Keeneland November: Horses of racing age take spotlight

The highest-priced horses of the Keeneland November breeding stock sale will most likely emerge from the Book 1 opening session on Nov. 10. But some of the highest intrigue will come during the final session on Nov. 19.

Following its breeding stock sale, Keeneland will present its November horses of racing age offerings, a segment of the catalog that has grown in popularity and prestige in recent years, and which this year has been consolidated into its own dedicated session.

In recent years, graduates of the horses of racing age portion of the November sale, which is ideally positioned before major winter race meetings, have included Combatant and Shedaresthedevil. Combatant was a $220,000 purchase by Hronis Racing in 2019. Sent to trainer John Sadler in California, he promptly won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap in early 2020.

Shedaresthedevil, then a Grade 2-placed juvenile, was purchased for $280,000 by Flurry Racing at the same 2019 sale. She went on to win the 2020 Kentucky Oaks, and this year is a multiple Grade 1 winner and leading candidate for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

“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.”

This year, Breathnach and Keeneland vice president of sales Tony Lacy, both of whom moved into their new roles this year and led the Keeneland September yearling sale to record figures, not only arranged the horses of racing age segment into its own session, they will conduct that session as an integrated event.

In a model adopted for this year’s Keeneland April sale of horses of racing age, horses may be presented for sale both physically at Keeneland as well as 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. Buyers both on-site at Keeneland and working remotely using telephone or internet bidding will be able to bid on all horses.

Lacy said he expects to have only “a small number” of horses presented remotely, with the majority on-site.

This year’s horses of racing age entries, accounting for supplemental entries through Oct. 27, are led by a quartet of Grade/Group 1 winners. 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 Math Wizard captured the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby the following month. Breakpoint was a multiple Group 1 winner in Chile last year.

The catalog also includes graded stakes winners Enforceable, Flop Shot, Get Smokin, Kuora, and Set Piece; and stakes winners Bluegrass Parkway, Cinabunny, Flavius, Miss Nondescript, Nothingbutflowers, Privet Moon, Serve the King, Sifting Sands, Vacay, Value Proposition, Vanzzy, White Flag, Winfromwithin, and Wink.

Also for sale are graded stakes-placed Dream Maker, Eminent Victor, Midnight Tea Time, Network Effect, Our Secret Agent, Prime Factor, Proven Strategies, Saucy Lady T, Snow House, Starrininmydreams, Stolen Base, Tarantino, and Vodka N Water; and stakes-placed Applecross, Argentello, Carimba, Director’s Cut, Editor in Chief, Farmington Road, Hotsy Totsy, Manasota Sunset, Motivated Seller, Tizplenty, and Unanimously.

Graded stakes-placed Stolen Base, who was second in the Grade 2 Bourbon Stakes at Keeneland, is pre-entered for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar the weekend prior to the start of the sale. He is one of several horses in the Keeneland November catalog who could merit updates following the Breeders’ Cup or updates regarding their progeny or siblings.

Multiple graded stakes winner Horologist is bound for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 6, after which she is cataloged for Book 1 at Keeneland November as a racing or broodmare prospect.

“Horologist is a beautiful filly that can become a millionaire before the sale,” said Mark Taylor of consignor Taylor Made Sales. “She will face a talented and deep field in the Distaff, but Bill Mott thought she deserved a chance. We need a good draw to allow her to put herself fairly close to the lead turning for home.

“She owes her owners nothing, and whatever happens in the Breeders’ Cup is just the cherry on top for them.”

Other highlights among the broodmare offerings at Keeneland November will be 31 mares from the band of prominent owners and breeders Gary and Mary West, who are reducing their numbers, with Paramount Sales acting as agent.

“We just can’t keep them all,” said Ben Glass, racing manager for the Wests. “It’s amazing how quickly we accumulated broodmares. We’re up to 100, and we only try to have 50 to 60. You just have to move those mares down the line. It’s a tough decision. For all we know, we’re selling the dam of another Grade 1 winner.”

The Wests typically buy broodmares in order to support their former runners at stud, and this year’s offerings include mares in foal to their first-season stallions Game Winner and Maximum Security, both Eclipse Award champions, as well as mares in foal to another Eclipse champion, West Coast, whose oldest foals are yearlings.

“They’ve got real quality,” Breathnach said. “There’s always some really good prospects in their group.”

The Keeneland sale is typically well shopped by international buyers looking to add American mares and pedigrees to their breeding stock. Last year, those buyers faced major hurdles due to travel and quarantine restrictions stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. This year, with vaccinations becoming more widespread, the United States is more fully opening its borders to vaccinated travelers on Nov. 8.

“The timing is extremely encouraging,” Lacy said, adding that sales officials have “gotten a lot of inquiries” from those seeking to attend.

Buyers still unable to travel will be able to make use of expanded remote bidding options, including online bidding, which made a major contribution to the 2020 November sale. Online sales accounted for more than $16.2 million in gross, and the platform achieved its first seven-figure horse, with Grade 1 winner Ollie’s Candy selling for $1.65 million to K I Farm of Japan.

Breathnach noted that older horses, with quantifiable race records or produce records, allow more confidence in purchasing remotely than young horses, who rely more on physical inspection.

“Weanlings and yearlings are more dependent on on-site inspection by buyers,” Breathnach said. “They have to do their due diligence, get their hands on the horses and other aspects, [observe] how they walk. But the mares, you’re buying probably more on the pedigree and on the page in front of you.”

That also applies to the horses of racing age segment.

“People know who these horses are and the quality that they are,” Breathnach said.