Keeneland September yearling sale stays strong, with $250,000 Union Rags colt topping 10th session

The Keeneland September yearling sale is still tracking toward record returns as it enters its final stretch, with a $250,000 Union Rags colt topping Thursday's Book 4 finale.

A total of 272 yearlings sold during Thursday's session, the 10th of 13 overall, for gross receipts of $9,019,400. The average price for the session finished at $33,160, while the median was $22,000. The day's buyback rate finished at 20 percent.

Keeneland revised the structure of the first week of its September sale this year, expanding Book 1 to four sessions followed by a pair of Book 2 sessions, compared with last year's single ultra-select Book 1 session followed by three Book 2 sessions. With the changes, it is difficult to make direct session-to-session or book-to-book comparisons with last year’s sale.

Through 10 sessions of this sale, however, the cumulative average is tracking at $163,021, an increase of 21 percent from the same number of sessions last year, when it sat at $134,571. The median price sits at $85,000, trending upward 13 percent from $75,000 at this point in 2017. The cumulative buyback rate tracks at 25 percent, slightly improved from 27 percent.

Last year's sale finished with a gross of $307,845,400, the first time since 2008 that the figure had exceeded $300 million. This year's edition of the sale surpassed last year's total revenues on Monday and currently sits at $368,264,600, already ranking fourth in auction history, with three sessions remaining.

Last year's average and median finished at $120,487 and $57,000, respectively, both record figures. While the average and median will drop somewhat through the final days of this sale, representing a lower market, both figures for this year's renewal are on pace to finish among the best in sale history. Keeneland September is set to conclude with a single Book 5 session on Friday followed by a pair of Book 6 sessions on Saturday and Sunday.

The $250,000 Union Rags colt who led Thursday's trade was purchased by bloodstock agent Ben Glass out of the consignment of KatieRich Farms.

The colt is the second foal out of the winning Speightstown mare Town Flirt, who is a half-sister to stakes winner Financial Modeling and stakes-placed Qualify. Town Flirt's granddam is Delaware Handicap winner With a Wink, dam of stakes winners Jena Jena, Win With a Wink, and Up Like

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