Harness: 2026 Lexington Selected Yearling Sale begins with record average

--quotes by Derick Giwner--

The first session of the 2026 Lexington Selected Yearling Sale started quickly and never let up, resulting in the sale's highest-ever average of $199,883, topping 2024's then-record of $190,547. The gross of $22,187,000 for 111 horses was just off 2024's total of $22,294,000 for 117 yearlings.

"It was a very energetic night. I felt the crowd was fantastic - inside, outside, in the back ring - and it's a credit to the consignors like we always say," said co-sales manager David Reid. "Trotters are extremely strong and pacers held up great. It's a record average, and we're up 10% over last year and 5% over the year before. We're not far off the best gross, and we only sold 111 horses tonight because we had few outs and stuff like that. So, overall, it was a very good session and hats off to everybody. We always give the credit to the breeders for reinvesting and stuff like that. Sire power carried through, and the first crops sold well. So, we've got to be happy.

"I'm always conservative myself personally because you never know what's going to happen. Bruce (co-sales manager Bruce Brinkerhoff) and myself felt coming into the sale that we had a strong opening session. We take some heat for having too many of the certain sires, but I'm going to keep beating my drum that you can't have too many Walners or Chapter Sevens, and you can't have too many of the best pacing sires. Chapter Seven averaged $317,000, and you've got Walner that averaged $237,000. Walner sold 30 yearlings and Chapter Seven sold 17. We had great European support here tonight. You've got a contingent of top-notch trainers that were here, and they're shopping for their owners and we had European owners. I thought the participation was great. I think the first crop of Confederate's sold well, and I think your staple pacers held up well. You walk in here tonight and see so many happy people and feel the vibe, at least I felt it. I thought it was a great way to start the week, for sure."

Topping the session was HIP 79 Kountry Prince, a Walner colt consigned by Kountry Lane Standardbreds. Kountry Prince is the third foal out of $1,576,251 earner Plunge Blue Chip and his 2-year-old Chapter Seven half-sister Kountry Plunge is undefeated and will be an odds-on favorite in Friday night's $250,000 Big Apple final at Vernon Downs.

"I liked the pedigree, the conformation and the video," said Ake Svanstedt, who trained Plunge Blue Chip and trains Kountry Plunge, noting he bought the horse for six Swedish owners, including himself. "He was good-gaited, and the family has had a lot of successful horses. This was the number one for me."

Sarah Svanstedt also said she pushed Ake to buy Kountry Prince given the powerful family and their familiarity with it.

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Having the sale topper was a feather in the cap for Ola Yoder's Kountry Lane Standardbreds, and the Indiana nursery was delighted with the outcome, especially since they also led the consignor average board at $322,500 for their four yearlings.

"I never thought we'd do that. We took a lot of knocks along the way, but tonight it all came together," said Farm Manager Duane Miller. "I thought he could be the top seller just because of the amount of traffic and the people that looked at it. There were a lot of people that had him vetted out, like had their vets come and do all the scans and stuff, so I knew he was on a lot of people's list. If you have the sale topper in Lexington, that's an accomplishment."

Svanstedt wound up the top purchaser on the night, shelling out $2,415,000 for eight yearlings.

"There are always high prices on the first day, but there are nice horses, also," he said. "Now we'll see if it's worth it. I backed off on a couple, of course, because they were too expensive."

Another person that was active was agent Peter Cimino, as he purchased two Kentuckiana Farms offerings in HIP 71 Maestro Volo, a Chapter Seven colt, and HIP 96 Special Account, a Walner colt, for $800,000 and $650,000, respectively. Cimino signed the tickets for Norwegian connections.

Jeff Snyder went home with a pair of yearlings from the Hunterton Sales Agency consignment in HIP 4 Lake Placid for $700,000 and HIP 76 Indestructible for $600,000. Lake Placid is out of a half-sister to Snyder's Hambletonian champion Apex, while Indestructible is a brother to a number of top fillies, led by $1,187,798 earner Venerable.

"He's a beautiful colt. I spoke to several trainers and they loved him. We like to stick with the family. I'm a family man," Snyder said about Lake Placid. "He was expensive, but we kind of were expecting it to be that price. Actually, we thought it was going to be between 700 to 800, so it was the lower end, and I have a partner Lennart Ågren (S R F Stable). Marcus (Melander) will end up training the horse as he trains all my horses. We're looking to get lucky.”

In regards to Indestructible, Snyder remarked, "I thought that one would go for a lot more. I think just because it was HIP 76, people were waiting for 79. I'm thrilled with it actually. He's a beautiful, beautiful colt. He's a full brother to Venerable, and I remember Venerable had the same dark, black color. I'm very happy with that. I thought I would have to go higher. I was prepared to do so. That fills my shopping list for tonight, and I can't wait for Harrisburg."

Buoyed by those two horses, Steve and Cindy Stewart's Hunterton Sales Agency was leading consignor by gross at $4,974,000 for their 23 offerings.

"It doesn't get old. The sale is extremely strong," Steve Stewart stated. "We felt like Jeff Snyder was going to buy Jolene Jolene's (Indestructible), and he said that he was far from done, but it takes two people, and that's fine. We're very satisfied. How can you be unsatisfied at $600,000? It was a very, very good sale all the way around.

"I just think if you mirror the Thoroughbreds, there's just a lot of money out there chasing good horses, and there are a lot of good horses in the sale. They've done their usual job of collecting some of the best Standardbred yearlings in the world, and it's showing in the sale ring. We've got a lot of nice horses still to sell."

The sale now moves to a morning "post time" on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the offerings increase by a large number.

"We're going to start a little earlier tomorrow morning. It's well-documented and there are going to be about 30 more horses selling in tomorrow's session," Reid said. "As jubilant as we are tonight with the averages, tomorrow the average is probably going to be down a little bit over year over year, just because of the number of horses sold. Perhaps the momentum will continue, which I expect it will.

"There are nearly 800 horses in the sale. We've only sold 111 of them tonight, so we've still got a long way to go."

HIPs 131-391 are slated to go through the ring on Tuesday, but first the Breeders Crown Charity Challenge auction will take place with stallion shares for nine top horses offered.