Keeneland sale continuing strongly

LEXINGTON, Ky. – A trio of six-figure yearlings led selling Wednesday as the Keeneland September auction attempted to continue its run of increases.

At 3 p.m. Wednesday, session figures were running well ahead of last year’s comparable session. The price leader was an Adena Springs purchase, a $140,000 Big Brown colt who is a half-brother to Grade 2 winner Recapturetheglory. The chestnut colt is a member of his sire’s first yearling crop and is out of the stakes-placed Dehere mare Cold Awakening. Blake-Albina Thoroughbreds Services, agent, sold the colt to Frank Stronach’s operation.

Among the session’s other early highlights was a $130,000 Macho Uno colt that D. C. Goff (Allied Boodstock, agent) sold to Ann and Jerry Moss. A bay son of Ruby’s Prize, by Elusive Quality, he is from the family of graded winner Free Flying Soul.

The third yearling on the six-figure list at that stage was a $110,000 half-sister to Grade 1 winner Dublin that the Dromoland agency sold to Sagamore Farm (Bob Feld, agent). A bay filly, she is by Eurosilver and out of the Grade 1 winner Classy Mirage, by Storm Bird.

Keeneland’s two-week auction was in its 10th session Wednesday and so far has shown declines at only one of those sessions, the second select session on Sept. 12. Tuesday’s selling ended with more double-digit gains in average and median prices. The Tuesday session sold 302 yearlings for $9,579,400 as the average price jumped 26 percent to $31,720 and median shot up 32 percent to $25,000. Tuesday’s session-topping price was $200,000, and a pair of yearlings brought that. They were a Medaglia d’Oro colt out of Delve that Bob Baffert bought from Adena Springs and a War Front-Dominica filly that Glen Hill Farm bought from the Longfield Farm agency.

Through Tuesday, the world’s largest yearling auction had sold 1,933 yearlings for a cumulative average of $107,717, up 19 percent, and a cumulative median of $60,000, up 20 percent.

The September sale was to continue through Sept. 24. Continuous daily sessions start at 10 a.m. and take place in Keeneland’s sale pavilion.