Keeneland sale: Capote mare paces early selling

The penultimate session of the Keeneland November breeding stock sale appeared on its way to a gain in median at its midpoint Thursday, although average price posted a modest decline.

Through 3 p.m., Keeneland reported 137 horses sold during the 10th session for gross receipts of $1,061,900. Average price early Thursday was $7,751, with a median of $5,500. Average and median finished at $9,111 and $4,500, respectively, for the 10th session in 2011.

The winning Capote mare Local Color sold for $45,000 to Rancho San Jose to mark Thursday’s highest price midway through the session. Indian Creek, agent, consigned the 8-year-old, in foal to Square Eddie; her only starter is a winner. Out of the Exclusive Native mare Setting, Local Color is a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Vivid Angel and stakes-placed winner Heaven Can Wait.

Thursday’s highest-priced weanling at 3 p.m. was a Parading colt purchased for $26,000 by New Horizon Farm. Consigned by Susan M. Forrester, agent, the colt is out of the stakes-winning Caller I.D. mare Isle See You Later, a half-sister to three stakes winners.

Wednesday’s ninth session posted across-the-board declines, with 254 horses selling for $2,872,300 compared with 260 sold for $4,391,700 in 2011. Average price was $11,308, declining 33.1 percent, while median fell 30 percent to $7,000.

Wednesday’s session topper was Storm Crossing, who went to Ashview Farm for $75,000. The unraced 2-year-old Tiznow filly was offered as a racing or broodmare prospect by Lane’s End, agent. Storm Crossing is out of the stakes-winning Storm Cat mare Storm Alert and is a half-sister to Grade 3 winner Utopian.

Machen, winner of the Grade 3 Derby Trial Stakes in 2011, was the session’s second most expensive horse, as J. Michael Baird went to $70,000 to acquire the Distorted Humor colt, consigned by Lane’s End. Baird plans to stand Machen, who is out of the multiple graded stakes-winning More Than Ready mare Ready’s Gal, in West Virginia in 2013.

Cumulative numbers for the Keeneland sale were down through nine sessions, largely due to the absence of two major dispersals that fueled the 2011 sale figures. With those two dispersals removed, total receipts through nine sessions rose 5.4 percent compared with 2011, the average rose 3.2 percent, and the median rose 11.1 percent.

The sale concludes on Friday.