Keeneland November breeding stock sale offers peek into future

With a steady stream of broodmares, racing prospects, and weanlings offered to a global marketplace over nearly two weeks, the Keeneland November breeding stock sale provides a barometer for various marketplaces at many levels.

Keeneland initially cataloged 4,549 horses for the November sale, which runs from Nov. 6-17. Keeping with the format introduced in 2018, the sale will open with a single exclusive Book 1 session, numbering 275 hips. It then continues with Books 2-6, absorbing last year’s seventh book. The sale has continued to accept supplemental entries.

“The November sale is the world’s most important auction of its kind because it offers tremendous opportunities in several market segments and at all price levels to acquire quality breeding and racing stock,” Keeneland vice president of racing and sales Bob Elliston said. “Horsemen know Keeneland is one-stop shopping for stakes-winning fillies and stakes-producing mares in foal to leading sires, well-bred weanlings, and talented horses of racing age.”

As always, the November sale could pick up major catalog updates from the Breeders’ Cup, set for the weekend prior at Santa Anita. In addition to the dams or weanling siblings of contenders for the various races, racing or broodmare prospects entered in the sale include Grade 1 winners and Breeders’ Cup candidates Abscond (Juvenile Fillies Turf), Ollie’s Candy (Distaff), and Spiced Perfection (Filly and Mare Sprint), all of whom won Win and You’re In qualifiers for their respective Breeders’ Cup races.

The mare market is typically considered an indicator of long-term projections for the bloodstock industry, as mares represent a longer-term investment. Among the key broodmare offerings in the sale is Lil Indy, dam of multiple Grade 1 winner Maximum Security, along with a weanling full sister to Maximum Security.

This year’s first-crop covering sires are led by 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify, who has 17 mares in foal cataloged throughout the sale. That group includes 2014 Eclipse Award champion 2-year-old filly Take Charge Brandi, who was the most expensive horse sold at public auction in North America in 2015 when she went for $6 million at Keeneland November to Hill ‘n’ Dale, which consigns her this year.

Pinhookers have an opportunity to begin stocking up for next year’s yearling sales at Keeneland November, perhaps offering a preview of perceptions of that segment of the market, but the weanling market also will attract end users, particularly for the youngsters selected to appear in Book 1. This year’s first-crop weanling sires represented throughout the sale include Horse of the Year Gun Runner with 18 youngsters from his first crop cataloged and fellow Eclipse Award champions Arrogate with seven and Classic Empire with 38.

While the most well-known racing and broodmare prospects will be offered toward the front of the sale, the second-week sessions of Nov. 12-13 will be highlighted by male racing prospects, racing or stallion prospects, and stallions in a market that has grown in recent years. Recent graduates of this portion of the sale include Diversify, who went on to become a multiple Grade 1 winner, and Next Shares, a Grade 1 winner last year who is possibly Breeders’ Cup bound.

This year’s highlights cataloged as racing or stallion prospects include a pair of Grade 1 winners in Annals of Time and Sporting Chance, as well as Grade 1-seasoned Catapult. Annals of Time has never missed the board in seven career starts, including Grade 1 victories in last December’s Hollywood Derby and in this year’s Sword Dancer Stakes.

Sporting Chance won the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes in 2017. Millionaire Catapult, a Grade 2 winner last year, was second by a half-length in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile and was second in this year’s Frank E. Kilroe Stakes at Santa Anita.

Other notable colts and geldings cataloged during this portion of the sale include graded/group stakes winners American Anthem, Archaggelos, Guest Suite, Hot Springs, Madison’s Luna, Monarchs Glen, Mr Ritz, New York Central, Projected, Quip, Rotation, Startup Nation, and Timeline; stakes winners Giant Run, Mask, Seismic Jolt, and Top Line Growth; graded/group stakes-placed Call Provision, Combatant, Cullum Road, Emmaus, Limonite, Nero, Ticonderoga, and Whiskey Echo; and stakes-placed Build to Suit, Chuck Willis, Exclamation Point, Life Mission, and Wicked Indeed.

A handful of active stallions also are on offer, with those shopping at this sale typically including foreign and regional markets looking to boost their holdings. Leading those offerings of active stallions cataloged are He’s Had Enough (Woodford Thoroughbreds, Florida), Honorable Dillon (Rockridge Stud, New York), and Prospective (Ocala Stud, Florida).