessions last year, while the median price sits unchanged at $37,000. The cumulative buyback rate is 26 percent, improved from 32 percent.

"Quality sells, that's probably the right phrase there," Russell said, adding that he credited consignors for the improved buyback rate. “These are very professional people. They have a good gauge on the market, they know what sells. I would throw the credit back to the consignors. They're adjusting to the market and pricing their horses correctly."

WinStar Farm purchased House Rules for $750,000. The purchase marked a return home for House Rules, a daughter of WinStar stallion Distorted Humor who was bred by the farm in partnership with El Catorce Inc. She was sold for $90,000 at the 2012 Keeneland September yearling sale to Leverett Miller, as agent, and raced for the late Joseph V. Shields Jr. and trainer Jimmy Jerkens.

Multiple Grade 2-placed as a 3-year-old, House Rules emerged as a 4-year-old in 2015, winning the Grade 3 Rampart Stakes at Gulfstream, Grade 3 Top Flight Handicap at Aqueduct, and the Bal Harbour Handicap at Gulfstream. She placed in three graded stakes that season, including a third-place finish in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes.

Shields died last October at age 80, and Keeneland January marks the first phase of a dispersal of his stock, which is being handled by Blackwood Stables, as agent.

House Rules sold carrying her second foal, to the cover of Quality Road. WinStar general manager David Hanley, who signed the sales ticket, said it has not yet been discussed what stallion the mare might be bred to in 2019. He noted that Distorted Humor's presence in the pedigree was one reason to bring House Rules home. The WinStar stallion has emerged as a standout broodmare sire, with his daughters producing the likes of champion and leading money winner Arrogate and Grade 1/Group 1 winners Book Review, Constitution, Elate, Moanin, Molly Morgan, New Money Honey, and Practical Joke.

"She's a ton of quality, really beautiful mare," Hanley said. "She was obviously a really top racemare, and we loved the cover. We've been waiting for her all day, and we're delighted to get her."

House Rules is out of the Mutakddim mare Teamgeist, a Group 2 winner in Argentina who was later Grade 1 placed in the U.S. Teamgeist is also the dam of Grade 1-placed Win the Space.

“It is a very bittersweet moment but we are glad the market appreciated all of Jerry Shields’s horses," said Katey Caddel, director of client relations and bloodstock for Blackwood Stables. "He was an avid supporter of the sport and truly loved this game and that is reflected in his horses. We are proud to sell them here, but obviously a bittersweet moment.”

The session's second-highest price also came late in the day, as Best Performance, part of the supplemental catalog, sold for $560,000 to Three Chimneys Farm. The Broken Vow filly was consigned as a racing or broodmare prospect by Lane's End, as agent.

Best Performance put together a solid and versatile juvenile campaign in 2017. After finishing second in a pair of dirt sprint stakes, the Astoria at Belmont and Grade 3 Schuylerville at Saratoga, she stretched out and finished second in three straight stakes on the turf - the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies, Grade 3 Miss Grillo at Belmont, and the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar. She was beaten just three-quarters of a length by Rushing Fall in the Breeders’ Cup.

Best Performance is out of the winning Smart Strike mare Give My Regards, also the dam of stakes-placed My California. Give My Regards is a half-sister to Grade 3 winner Broadway Empire and Grade 2-placed stakes winner Cinderella's Dream.

Albert Racing purchased the most expensive yearling in the session, a $390,000 Union Rags colt. The colt, consigned by Indian Creek, as agent, is the first foal out of the Bernardini mare Zondaq. Zondaq is a half-sister to Grade 2 winner Discreet Dancer and stakes winners Travelin Man and Sweet N Discreet.

The colt's fifth dam is Lassie Dear, meaning this is the extended family of champion and leading sire A.P. Indy, classic winner and sire Summer Squall, and classic winner and champion Lemon Drop Kid.