Keeneland November sale improves buyback rate

The broodmare prospect Able to Smile sold for $135,000 as the Keeneland November breeding stock sale continued to improve its buyback rate as it closed its Book 4 section Sunday evening.

Keeneland reported 265 horses sold in the session, the Book 4 finale and the seventh of 10 sessions in the sale overall, for a gross of $5,235,300. The session's average price was $19,756, while the median was $12,000.

The seventh session of the 2019 Keeneland November auction featured 246 horses sold for $7,726,900, an average of $31,410 and a median of $20,000. However, these sessions are not truly comparable year to year, because last year's seventh session fell at the point of the sale where Keeneland began to offer a selection of racing or stallion prospects, a market segment that has become one of the highlights of the second week of the November auction, and a selection this year's sale has yet to offer. Last year's seventh session was topped by active racehorses sold for $325,000, $280,000, and $220,000, prices this session did not begin to approach.

After the greatest selectivity was shown in the upper portions of the marketplace, represented by Books 1 and 2, the buyback rate in an extremely selective marketplace has improved in Books 3 and 4 of Keeneland November. After Book 4's opener on Saturday posted an outstanding 16 percent buyback rate, Sunday's session improved further, finishing at 13 percent. The buyback rate was 17 percent in 2019's seventh session.

Able to Smile was purchased by a bidder using the moniker I'll Need A Little Luck from the consignment of Indian Creek, as agent. The 4-year-old filly, a winner on the track, is by leading sire Into Mischief.

Able to Smile is out of the Mutakddim mare Teamgeist, a Group 2 winner in her native Argentina before she was Grade 1-placed in Kentucky. The mare is the dam of multiple Grade 3 winner House Rules and of multiple Grade 1-placed Win the Space.

The session's highest-priced weanling was a colt from the first crop of Army Mule, purchased for $80,000 by Castleton Stables. Army Mule, winner of the Grade 1 Carter Handicap, stands at Hill 'n' Dale Farm, and Hill 'n' Dale Sales consigned the colt, as agent.

The colt is the first foal out of the winning Unbridled's Song mare Stormy's Song, whose second dam is multiple Grade 1-winning millionaire Lady Tak. She is the dam of Group 3 winner A Shin Spartan and stakes winner Melody Lady, the latter the dam of Grade 1 winner Volatile and stakes winner Buy Sell Hold.

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