Keeneland November to end booming sale with horses of racing age session

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Keeneland November sale’s horses of racing age portion has steadily grown in scope and popularity over the last decade, especially as it boasts recent graduates such as Kentucky Oaks winner Shedaresthedevil and Grade 1 winner Combatant. This year’s offerings will be presented in a dedicated session, looking to help close the November sale, which has posted strong year-to-year gains, on a high note.

The November sale’s horses of racing age offerings in previous years were spread throughout several of the sale’s second-week sessions. This year, all of these offerings will be presented in the final session on Friday, Nov. 19, following the conclusion of the broodmare and weanling offerings. Tony Lacy, Keeneland’s vice president of sales, said the final session was chosen, in part, to allow more flexibility for sellers making decisions about their stock.

“By putting them at the end of the sale, we have the freedom to extend the entry deadline,” Lacy said. “An August 1 entry deadline like we’ve had in the past, it’s very hard for people to project what racehorses they will or can sell in the middle of November.”

The later date also allowed Keeneland more flexibility to accept supplemental entries for the session, and several sellers took advantage. There were 254 horses of racing age entered in the initial catalog, released on Oct. 20. The group has grown to 290, with the final three supplemental entries announced on Tuesday, three days prior to sale. The majority of the horses on offer are expected to be presented on-site, although Keeneland sought to allow sellers more flexibility by officially presenting the session as a hybrid digital and physical sale. In a model adopted for this year’s Keeneland April sale of horses of racing age, horses are allowed to be presented for sale either physically at Keeneland or digitally from off-site locations, allowing flexibility if a horse, particularly a supplemental entry, has recently been racing at a remote location. Keeneland auctioneers will preside over all offerings on-site.

This year’s horses of racing age entries are led by a handful of Grade 1/Group 1 winners who were still scheduled to sell as of scratches posted through Tuesday evening. Sovereign, winner of the 2019 Irish Derby, was second to Enable in Group 1 company in England last year. Valid Point won the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes in August 2019, while Breakpoint was a multiple Group 1 winner in Chile last year.

A fourth Grade 1 winner, 2019 Pennsylvania Derby winner Math Wizard, was among the original entries to the sale, but has since been scratched, as is also the case with graded stakes winners Enforceable, Flop Shot, Get Smokin, Kuora, and Set Piece.

Still remaining in the catalog, accounting for outs through Tuesday, are stakes winners Bluegrass Parkway, Cinabunny, Flavius, Miss Nondescript, Nothingbutflowers, Privet Moon, and Winfromwithin; graded stakes-placed Dream Maker, Network Effect, Prime Factor, Proven Strategies, Saucy Lady T, Snow House, Stolen Base, Tarantino, and Vodka N Water, as well as and stakes-placed Applecross, Editor in Chief, Hotsy Totsy, and Unanimously.

The supplemental entries over the last several weeks have added to what was already a strong catalog. The additions include multiple graded stakes-placed Crowded Trade, who was fifth in this year’s Preakness Stakes; Furia Vikinga, Group 1-placed in Chile, and Made In Italy, who was third in the Italian Oaks; stakes winners Piece of My Heart and Vanzzy; graded stakes-placed Three Technique and Tuggle; and stakes-placed Manasota Sunset and Risky Reward.

In addition to the older horses who have proven form, there will also be several lightly raced 2-year-olds on offer, providing buyers the chance to secure a promising youngster to aim at upcoming winter and spring meetings. Juveniles in the catalog include Poronui, from the penultimate crop of classic sire Pioneerof the Nile, third and second in a pair of maiden special weights at Keeneland this fall; Ali Alley, a Quality Road filly who was third on debut; and Magical Sign, a daughter of leading freshman sire Gun Runner who was fifth on debut.

“A thing that’s really a strength of this sale is the timing on the calendar,” said Cormac Breathnach, Keeneland’s director of sales operations. “You can trade horses and sell and buy based on the condition book of where you’re going.”

Keeneland November closed out its Book 4 portion on Tuesday evening, with just the final three-session Book 5 remaining, with gross sales of $186,168,500. This edition had already, on Sunday, surpassed last year’s final gross of $151,017,300. Through Book 4, the cumulative average price was tracking upward 19 percent from the same point in 2020, while the median is up 43 percent.