Keeneland January sale has tough act to follow

The Keeneland January horses of all ages sale may be the first major-market North American sale of 2020 – but in reality, it actually comes toward the end of the season. Breeding stock sales begin in November, and with breeding sheds opening in February, this is the penultimate opportunity to acquire a broodmare at public auction in Kentucky before then.

“The January sale appeals to many prominent domestic and international breeders who are able to obtain quality broodmares before the start of breeding season,” said Keeneland vice president of racing and sales Bob Elliston.

The catalog for this sale, which consists of five sessions from Jan. 13 to 17, does represent several firsts. The 1,856 lots cataloged, including supplemental entries through Jan. 9, include mares carrying foals from the first crop of Triple Crown winner Justify and yearlings from the first crops of champions Gun Runner and Arrogate. There are also lasts – including a mare carrying a foal from the final crop of Pioneerof the Nile, and one of the only foals by Battle of Midway.

This Keeneland January sale will be hard-pressed to keep up with the figures from last year’s renewal, which was fueled by the sale of Kentucky Oaks winner and champion Abel Tasman, who brought a record-tying $5 million to power double-digit gains, including a record average price. The sale concluded with 916 horses sold over four sessions for gross receipts of $46,759,600 – not only a 34 percent gain from 2018, but the auction’s highest gross since the $70,446,000 amassed in the 2008 edition, before the recession began later that year. The cumulative average price finished at $51,048, edging the auction record of $50,182 established more than three decades prior, in 1988. It also soared 33 percent from the 2018 final average. The year-to-year median spiked 67 percent to $20,000, equaling the record of $20,000 established in 2014.

While there isn’t an equal of Abel Tasman’s in this catalog, there is plenty of novelty, including the chance to buy first foals by a Triple Crown winner in utero. At last November’s major mixed sales in Kentucky, 22 mares in foal to Justify, who retired unbeaten after winning the 2018 Triple Crown, averaged $796,419. That group was led by champion Take Charge Brandi, who topped the Keeneland November breeding stock sale at $3.2 million.

Justify’s first foals have begun to arrive in Kentucky, and have received praise.

“She’s got great bone and plenty of leg, a quality first foal for the mare,” Jamie McDiarmid of Audley Farm said of the stallion’s first foal, a filly born Jan. 3. “We couldn’t be happier.”

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Justify is represented by a pair of mares in foal at Keeneland January, both well-bred stakes performers. The Group 3-winning Galileo mare Flattering is a half-sister to three group winners, including Group 1 winner Love, while stakes winner Jenda’s Agenda, by Proud Citizen, is out of Grade 2 winner Just Jenda.

Other stallions whose first foals are arriving this spring and who are represented by mares in foal in the catalog include champions Accelerate, Good Magic, and West Coast, Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming, Belmont Stakes winner Tapwrit, and Grade 1 winners Army Mule, Bolt d’Oro, City of Light, Collected, Mendelssohn, Mo Town, Mor Spirit, Oscar Performance, and Sharp Azteca.

Gun Runner, the 2017 Horse of the Year, and his racetrack rival Arrogate, a champion and the leading North American money winner, were standout first-crop weanling sires at the November sales. Gun Runner was represented by eight weanlings sold for an average of $344,375.

“They’re bigger than I thought they were going to be, to be honest,” said bloodstock agent Mike Ryan, who signed for the most expensive of the stallion’s foals, a $750,000 filly at the Fasig-Tipton November mixed sale.

Regarding Gun Runner’s prospects as a stallion, Ryan said, “He looks magnificent, but the thing that impressed me about him was the way he moved on the racetrack. He looked like a cheetah – his feet barely touched the ground. But his breeding, I think there’s some [broodmare sire] Giant’s Causeway coming through there – [his weanlings] have size and scope and bone and substance. I’m liking what I’m seeing.”

Gun Runner’s nine at the January sale include a half-brother to graded stakes winners Lookin for Eight and Miss Mo Mentum; a half-brother to Grade 3 winner Overture and Grade 1-placed stakes winner Mexikoma; and a half-brother to graded winner Conquest Two Step and stakes winners Homemade Salsa and Sheikh of Sheikhs.

Arrogate, who had four weanlings average $311,250 in November, has three representatives in the January sale, including a filly out of Grade 1-placed stakes winner Bajan.

Other sires with newly turned yearlings in the catalog include champion Classic Empire and Grade 1 winners Connect, Cupid, Hootenanny, Lord Nelson, Mastery, Midnight Storm, Practical Joke, and Shaman Ghost.

One colt by 2017 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Battle of Midway is on offer. He was foaled on Feb. 24, 2019, the day after Battle of Midway sustained a fatal injury while training. At the time, the horse was in the midst of a successful comeback to racing after being found subfertile when retired to stud, producing seven live foals, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred. Battle of Midway, who had been third in the 2017 Kentucky Derby, won 8 of 16 career starts, and was 3 of 6 during his comeback, including a hard-fought victory over McKinzie in the Grade 2 San Pasqual Stakes in his final start, three weeks before his death.

The colt on offer by Battle of Midway, who had one filly sell for $70,000 last November at Fasig-Tipton, is from the family of Grade 1 winners Fast Play and Seeking the Gold.

Another of the Thoroughbred industry’s major losses last year was Pioneerof the Nile, the sire of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. The stallion died suddenly of a suspected cardiac event last March, at the age of only 13. The stallion was about a month into the breeding season, and had covered 48 mares, according to The Jockey Club. From that final group, the winning mare Bonneville Flats is entered at Keeneland January. This will be the first foal for the mare, who is a half-sister to stakes winner Mihos.

Two of the final mares in the catalog will be among the first on several shortlists. Inflamed and Meets Expectations, both supplemental entries, are the dams of Eclipse Awards finalists.

Inflamed, the dam of outstanding male turf horse finalist Mo Forza, represents a quick turnaround for Glen Hill Farm, which purchased her for $170,000 at Keeneland November. At the time, Mo Forza had won the Grade 2 Twilight Derby. He followed up by winning the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby and Grade 2 Mathis Brothers Mile, boosting his own stock and that of his dam, who is in foal to Tapiture.

“Not surprised the mare threw a stakes horse,” said Glen Hill’s Craig Bernick.

Meets Expectations is the dam of World of Trouble, a finalist for male sprinter and male turf horse after winning Grade 1 events on both dirt and turf in 2019. Meets Expectations, also the dam of stakes winner Money or Love, is a half-sister to multiple graded stakes winner Bucchero, and is offered in foal to Uncle Mo.