Keeneland September: $1 million Uncle Mo colt helps Book 2 open strong

Led by a $1 million son of young classic sire Uncle Mo, Book 2 of the Keeneland September yearling sale opened with competitive action at the top of the market on Saturday.

Behind the seven-figure colt, another dozen yearlings sold for $500,000 and up on Saturday, continuing momentum from a blockbuster Book 1 that ran Monday through Thursday, prior to a dark day on Friday.

"It seems like a good sale, it feels like a good sale, there's lots of people still looking to buy," said Mick Flanagan, who signed the ticket on the Uncle Mo colt for the high-profile partnership of China Horse Club and Maverick Racing, a moniker for WinStar Farm.

A total of 284 horses sold during Saturday's trade, the sale's fifth session overall, for gross receipts of $51,059,700, resulting in an average price of $179,788 and a median of $140,000. The buyback rate was 22 percent, after the cumulative figure for Book 1 finished at 29 percent.

"It was all go, all day," Keeneland's director of sales operations Geoffrey Russell said. "The auctioneers said it was a really strong session, a great feel up there, people bidding left, right, and center.

Keeneland revised the structure of the first week of its September sale this year, expanding Book 1 to four sessions – essentially creating a blended Book 1 and 2, albeit one with a smaller group of horses cataloged compared with last year's single ultra-select Book 1 session followed by three Book 2 sessions. Because of the changes, session-to-session figures are not comparable at this point in the sale. Last year's Book 2 opener finished with an average price of $248,562 and median of $200,000. The 2017 fifth session, the Book 3 opener, finished with an average of $124,081 and median of $100,000.

Through five sessions of the sale, the cumulative average is tracking at $304,401, an increase of 25 percent from this many sessions last year. The median price sits at $240,000, trending upward 39 percent from $172,500 at this point in 2017.

"You've got to remember, with a smaller Book 1, or Week 1, whichever way you want to phrase it, there are some of those horses that kind of got moved into this session, so it did kind of pick up some of the quality that was in the first four days of last year," Russell said. "The bidding was fast and furious. When they see the one they like ... they're working hard to get it done."

The Uncle Mo colt who led the way Saturday became the 27th seven-figure horse of this sale overall.

"Probably a little more than we wanted to give for him, but we're very, very high on him, and suppose that's what the good horses are making, so that's where we had to be," Flanagan said.

The colt, who is already named Wall Street Lion, is the second foal out of the Grade 2-placed Street Cry mare Sweet Bliss, a half-sister to multiple Grade 2-placed Saint Vigeur. The colt's third dam is Grade 1-placed stakes winner and Broodmare of the Year Sweet Life, who produced Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner and Eclipse Award champion Sweet Catomine, Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic winner Life Is Sweet, and stakes winner Calimonco.

"He's just a gorgeous, athletic colt by a fabulous stallion," Flanagan said. "There's a lot of good blood on the page. There's Giant's Causeway, there's Street Cry, Machiavellian, there's even a bit of Arch on there. He's got a mix of all those good stallions. His dam was very, very good – she could run a bit, too."

The colt was consigned by Lane's End Farm as agent for breeders Marty and Pam Wygod, who board their mares at the Versailles, Ky., farm.

"They're great supporters of the farm and of our stallions," Lane's End director of sales Allaire Ryan said. "It's nice to have a homebred like this go into the sale ring and do well for them. They have a lot of the family and thought this might be a good opportunity to sell."

Lane's End finished as the day's leading consignor by gross, with 25 horses sold for $7,096,000, and was among the leaders by average, at $283,840. The consignment was also responsible for the session's most expensive filly and third-highest price overall, an $800,000 daughter of Street Sense sold to Mayberry Farm.

Ryan said the strong start to Book 2 validates a strategy Lane's End crafted to place fewer horses in Book 1, to thus have stronger offerings throughout the sale.

"We really streamlined Book 1," Ryan said. "We cataloged about 30 fewer head in Book 1 this year to really strengthen Books 2 and 3, so it had a bit of a trickle-down effect within our own consignment, and obviously it's really paying off. We're really pleased and glad to see the strategy we committed to is working out."

The session's other top prices were an $850,000 Tapit colt sold to Robert and Lawana Low, a $750,000 Into Mischief colt sold to Larry Best's OXO Equine, and a $700,000 Pioneerof the Nile filly sold to Stonestreet Farm.

For hip-by-hip results from Keeneland September, click here.