Keeneland January Sale: Marvelous Time tops big day for Godolphin to start Book 2

The young broodmare Marvelous Time sold for $220,000 to lead the way as the Keeneland January horses of all ages sale moved into Book 2 with solid figures on Wednesday.

Keeneland reported 196 horses sold on Wednesday for gross receipts of $4,352,900. In last year's comparable session, 246 horses brought $5,605,700. Both sets of figures include only horses sold through the ring, before any private sales that Keeneland later factors in to its official results.

The average price was fairly steady, at $22,209 compared to $22,787 last year, representing a 3 percent shift. The session-to-session median jumped for the first time this sale, coming in at $10,000 compared to $8,000, a gain of 25 percent.

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The buyback rate was 19 percent, compared to 17 percent.

The Godolphin bloodstock dynasty, seeking to sweep the Eclipse Awards at both outstanding breeder and outstanding owner for the third consecutive year, has been seen on occasion with a draft of broodmares at the Keeneland January sale, seeking to make strategic reductions in a high-end environment while making room for retired or acquired race fillies. Godolphin made noise with a selection of 17 mares on Wednesday, three of them fetching six figures. Loudest among those was Marvelous Time, sold for $220,000 to Centofanti Thoroughbreds, as agent for Brittlyn Stables.

Marvelous Time won her only start, going a mile in August 2022 at Presque Isle Downs, before moving into the broodmare era of her career. The daughter of noted broodmare sire Distorted Humor was bred last April to Godolphin's Dubai World Cup winner Mystic Guide, in his first season at stud.

Marvelous Time is out of the Quiet American mare Folk, winner of the U.A.E. 1000 Guineas and U.A.E. Oaks before finishing third in the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks. Her other five winners include Grade 2-placed stakes winner Captivating Lass, dam of Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational winner Atone.

Among others who showed up on the leaderboard Wednesday, Misty Veil, fresh off a victory in the Pippin Stakes on Jan. 6 at Oaklawn, sold for $210,000 to the Resolute Bloodstock of John Stewart. The 6-year-old Tonalist mare, who was consigned by Upson Downs Farm, as agent, was offered as a racing or broodmare prospect, and it was not immediately clear what future plans would be for her.

Stewart emerged as a new money player on the auction scene last fall, buying weanlings, yearlings, active racehorses, and broodmares at high levels as he seeks to establish a full-scale breed-to-race operation at his recently-acquired Kentucky farm.

The Pippin was the first career stakes victory for Misty Veil, but she owns three other career stakes placings, including a third against a salty field in the Grade 3 Locust Grove last September at Churchill Downs. The mare is out of the unraced Birdstone mare Genuine Class, whose own dam is a half-sister to Hall of Famer Cigar. Graded stakes winners Cigar Street and Laura's Lucky Boy also appear on the catalog page.

The Keeneland January sale concludes with the final Book 2 session on Thursday.

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