Keeneland November sale: Midnight Bisou tops first day at $5.5 million

LEXINGTON, Ky. – In 2020, Jeff Bloom and Chuck Allen bought out their partners in the brilliant racemare Midnight Bisou for $5 million during the Fasig-Tipton November sale. She had been the champion older mare the year prior, and after four seasons on the track and 13 graded stakes wins, it was time to make her into a broodmare.

Two years later, at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale on Monday night, Bloom and Allen sold Midnight Bisou outright for $5.5 million, in foal to leading sire Tapit, to Northern Stud of Japan – which two years earlier had been the underbidder for the racemare but walked away at $4.75 million.

What goes around, comes around.

Shingo Hashimoto, speaking on behalf of Katsumi Yoshida of Northern Farm, said that he regretted passing on the mare two years ago. But he also said that he did not expect to be able to afford the mare on Monday night either, citing tough competition for top-class mares at Keeneland and at the previous night’s Fasig-Tipton sale, also in Lexington.

“I’m kind of speechless,” Hashimoto said. “I was happy to see her again this year, and it was very lucky for us to purchase her. I was very excited when I saw her in the catalog, but I didn’t really think we’d be able to [buy her]. It was really tough yesterday and today.”

Bloom, who bought Midnight Bisou for $80,000 at a 2-year-old auction in 2017 and then brought high-dollar partners on board after she began showing her top-class ability on the racetrack, said after the sale that “it’s hard to let her go, but the timing is right.” His partner, Chuck Allen and his wife, Lori, own Midnight Bisou’s first foal, a Curlin colt.

“She will forever hold an incredible place in my heart, my family’s heart, my partner’s heart,” Bloom said. “It’s impossible to describe the journey she’s taken us on. That’s the beautiful thing about these horses. They afford us to have these life opportunities we wouldn’t be able to have. I’ll have to sneak back to the barn and give her a big hug.”

Midnight Bisou was the session-topper during a sale that started with a special auction of a 2.5 percent stake in Flightline, the Breeders’ Cup Classic winner who will be named Horse of the Year. The stake sold for $4.6 million, providing a champagne-corking opening to the most prestigious breeding stock sale in the United States.

In total, including the Flightline share, 136 offerings sold during the opening session for gross proceeds of $66,980,000, an average price of $492,500, and a median of $290,000. Subtracting out the Flightline share, gross was $62,380,000, average was $462,074, and median was $280,000. The percentage of horses that did not attract bids in excess of the reserve set by sellers was 26.5 percent.

Last year, a total of 123 offerings sold in the opening session for $51,374,000. Average was $429,102, and median was $330,000. Buybacks were 28.9 percent. So, not including the Flightline stake, average was higher this year, by 7.7 percent, while median was lower, down 15.5 percent.

The high end was definitely stronger this year, with nine horses selling for $1 million or more, including six horses that sold for $2 million or more, plus a $1.5 million weanling. Last year, seven horses sold for $1 million or more, all of them mares, and only two topped $2 million. The session-topping weanling last year was an $800,000 Frankel colt.

Tony Lacy, Keeneland’s vice president of sales, said that the top 15 lots at the session were bought by 11 different buyers, and he said that the sale benefited from a “good mix of domestic and international buyers.” Citing the jump in average and gross, Lacy said that “those are the increases we’re looking for.”

“The fact we’re up so much in gross, we’re up in average, and just down a little bit on the median, we’re making forward progress and a slight adjustment I think is to be expected,” said Lacy, referring to consignors and sellers adjusting their reserve prices as the week progresses.

The three highest-priced mares all went to Japanese interests, with Yoshida’s Northern Farm paying $2.7 million for the Irish racemare Dreamloper just minutes after buying Midnight Bisou. A 5-year-old mare by Lope de Vega, Dreamloper finished eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Mile on Saturday, and she was a multiple group stakes winner in Europe.

“I’m very sad to see her go,” said Ed Walker, who trained Dreamloper and consigned her to the sale. “To be selling a potential mare for millions of dollars at Keeneland is something I’d never really thought I’d do. It’s been a lovely experience and luckily a successful one.”

The second-highest-priced mare to sell on Monday was 2018 champion female sprinter Shamrock Rose, who went to Tokoyumi Nakamura for $3 million. Shamrock Rose is by First Dude and is out of the Elusive Quality mare Slew’s Quality, and she was sold in foal to Curlin.

“The physical and race record are what stood out,” said Nakamura, through interpreter Sean Toriumi. Covering sire “Curlin is a top sire and that is something that stood out as well.”

Nakamura said that it was uncertain if Shamrock Rose would be sent to Japan immediately or be covered by a U.S. stallion in next year’s mating season and then sent to Japan.

Shamrock Rose was consigned by Lane’s End. She was purchased for $2.5 million out of the 2019 Fasig-Tipton mixed sale by Mike Shannon, agent.

“I would love to see her stay here” in the United States, said Allaire Ryan, director of sales for Lane’s End. “She is a sweetheart. She was a farm favorite. . . . It’s a little bit bittersweet, but of course she’s going into great hands again, so we can’t be anything but happy for everyone."

One of the more interesting sales to take place was the $2 million spent by a new partnership for the 4-year-old mare Salty As Can Be, a minor winner on the racetrack who is by top stallion Into Mischief and is in foal to another top sire, Elusive Quality. The partnership is called Determined Stud and Gage Hill, and it was put together by Terry Finley, whose West Point Thoroughbreds sold the 2.5 percent stake in Flightline. West Point still has a 15 percent stake in Flightline, or five shares.

Finely said after signing the ticket that Salty As Can Be was purchased for the sole purpose of breeding to Flightline. The partnership also bought two other mares, one for $500,00 and the other for $400,000.

“Our partners said let’s do some things with Flightline if and when he retires, so that’s what we’re doing,” Finley said.

The dam of Salty As Can Be is Theycallmeladyluck, another minor winner who is the dam of the Grade 1 stakes winner Salty.

“She’s a very special mare,” said Chris Beccari, who consigned Salty As Can Be. “That family breeds that look. They all look that way.”

The sales-topping weanling, a filly by Medaglia D’Oro out of Serena’s Cat, by Storm Cat, was bought for $1.5 million by the international breeding and racing operation Coolmore. Serena’s Cat is the dam of two graded stakes winners, Honor Code and Noble Tune, who are both sires.

“She’s an exceptionally well-bred filly, a lovely filly,” said M.V. Magnier, who bid for Coolmore.

Coolmore also went to $2.6 million to buy Marion Ravenwood, the dam of Nest, the 3-year-old filly by Curlin who has won three Grade 1 stakes this year and will contend for her division’s championship this year. Marion Ravenwood, 14 years old and in foal to Curlin again, is by A.P. Indy out of the Quiet American mare Andujar, herself a graded stakes winner.

“I was watching the video just beforehand, and Nest is just an incredible filly,” Magnier said. “It was plenty of money for her, but she’s in foal to Curlin and [the foal will be] a full sibling to a very good filly.”

Magnier said that Marion Ravenwood would likely be sent to Justify in the 2023 breeding season.

Mandy Pope, who has been one of the most prolific buyers of top-class racemares over the past decade, went to $2.3 million to buy Four Graces, a 5-year-old multiple graded stakes winner who is by Majesticperfection and out of the Seeking the Gold mare Ivory Empress. Four Graces is a half-sister to McCracken, a multiple graded stakes winner who is a sire.

“She was a hell of a racehorse,” Pope said. “Not only is she a graded stakes horse, but the numbers that she ran were legit. And this family, all of the family, they all ran very legitimate speed numbers, so the quality is absolutely there and they're breeding for it. I’m very excited.”

Pope, who bought the racemare Shedaresthedevil for $5 million on Sunday night at the Fasig-Tipton November sale, said she has not decided on a stallion for Four Graces yet.

“It’ll be somebody very nice,” she said.

The November sale continues for nine more sessions, though Nov. 16, with no off days. A total of 3,705 offerings were cataloged.