Keeneland November: Celestine to stay in training after selling for $2.55 million

Grade 1 winner Celestine sold for $2.55 million to Moyglare Stud to continue a strong opening session of the Keeneland November breeding stock sale.

Celestine was the eighth horse of the opening session to garner a seven-figure price tag, and the third to surpass the $2-million mark. Group 2-winning broodmare Secret Gesture sold for $3.5 million to Godolphin, while Grade 3-winning mare Tapicat sold for $2.2 million to Summer Wind Farm.

Moyglare's Fiona Craig said that Celestine will remain in training for 2017 before eventually joining the Irish-based operation's broodmare band.

"She'll go down, probably this week, to Florida to Payson Park, and she'll join Christophe Clement, and we'll see if we can win a race or two next year," Craig said. "I loved her speed, and she was just a smashing-looking filly. We've been trying to establish some fast mares. We have some great broodmares in Ireland, but fast, world-record speed is not something we are famous for."

Celestine, a daughter of the late Scat Daddy, is a five-time stakes winner, highlighted by a 3 3/4-length score in the Grade 1 Just a Game Stakes in June at Belmont Park. She ran the mile on turf in a stakes-record 1:31.64, just one-hundreth of a second off the course record established by Elusive Quality in the 1998 Poker Stakes.

This fall, Celestine finished third to Photo Call and champion Tepin in the Grade 1 First Lady Stakes at Keeneland. She arrived at the sale grounds off a 12th-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint on Saturday, her final start for Phaedrus Flights LLC. Taylor Made Sales consigned the filly as agent for the owners.

-- Additional reporting by Joe Nevills