Keeneland November: Mare in foal to Speightstown tops Wednesday session to conclude Book 2

The $500,000 broodmare Contributing and a $435,000 colt from the first crop of Triple Crown winner Justify led the way as the Keeneland November breeding stock sale closed out Book 2 on Wednesday with the upper market continuing to show restraint.

Keeneland reported 521 horses sold through the first three days of the 10-session sale, amassing gross revenues of $102,528,000. Those three days were comprised of the single-session Book 1 on Monday and Book 2, which ran two sessions. In 2019, the three sessions including Book 1 and Book 2 finished with 636 horses sold for $139,882,000.

Through Books 1 and 2, Keeneland November's cumulative average price sits at $196,791, down 11 percent from $219,940 in 2019. The median prices for the first three sessions were $280,000, $97,500, and $107,500, respectively. In 2019, the same three sessions finished at $300,000, $125,000, and $105,000.

The buyback rate in a selective marketplace that has become even more so in 2020 sits at 26 percent, compared to 22 percent at this point last year.

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“Overall, the energy today was really good,” Keeneland president-elect and interim head of sales Shannon Arvin said Wednesday evening. “We saw a lot of competition for foals. Some new buyers and many of the same buyers from the first two days continue to participate. We would love to see stability of the market throughout the sale, similar to what we experienced during the September yearling sale.”

Geoffrey Russell, Keeneland's director of sales operations, noted that he hopes the activity of the upper marketplace carries over into the final seven sessions of the sale.

“It will be a different level of the market moving forward,” he said, “but if we can capture the vibrancy of today and extend it into tomorrow and the next day that would be great.”

Stakes winner Contributing, a 6-year-old Medaglia d'Oro mare, was offered carrying her first foal to the cover of Speightstown. She was purchased by Cary Bloodstock, as agent for Coteau Grove Farms, from the consignment of Hill 'n' Dale Sales, as agent.

Contributing won the Pan Zareta Stakes at Fair Grounds last year after finishing second in the race the prior season. The mare is out of the Halo mare Taegu, making her a half-sister to Grade 2 winer Classic Elegance. The latter, the dam of Grade 2-placed Divine Elegance and stakes-placed Unbridled Endeavor, is one of several successful producers in the immediate family, as Contributing is also a half-sister to El Fasto, the dam of Kentucky Oaks winner Believe You Can.

“I bought one Medaglia d’Oro mare in foal to Speightstown earlier, so I figured why not hit a double?” agent Andrew Cary said. “It’s an awesome pedigree and Speightstown is showing again how awesome he is, with a horse like Nashville. Her sister produced an Oaks winner. She’s gorgeous and she could run. To me, she’s the whole package.”

After Contributing, weanlings filled out the next six spots on Wednesday's leaderboard, topped by a Justify colt purchased by Baccari Bloodstock from the consignment of Elm Tree Farm, as agent. Colts by Justify have been the most expensive weanlings of each of the first three sessions of the November sale, starting Monday with a $600,000 purchase who tied for the session's top price with an American Pharoah colt, and a $475,000 buy on Tuesday.

Wednesday's session topper is out of the stakes-placed Rockport Harbor mare Stayclassysandiego, the dam of Grade 2 winner Pretty N Cool, by Justify's sire Scat Daddy. This is the immediate family of Grade 1 winner Sean Avery.

“I’ve been looking for a really good Justify, and he has a lot of female pedigree, plenty of size and plenty of strength,” Chris Baccari said. “Anybody that looks at him when he goes to be resold will see he looks like he has plenty of bone and looks like he can take a lot of training.

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