Keeneland September yearling sale: Depth of catalog should keep the good times rolling
:quality(75))
After the initial fireworks fade from the sky, don’t leave early. There’s plenty more still to come.
The Keeneland September yearling sale, which attracts both domestic and international buyers at all levels to Lexington, Ky., conducts its 12-session run between Monday, Sept. 14, and Saturday, Sept. 26. Keeneland has cataloged 4,642 yearlings for the sale, accounting for the latest supplemental entries announced on Aug. 20.
Yearlings are sorted into five books based on their perceived quality and market appeal. In a tweak introduced last year, Book 5 is separated into Books 5A and 5B. The September sale will test the market from its top crust through the crucial middle and down to the lower end.
The sale opens with Books 1 and 2, which have two sessions each. Then comes the sale’s single dark day, allowing buyers time to inspect this concentration of high-quality stock uninterrupted. At last year’s record-setting Keeneland September sale, a total of 55 horses sold through the ring for seven figures, the majority of those coming in the first week.
However, a trickle-down effect and a strong marketplace lit up the bid board a bit later in the sale. The fifth overall session, the opener of Book 3, featured multiple seven-figure horses, led by a $2 million Into Mischief colt. According to Keeneland, he was the most expensive horse ever sold in a fifth session of the September sale.
Similar dynamics could be at play this year. The upper end of this year’s yearling marketplace has already flexed its muscles, with the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale last month, a boutique auction that compares to Keeneland’s Book 1 in terms of quality, trading 35 seven-figure horses as it broke records across the board.
“It’s been pretty tough sledding so far, so we had to find some partners,” Ned Toffey, general manager of Spendthrift Farm, said of buying at the upper end, as Spendthrift purchased three seven-figure horses with three different partnerships.
The Fasig-Tipton July yearling sale and Fasig-Tipton New York-bred yearling sale, both of which are selected sales but begin to test the middle marketplace, also broke records. Some buyers at the July sale even indicated that they were trying to get ahead of the September marketplace for comparable horses.
“If they’re here, you might as well try to jump on them before they get too going,” bloodstock agent Phil Hager said. “If you wait too long, sometimes it becomes hard.”
Therefore, buyers who find the sledding tough in Books 1 and 2 could find themselves shopping in Books 3 and beyond, where a competitive group of buyers await. Quality stock is still available, and in many cases the pedigrees of horses have improved via updates since the catalog was released on Aug. 11. For example, the second week of the sale now includes half-siblings to a trio of graded stakes winners on Aug. 29 – Hymn, winner of the Grade 1 Forego Stakes; In Our Time, who won the Grade 1 Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf Sprint on Aug. 29; and Iron Man Cal, who won the Grade 2 Pat O’Brien.
“This year’s September sale offers remarkable quality and depth from the opening session through the final day,” Keeneland vice president of sales Tony Lacy said. “With so many outstanding yearlings, placing horses throughout the catalog required careful consideration.”
:: Subscribe to the DRF Post Time Email Newsletter: Get the news you need to play today's races!
Still, the focus will certainly be on Book 1, for which Keeneland has assembled an outstanding group, even by its usual high standards. The catalog includes half-siblings to a pair of Hall of Famers: a Gun Runner colt who is a half-brother to 2018 Triple Crown winner and Horse of the Year Justify, and a Curlin filly who is a half-sister to 2014 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner and two-time Horse of the Year California Chrome.
The catalog also includes half- or full siblings to Kentucky Derby winner and Eclipse Award champion Nyquist; Preakness Stakes winner and champion Swiss Skydiver; Kentucky Oaks and Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner and champion Malathaat; Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and champion Sierra Leone; Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf winner Moira, both an Eclipse and Sovereign Award champion; plus additional Eclipse Award champions Forte, Good Magic, and Ted Noffey, all Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winners.
Also catalogued are siblings to Preakness winner Early Voting; Kentucky Oaks winner Always a Runner; Breeders’ Cup Mile winner More Than Looks; Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Battle of Midway; Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Caravel; Australian champion Shinzo; and additional Grade/Group 1 winners Adare Manor, American Gal, Be Your Best, Bell’s the One, Bellafina, Bleecker Street, Burnham Square, Clairiere, Collected, Colonel Liam, Concrete Rose, Englishman, Faiza, Gun Pilot, Juju’s Map, Kilwin, Kingsbarns, Klimt, Known Agenda, Locked, Mind Control, Mo Town, Nickname, Nucky, Paradise Woods, Princess Noor. Raging Sea, Raging Torrent, Saudi Crown, Search Results, Tapit Trice, War Like Goddess, and Zandon.
Dams of yearlings in Book 1 – taking into account dams of some of the above – include Hall of Famer Songbird; Grade 1 winner and Broodmare of the Year Dreaming of Julia; Eclipse Award champions Gamine, Goodnight Olive, and Vequist; Kentucky Oaks winners Serengeti Empess and Shedaresthedevil; Canadian champion Munnyfor Ro; Australian champion Samaready; South African champion Celtic Sea; and Grade/Group 1 winners American Gal, Constellation, Cavorting, Dream Tree, Embellish the Lace, Hard Not to Love, Harmonize, I’m a Chatterbox, Juju’s Map, Kimari, Midnight Lucky, Moonshine Memories, Odeliz, Paola Queen, Pauline’s Pearl, Played Hard, Rigoletta, Separationofpowers, Sharing, and Tiz Miz Sue.
“It’s very competitive,” bloodstock adviser Chris Baker said of shopping at the top end of the marketplace.
By Keeneland’s count, 189 different stallions are represented during the two-week sale. Those include all 10 of North America’s current leading general sires by earnings: Not This Time, who led last year’s September sale by gross; Into Mischief; Gun Runner, who led this 2025 sale by average; Nyquist; Curlin; Constitution; Practical Joke; Liam’s Map; Munnings; and Vekoma.
First-crop sires represented, always a hot topic of interest at this sale, include Horse of the Year Cody’s Wish, along with additional Eclipse Award champions Arcangelo, Elite Power, Forte, and Up to the Mark.
“They are a diverse group of stallions with some sprinters and turf performers, along with classic dirt types,” Keeneland director of sales operations Cormac Breathnach said. “There is no shortage of athletic individuals by these stallions coming to market, and they will add extra excitement to the sale.”
There is plenty of excitement, but the bar to clear is high. Last year’s September sale was the world’s highest-grossing Thoroughbred auction in history, with $531,744,400 in gross sales. The average price of $172,755 and the median of $80,000 were both records.
Many pointed to changes in the tax code as a major influence in the sale’s staggering results. Earlier in 2025, Congress approved a sweeping tax and spending bill that included provisions favoring several business segments that may include Thoroughbred owners. The bill provided 100 percent “bonus depreciation” to classes of assets including sport or breeding horses, allowing buyers to write off the up-front cost of a horse in its first year. The legislation also contained language expanding the definition of the types of horses that are eligible for bonus depreciation and permitted business owners to offset losses from one business to any other business, meaning that the owner of a profitable business can use losses from a racing operation to offset the tax bill of the main business.
Buyers and consignors found other reasons to point at for the enthusiasm in the bidding. Purse structures are healthy in many racing jurisdictions – including Kentucky, where the exceptionally lucrative Kentucky Downs meet is currently ongoing. While the bulk of this catalog is made up of Kentucky-breds, state incentives such as those in New York also provide value to buyers.
A number of sales officials and bloodstock professionals have pointed to purse structures and expanded television coverage, among other factors, sparking genuine interest in Thoroughbred ownership. It’s time to see if it keeps sparkling in September.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.