Keeneland November: Dialed In colt tops Book 5 opener

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A $145,000 weanling colt by Dialed In led Monday's session of the Keeneland November breeding stock sale, as the marathon auction moved to test new segments of the market.

The next highest-priced horse in Monday's session was the 3-year-old colt War Chest, sold for $110,000 as part of a draft of male racing prospects, racing or stallion prospects, and stallions. Keeneland offers these horses early the second week of its November sale, and the market has begun to gain prominence, with recent graduates including multiple Grade 1 winner Diversify and Grade 1 winner Long On Value.

Monday's session, the Book 5 opener and the eighth session of the sale overall, finished with 232 horses sold for gross receipts of $5,197,600. The average price checked in at $22,212 and the median was $14,500.

Because Keeneland made format changes in the first week of this lengthy November sale, cutting Book 1 down and, therefore, creating shifts in the horses offered through other books, year-to-year figures for individual sessions are difficult to assess. Last year's Book 5 opener, the ninth of the sale overall, finished with an average price of $17,335 and median of $12,000, meaning Monday's session showed gains from both those figures. During the 2017 sale, the Monday and Tuesday sessions featuring similar horses of racing age fell during Book 4. Bolstered by the mares and weanlings in the session, the comparable 2017 Monday session finished with an average of $31,890 and median of $22,000.

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The Dialed In colt who led this session sold to Brookstone Farm from the consignment of Frankfort Park Farm.

The colt is out of the winning Giant's Causeway mare Belle Chaussee, also the dam of Belle Laura, who provided catalog updates by finishing third in the Grade 2 Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland and seventh in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Churchill Downs.

Belle Chaussee is a full sister to stakes winner Crimson China. It is the family of Canadian champion Lukes Alley and additional Grade/Group 1 winners Coup de Fusil and Elusive City.

David Meah Racing and BG Stables partnered to purchase the well-bred War Front colt War Chest, via Meah/Lloyd Bloodstock, a transatlantic bloodstock team Meah partners on with Jamie Lloyd. The bloodstock agent said the colt would continue to race and would be based at Santa Anita with trainer Anna Meah, his wife.

"We got him under budget, and we are happy," David Meah said. “He is the one horse of the day we wanted. If he wins [allowance races in California], he will make his money back in two races. If we get super lucky and get some black type, we have a chance to do things in the future. BG Stables stands stallions in California.”

War Chest is out of the Grade 2-winning Ghostzapper mare Wine Princess, daughter of Horse of the Year Azeri. The champion has produced two other graded/group stakes placed runners.

Lane's End, which consigned War Chest, purchased him for $500,000 at the Keeneland September yearling sale. The colt has won once from eight starts to date, taking his debut in September 2017 at Belmont Park. This year, he has finished third in allowance-optional events at Belmont and Aqueduct.

Keeneland November concludes Book 5 on Tuesday, with additional racing and stallion prospects on offer in the session including graded stakes winner Decorated Soldier, as well as stakes winners Counterforce, Hedge Fund, and Seattle Serenade.

For hip-by-hip results from Keeneland November, click here.