Keeneland introduces second-chance session for Book 1 RNA yearlings

Luck plays a part in getting a yearling to the sales ring successfully, just as luck plays a part in success on the racetrack.

A horse’s placement within the sale catalog can be compared to the luck of the draw in assigning post positions. A letter of the alphabet is drawn, with the catalog book then beginning on yearlings whose dams’ names begin with that letter. Breeders and consignors typically hope to not be assigned a hip number early in the catalog, when the sale may still be building momentum as bidders feel out one another and the market ceiling.

“It’s not an unreasonable concern for a lot of people,” said Tony Lacy, who took over as Keeneland’s vice president of sales this year. “I think a good horse will sell from under a rock, to be quite frank, but sometimes the market will take a little time to warm up.”

This year, Keeneland will attempt to address some of those concerns for breeders and consignors with the RNA Reoffer segment of its September yearling sale. The second and final Book 1 session, on Tuesday, Sept. 14, will be immediately followed by an opportunity for yearlings who failed to meet their reserve during Monday’s opening session – including those who may have been disadvantaged by an early catalog placement – to come back through the ring and be re-offered.

“I think we’ve got to be flexible, listen, try to be innovative,” Lacy said. “Coming from the consignor side of things, I think Cormac [Breathnach, Keeneland’s new director of sales operations] and I both can attest that we’ve got to try and find ways that make this process work at all levels in all situations as well as possible. I think it can be helpful in certain circumstances where horses are missed or underappreciated at a certain time.”

In order to participate in the RNA Reoffer session, sellers must inform the Keeneland sales office in writing within 30 minutes of the close of the first session on Monday, Sept. 13. A reserve must be placed and approved, which must be within 15 percent, in either direction, of the hammer price when the horse went through the ring the first time. Sellers will have the right to accept a private offer for the horse beforehand. Regardless of whether the horse is privately sold or sold when re-offered in the ring, that result will be recorded as if the horse sold in its initial time slot, with only one record published in the final sales results.

Flipping through the first pages of this year’s Book 1 illustrates how high-end horses may land early in the day through simple luck of the draw. Hip No. 1 is a colt from the highly anticipated first crop of Triple Crown winner Justify; Hip No. 2 is the only yearling in the catalog by the late Galileo, out of Grade 1 winner I’m a Chatterbox.

“With a book like we have in Book 1, there’s no way you don’t get stars no matter what letter you start on,” Breathnach said. “When you draw a letter, you’re always gonna have something like that.”

Much like a starter and gate crew hope for an uneventful break from the gate, the Keeneland sales staff hopes that the opening pages of Book 1 fly by smoothly, saying the RNA Reoffer program will be a success if it’s not needed at all.

“It’s there as a mechanism to try and create a safeguard for certain individuals, and we hope there won’t be many at all,” Lacy said. “It’ll be a success if there’s none.”