LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Keeneland January horses of all ages sale concluded its four-day run Thursday evening with small changes in the average and median in what sale officials described throughout the week as a healthy marketplace. With $650,000 Ancient Peace leading the way, Keeneland reported 962 horses sold for total gross receipts of $45,408,300. In last year’s four-session sale 1,013 horses sold for $46,341,100. This week’s average price was $47,202, rising 3 percent from $45,746 last year. The median was $19,000, dropping 5 percent from last year’s record-tying $20,000. The buyback rate was 23 percent, compared to 19 percent in 2022. “The metrics are comparable to last year’s record sale, and to be on par with a record sale is incredibly healthy,” Keeneland vice president of sales Tony Lacy said. “There was a little adjustment in the market with minor corrections in the middle and lower ends that are normal and acceptable. “When you look at the global economic head winds, there is every reason why we should be in a more challenging environment, but we’re not. Everyone is coming out of this week with a lot of confidence going into breeding season.” :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match and FREE Formulator PPs! Join DRF Bets. Recent maiden winner Ancient Peace was one of the final horses supplemented to the catalog. Her entry proved a savvy move, as she topped the sale with Hunter Rankin signing the ticket on behalf of Travis Boersma’s Boardshorts Stables. “We’re building the stable, we’re trying to get something going,” Rankin said. “We think she’s a really good foundation horse.” Rankin added that immediate plans had not been determined for the filly, and he did not name a trainer to which she might go. Ancient Peace, by War Front and out of the Grade 2-winning A.P. Indy mare Deceptive Vision, was bred by the iconic Sam-Son Farm, which is winding down the long process of dispersing its stock. Ancient Peace, who is from the family of Canadian champions Desert Ride, Eye of the Sphynx, Eye of the Leopard, and Quiet Resolve, was purchased for $180,000 by bloodstock agent Mike Ryan at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale. The filly was a second-out maiden winner on Dec. 30 at Santa Anita, rolling by 4 1/4 lengths on turf for trainer Graham Motion. A Quality Road filly led the yearlings at the sale, going for $450,000 to West Bloodstock, as agent for Robert and Lawana Low. The filly is out of the Pioneerof the Nile mare Evocative, who is a half-sister to graded stakes winner and prominent producer Justwhistledixie, among others. Repole buys 12 mares Mike Repole, who is supporting a number of prominent incoming stallions, was active in the broodmare marketplace at Keeneland January, purchasing 12 mares, alone or in partnership, for a total of $1,685,000. Repole’s most expensive purchase was Grade 3 winner In Good Spirits, who sold for $550,000 to tie as the third-highest price of the sale. The Ghostzapper mare is intended for the first book of multiple Grade 1 winner Life Is Good at WinStar Farm. “She was a very fast mare and by a stallion that is really making his name as a broodmare sire,” said bloodstock agent Jacob West, who bid for Repole. “She always ran in great company and held her own. She has been purchased for Life Is Good. Mike is a shareholder and wanted to make sure he supported him with a top-quality mare.” Repole also bought 10 mares in partnership with Taylor Made Idol Mare Partners, which was shopping for that farm’s incoming stallion Idol. Grade 1 winner Idol is a full brother to Nest, the multiple Grade 1-winning filly Repole owns in partnership. Repole is best known for campaigning champion and stellar stallion Uncle Mo, as well as several of his sons. The sire’s Belmont Stakes winner Mo Donegal, who Repole raced in partnership with Donegal Stable, enters stud this year at Spendthrift Farm. :: DRF BREEDING LIVE: Real-time coverage of breeding and sales Optimizer to Saudi Arabia Optimizer recorded a timely winner in Saudi Arabia on Thursday that helped prompt his purchase by Youssef Mohammed Alturaif’s YMT Farm of that country. The stallion’s daughter Jasmine won a race at King Abdulaziz Racecourse some 10 hours before graded stakes winner Optimizer went through the ring at the Keeneland January sale as part of a group of offerings from Calumet Farm. He was purchased for $35,000 by YMT. Optimizer by the late English Channel also is the sire of Grade 3 winner Opalina from his first two crops of racing age. “English Channel’s not with us anymore, and I know there was a lot of urgency to get an English Channel yearling at the sales last year,” said Zach Madden, whose Buckland Sales handled the Calumet consignment. “The last crop will be yearlings this year, so there’s a lot of scarcity there.” Optimizer was the only one of the six Calumet stallions to sell through the ring, with the other five buybacks with high bids ranging from $22,000 to $190,000. No private sales had been finalized through Keeneland as of Friday morning. Godolphin mares The Keeneland January sale got some added excitement with a selection of well-bred mares from Godolphin. The internationally renowned operation, which has made some strategic reductions to its stock at public auction in recent years, was responsible for 27 lots sold for a gross of $1,798,700. “We want to keep our broodmare band as tight as we can,” Godolphin’s American director of bloodstock Michael Banahan said. “We need to make room for fillies coming off the racetrack that are young fillies we want to give a chance. So it’s a mixture that are going through the sale: young mares that were bred once and sold again and some mares that we felt we’d given a chance and maybe they’d be luckier for someone else down the road, but still with very nice pedigrees. :: Get Daily Racing Form Past Performances – the exclusive home of Beyer Speed Figures “People love jumping in and buying our families when they get the opportunity to get in there,” he added. “They know they will be well covered from siblings and sisters and mothers, so they know there’s an opportunity that something good will happen in the family.” The winning Tapit mare Carella, dam of two winners from three starters, led the Godolphin group, selling for $260,000 to Walmac Farm. She out of Grade 1 winner Cara Rafaela, making her a half-sister to champion and leading sire Bernardini, among others. Generazio dispersal A dispersal for prominent breeder Patricia Generazio at Keeneland January finished with 42 horses sold for $875,200. That group was led by stakes winner Mischievous Dream, a 5-year-old racing or broodmare prospect by Into Mischief, who was purchased for $210,000 by West Bloodstock for Repole Stable. Mischievous Dream is out of a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Presious Passion, one of the noteworthy runners campaigned by Generazio and her late husband, Frank. The program was honored with a lifetime achievement award for excellence in the New York-bred program in 2020. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.