Keeneland September keeps rolling in Book 2, selling brother to Mage for $1.2M

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- A $1.2 million half-brother to Kentucky Derby winner Mage led five seven-figure horses as the Keeneland September yearling sale opened its Book 2 portion on Wednesday with steady figures.

Keeneland reported 209 yearlings sold in the first of two Book 2 sessions for gross receipts of $64,024,000. In last year's comparable Book 2 opener, 219 horses brought $66,695,000. These figures do not include horses who failed to meet their reserve in the ring and later sold privately, numbers Keeneland ultimately factors into its final results.

Wednesday's average price was $306,335, ticking up 1 percent from $304,543 in the comparable session last year. The session-to-session median rose 2 percent, to $330,000 from $325,000. The buyback rate was 28 percent, compared to 26 percent.

"I think we've got to be very happy with the way the day turned out," Keeneland vice president of sales Tony Lacy said. "We've been on par with last year's figures - the average, the median, the gross. We've got to be very pleased. Early on in the day was a little slower, but it picked up and charged on very strongly."

Historic Runnymede Farm of Paris, Ky., consigned the day's two most expensive horses. The duo was led by the $1.2 million McKinzie half-brother to Mage, who went to Lee and Susan Searing's CRK Stables; Dottie Ingordo-Shirreffs signed the ticket using the moniker Mayberry Farm. Runnymede boards Mage's dam, Puca, and raises her foals for breeder Robert Clay's Grandview Equine.

Earlier in the day, Mike Repole, seated alongside trainer Todd Pletcher, partnered with Spendthrift Farm to secure a Gun Runner colt from the consignment for $1.15 million. Bloodstock agent Jacob West signed the ticket on the colt, who was co-bred by Runnymede, which has been in operation for more than a century and a half, and Peter Callahan.

"The sense of gratitude is just tremendous," Runnymede chairman and chief executive officer Brutus J. Clay III said. "Feel so blessed to have the team we have - [farm president Romain Malhouitre] and all the people on the farm ... they work so hard and put so much into it. For me, you have this land that's been in the family, so I can't take any credit for that, but to be able to be a good steward with that and to have that is incredible."

The session-topper is from the first crop of McKinzie, a Grade 1 winner at ages 2, 3, and 4. Puca, by Big Brown, was a stakes winner herself, and her first three foals to the track are all stakes horses. Kentucky Derby winner Mage, also second in this year's Florida Derby and Haskell Invitational and third in the Preakness Stakes, is joined by recent stakes-placed juvenile Dornoch and the stakes-placed filly Gunning.

"Grandview believes in McKinzie a lot," Malhouitre said. "I've seen plenty of McKinzies as foals. We love them, and we've been very lucky with him. They're looking like two-turn horses. [This colt is] only a May foal. ... I've always said he's the greatest mix between the sire and the mare, both of their quality."

CRK Stables had already purchased a McKinzie colt, from the Runnymede consignment, for $700,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale. Both will eventually be bound for trainer John Shirreffs.

“He’s a very athletic colt, and we would like to have a nice colt," Ingordo-Shirreffs said after signing the ticket. "And obviously, there’s a fabulous pedigree, and a young mare, so it has a lot of positives. And you always want one with a lot of presence, and he has that.”

Earlier in the day, Repole, whose name has been on 31 sale tickets, alone or in partnership, continued to be active in the market by stretching for the Gun Runner colt

"The best colt of the day, in our opinion," Repole said. "The team liked him. ... We thought he would go for a little bit less. I think the right people were on him, and sometimes, when you get a couple of the right people on them, you pay a little bit more than you want. I'm enjoying being partners with Spendthrift."

The colt is out of the Speightstown mare Margate Gardens, who is the dam of two winners from five starters, including Wilson G, second in this July's Bashford Manor. Margate Gardens is a full sister to graded stakes winner Bridgetown, as well as a half-sister to stakes winners Carnacks Choice and Clement Rock. This is the extended family of Kentucky Derby winner Strike the Gold.

Brutus Clay said partnering with co-breeder Peter Callahan this week has been particularly sweet.

"Peter Callahan has been a partner of ours for over 30 years," Clay said. "When Romain came on, almost 10 years ago this November, we needed to reinvest and we needed to develop the program, and Peter stepped up and he backed us. He believed in us."

Wednesday's activity brought Runnymede's total number of seven-figure horses at this sale to three; in Book 1, the farm sold a $2 million Uncle Mo colt, which it co-bred with Callahan and Three Chimneys Farm. Overall, the farm sold seven of the 10 yearlings it brought to the ring in the first three days of this sale, for totals of $5.56 million.

Behind the Runnymede duo, the day's other top prices were a $1.1 million Into Mischief colt, purchased by West Point Thoroughbreds from the consignment of Clearsky Farms, as agent; a $1.1 million Tapit filly, purchased by D.J. Stable from the consignment of Gainesway, as agent; and a $1 million Uncle Mo colt purchased by Jim and Dana Bernhard's Pin Oak Stud from the consignment of Hunter Valley Farm, as agent.

D. J. Stable, which made a single purchase in Book 1, and Pin Oak, which made no purchases in those two days, are among the entities trying to emerge in the marketplace now as it transitions into other books. Jon Green, the general manager for D. J. Stable, said it was "near impossible to buy" in Book 1.

“Our program, we can’t outspend people," Green said. "We have to look for trends, and zig when they’re zagging. ... Everybody is after the Into Mischief, you forget that there are really great stallions out there like Tapit, that are now, quote unquote, under the radar, even almost forgotten about, because they’re not hot and sexy and new. So that’s why we’re leaning more into those kinds of horses."

For hip-by-hip results, click here.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.