Keeneland April sale find new niche

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Keeneland April sale had a solid run with its 2-year-old graduates over two decades, boasting horses such as dual Eclipse Award champion and Preakness Stakes winner Lookin At Lucky, dual classic winner and champion Big Brown, and additional Eclipse winners Lady Eli, Roy H, and Beautiful Pleasure. In recent years, however, the company has reimagined this auction. This year, it returns from a pandemic-imposed hiatus with another new look.

The Keeneland April sale of horses of racing age is set for Monday – three days following the close of Keeneland’s spring meet, and five days before the Kentucky Derby down the highway in Louisville. The auction, which had 66 horses cataloged as of Wednesday, prior to any supplements, will be conducted as an integrated event, with horses presented for sale both physically at Keeneland as well as digitally at off-site locations, at the choice of the sellers and consignors. For example, Elite Sales will offer three horses currently in training at Santa Anita, while the offerings from Stonestreet Farm are stabled in Florida.

“We are pleased with the interest among horsemen in returning the April sale to the calendar after we had to cancel it last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Keeneland president, CEO, and interim director of sales Shannon Arvin said in a press release unveiling the catalog. “Its placement this year at the start of Kentucky Derby week combined with the innovative digital catalog and remote selling options provide an exciting opportunity for people looking to enhance their racing operations.”

Keeneland auctioneers will present and preside over all offerings on-site. Buyers both on-site at Keeneland and working remotely using telephone or internet bidding will be able to bid on all offerings.

Keeneland conducted an April sale of 2-year-olds in training from 1993 to 2014, after which the auction went on hiatus. The auction company revived and reinvented the sale in April 2019 as a combination of its traditional juvenile offerings along with older horses of racing age, a market segment that has gained popularity at the company’s November and January mixed sales in recent years. The April sale immediately got a high-profile graduate from the addition of the racing-age section. Higher Power sold for $250,000 to Lane’s End Bloodstock on behalf of Hronis Racing. Less than five months later, he won the Grade 1 Pacific Classic and retired last fall as a millionaire with three other Grade 1 placings.

Keeneland planned to conduct a similar sale in April 2020. However, that sale, along with the track’s spring race meeting, was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although this sale is not formally part of the 2-year-old in training sales calendar, a quartet of juveniles are among those cataloged, and two made starts at the Keeneland spring meet. American Bound, from the first crop of American Freedom, won her debut on opening day, April 2. She is consigned to Keeneland April by her trainer Joe Sharp, as agent. Offaly Fast made two starts at the meet, finishing third in an April 2 maiden race and fourth on April 18. The Will Take Charge filly is consigned by Niall Collum, as agent.