Keeneland September: Book 2 continues momentum with six seven-figure yearlings in first session

LEXINGTON, Ky. – A bullish marketplace continued to power along as the Keeneland September yearling sale moved into its Book 2 portion with a Wednesday session led by a $1.4 million Into Mischief colt.

That colt topped six yearlings sold for seven figures Wednesday, eclipsing the four to hit that mark during the entire two-session Book 2 last year. Overall, 28 horses have fetched seven figures during the first three days of the sale, with a two-session Book 1 that posted double-digit gains preceding Wednesday's activity.

Although the majority of the marathon sale's fireworks typically take place during Book 1, good horses weren't overlooked simply because of their book placement – and the competition for those horses was fierce.

"There’s so many agents and they have good eyes, so it doesn’t matter where you put them," said Francis Vanlangendonck, whose Summerfield Sales consigned the session-topper "They’re going to find them."

Keeneland reported 219 horses sold through the ring Wednesday for gross receipts of $66,695,000. In last year's comparable Book 2 opening session, 211 horses brought $60,996,000.

Wednesday's average price was $304,543, a gain of 5 percent from $289,081 in this session last year. The median jumped 9 percent, to $250,000 from $230,000.

The buyback rate ticked up to 26 percent, compared to 25 percent. Keeneland's director of sales operations Cormac Breathnach pointed to that relatively steady figure, as well as the improved median, as key indicators of market health.

"Those are just signs that a good session last year got even better this year," Breathnach said. "A lot of domestic buyers participated, and we're very grateful to them. There's strength in the purse structure and the sport of racing, and their involvement in the sale just speaks to that. We're very excited about it. And we still have a lot of international buyers here on the grounds. They're not finding it as easy as they might have hoped to fill their orders. The energy from Book 1 really passed very strongly into Book 2.”

Larry Best, who breeds and races as OXO Equine, signed the ticket on the session-topping son of three-time reigning leading sire Into Mischief, a stallion he has long supported. Best noted that the process of buying and developing a colt is risky, but ultimately, he liked enough things about this colt to take the risk.

"As you know, I love Into Mischief," Best said. "I have all these filters I use [in the horse selection process], and rarely does a horse meet all the filters when it’s a colt. . . . My filter is pretty stringent. Believe it or not, this one cleared them all, and I said, ‘Why am I not buying the horse when I’ve bought all these other Into Mischiefs and done well with most of them?’ I waited until I saw him in the ring again, and I said if I’m going to roll the dice at a big number for a colt, I’m going to stick with the Into Mischief bloodline, and this one looks as good as I’ve seen."

The colt, one of was two seven-figure lots for Into Mischief on Wednesday, was consigned by Francis and Barbara Vanlangendonck's Summerfield Sales, as agent for his breeder Barbara Banke's Stonestreet Farm. The colt is the first foal out of the Stonestreet homebred Dawn the Destroyer, a stakes winner who placed in multiple Grade 1 events, including a third-place finish in the 2019 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint behind Covfefe and Bellafina.

“We loved him," Banke said. "He's a great colt out of a great racemare.”

In a common market trend, a partnership formed in order to stretch higher in the bidding for the second-biggest price of the day, as Coolmore's M.V. Magnier, John Oxley, and Breeze Easy purchased a $1.15 million colt by Horse of the Year and red-hot young sire Gun Runner. The colt, one of two seven-figure lots on the day for his sire, was consigned by Peter O'Callaghan's Woods Edge Farm, as agent.

“Everyone likes Gun Runner these days," said agent Justin Casse, who signed the ticket for the partnership. "They all seem to have tremendous walks and smooth movement. He has a very good top line. He comes from a good nursery; they raise a good horse. He was a class act on the end of the shank from Day 1."

The Gun Runner colt is out of the stakes-winning Bluegrass Cat mare Kathballu, a full sister to multiple graded stakes winner Kathmanblu. Grade 1 winner Friendly Michelle appears on the catalog page.

A filly by perennial leading sire Tapit was the session's third-highest price, and its top filly, selling for $1.1 million to Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm.

The filly was consigned as agent by Gainesway, which also stands her sire. She is out of the stakes-winning Dunkirk mare Danzatrice, a half-sister to Eclipse Award champion juvenile filly Jaywalk.

Pope purchased the full brother to this filly, Tapit Trice, for $1.3 million from the Gainesway consignment at last September's sale. The colt is still unraced for trainer Todd Pletcher, but is "training great," according to Pope's racing manager Todd Quast, encouraging the owner to keep investing in the family.

"We have a lot of our mares at Gainesway, and we have seen her there and Mandy was just in love with her," Quast said. "You know how Mandy has an affinity for Tapit."

The partnership of SF Racing, Starlight Racing, and Madaket Stables purchased a trio of colts for $1.05 million each. A pair of colts by Gun Runner and Quality Road, respectively, were both consigned by Pope McLean's Crestwood Farm, as agent, while the partnership's third purchase, an Into Mischief colt, was consigned by Gainesway, as agent.

“The market is very strong," SF's Tom Ryan said. "It’s carrying through from Book 1 to Book 2 very nicely."

Book 2 wraps up with a second session on Thursday before the September sale takes its traditional dark day on Friday.

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