Keeneland sale: Pair of $220K colts lead day's selling

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Two colts had sold for $220,000 each to share the lead for the highest-priced horses to sell halfway through the Monday session of the marathon Keeneland September yearling sale.

The first colt, by Lion Heart out of the Royal Academy mare Silent Academy, was purchased by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, which administers all racing and breeding in the Chinese province. The colt, a half-sister to the multiple graded stakes winner Sweet August Moon, is the seventh yearling purchased by the Hong Kong Jockey Club at the sale, running its total to $967,000.

The second colt, by Tale of the Cat out of the Point Given mare Darling Temper, was bought by Bob Feld, acting as agent for Sagamore Farm.

With 176 horses sold by late afternoon, the running average price for the session was $39,459, and the median was $30,000. Both figures are well below the average and median for the comparable eighth session last year, but the two sessions are difficult to compare because of a different format for the sale this year than last year. With the exception of the sale’s second select session last Monday night, every session of this year’s sale has so far outperformed the comparable session last year, in most cases by double-digit increases.

A total of eight horses had sold for $100,000 or more by Monday afternoon. The buy-back rate at that point was 12.8 percent, a number that would be lower than any buy-back rate for any session at the sale this year or last year by a full 7 percentage points.