Keeneland January mixed sale pushed back a day

LEXINIGTON, Ky. –The Keeneland January horses of all ages sale is the first major-market Thoroughbred auction after the turn of the calendar to 2022. However, the sale actually falls in the midst of the mixed-sale season, looking to keep the momentum going after breeding stock sales in November and December posted solid gains that showed optimism for the upcoming breeding season.

The four-session auction, arranged into two two-session books, is set to begin on Tuesday, a day later than originally planned due to logistical challenges caused by a record snowstorm in the Lexington area on Thursday. Lexington received 9.9 inches of snow, according to the National Weather Service. That figure broke the previous Jan. 6 record – 9.5 inches of snow in 1910 – and ranks No. 7 all-time in most snow ever received in Lexington. Due to dangerous road and traffic conditions that were expected to persist as a result of continuing frigid temperatures, Keeneland officials delayed the ship-in date for horses to the sale grounds from Friday until Saturday. The altered pre-sale activities had a domino effect on the start of the sale itself.

“Our top priority is the safety of the horses and sales participants, and the delayed start to the sale will allow for their safe arrival and give consignors adequate time to show their horses,” Keeneland vice president of sales Tony Lacy said. “Our customers have been virtually unanimous in their recommendation to make this change.”

The Keeneland January sale will still run over four sessions, all beginning at 10 a.m. Eastern. The cataloged offerings total 1,631 horses – in-foal broodmares, broodmare prospects, newly turned or “short” yearlings, horses of racing age, stallions, and stallion prospects. The opportunity to supplement horses to the catalog was heartily taken advantage of, with the catalog growing considerably from the initial book of 1,516 horses released in early December.

The original catalog was highlighted by broodmares and race fillies such as Co Cola, who is carrying a Flatter full sibling to her Grade 1 winner Search Results; Grade 1 winner Let Faith Arise, in foal to successful young sire Nyquist; and stakes winner Her World, a newly turned 3-year-old. Supplemental entries include actively racing mares such as Grade 2 winner Inthemidstofbiz and eight-time stakes winner Hello Beautiful.

“Given the dynamic markets we’ve seen in September and November, the January sale will offer breeders another terrific opportunity to acquire quality broodmares and broodmare prospects in advance of the breeding season,” Lacy said. “Additionally, horsemen with an eye toward the racetrack can shop a nice selection of short yearlings and horses of racing age to round out their orders.”

The opening session of the sale will conclude with the live auctioning of a no-guarantee 2022 breeding season to Gun Runner, last year’s record-breaking leading freshman sire. Co-owners Three Chimneys Farm and Ron Winchell will donate all proceeds to the victims of the tornadoes that ravaged numerous western Kentucky towns in December.

Gun Runner is set to stand for an advertised fee of $125,000 in 2022. In addition to proceeds from the season, Three Chimneys and Kentucky Downs, which Winchell co-owns, will collectively add another $100,000 to the donation.

The Keeneland January sale will be hard-pressed to keep up with returns from the 2021 auction, which, bolstered by the high-profile dispersals of the legendary Sam-Son Farm and the prominent racing stable of the late Paul Pompa Jr., was one of the few mixed sales to finish with gains in the COVID-hampered 2020-21 mixed-sale season.

Danceforthecause, a successful broodmare for Sam-Son, and Regal Glory, a multiple graded stakes-winning homebred for Pompa, tied for the top price of $925,000. Those two led seven horses sold for prices in excess of 2020’s high price of $640,000. Bolstered by that strength at the top of the market, Keeneland January’s cumulative average price was $47,271, which represented a gain of 9 percent from 2020. The median price was $15,000, up from the 2020 final figure of $13,000.