Keeneland April sale returns with strong entries, new format

There’s no time to take a breath after Keeneland’s opening weekend featuring eight graded stakes races. The track’s dark days this week will feature action from several additional graded stakes performers – as well as young horses hoping to earn that distinction in the future. Several graded stakes winners are in the catalog for the Keeneland April sale, as the boutique 2-year-old auction returns along with a horses of racing age section.

Keeneland conducted its April sale of 2-year-olds in training from 1993 to 2014, after which the auction went on hiatus. Keeneland cataloged 72 juveniles for this year’s comeback renewal, plus an initial draft of 81 horses of racing age, with a handful of supplemental entries later added. The single-session sale is set for Tuesday afternoon, with an under-tack preview show for juveniles on Monday morning. Horses have the option to breeze on Keeneland’s main dirt track or the turf course.

“Keeneland engages in an ongoing dialog with our clients to collect their feedback and adapt our sales formats to meet the ‘market of the moment,’ ” Bob Ellison, Keeneland’s vice president of racing and sales, said when the sale’s return was announced. “The market is fluid from year to year, and our primary goal is to create a sales environment that will produce the best results for our sellers and buyers.”

Elliston also noted that the Keeneland April sale’s strong track record is evidenced by the pair of Eclipse Award champions emerging from the most recent edition of the sale in 2014, Lady Eli and Roy H.

The 2-year-old portion of this year’s sale features some of America’s standout commercial stallions, including one filly by perennial leading sire Tapit. The filly, who was a $775,000 weanling purchase, is out of Grade 1 winner My Conquestadory, making her a half-sister to this year’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth runner-up Bourbon War.

Triple Crown winner American Pharoah’s blockbuster first crop is represented by multiple juveniles still set to sell following early outs from the catalog, while his late sire, Pioneerof the Nile, and repatriated grandsire, Empire Maker, both are represented. Other members of a strong freshman sire class with horses from their first crops cataloged include champion Honor Code.

The standouts in the horses of racing age portion of the sale, which precedes the 2-year-old section, are led by a pair of veteran campaigners from trainer Ken McPeek’s barn in Vettori Kin and Senior Investment. Vettori Kin, a Group 1 winner in his native Brazil, won the Grade 3 Louisville Handicap in May at Churchill Downs. Senior Investment won the Grade 3 Lexington Stakes in 2017 at Keeneland before going on to finish third in the Preakness Stakes behind Cloud Computing and champion Classic Empire.

“We’re gonna sell some horses for a big client,” McPeek said. “Good, sound horses. He wants to focus in on the young ones.”

Senior Investment raced in Dubai over the winter, while Vettori Kin could update his catalog page when he starts in an allowance race Friday at Keeneland.

Other graded stakes winners in the catalog include Ezmosh, who took the Grade 3 Arlington Classic last year, and Big Bend, who won the Grade 3 Sycamore Stakes in 2017. Sweet Diane, who finished third in the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks, currently ranks 15th on the Kentucky Oaks points list. The catalog, accounting for outs and supplemental entries through Thursday, also includes graded stakes-placed Dancing Belle, Harlan Strong, Local Hero, Splashy Kisses, and Zapperini; stakes winner Dalarna; and stakes-placed Higher Power, Just Ain’t Right, Life Mission, Seransita, Starving Artist, and Supercommittee.