Keeneland September's Book 5 sales moderate

The Keeneland September yearling sale's single-session Book 5 portion was the first session of the sale that showed any signs of a market slowdown as the marathon auction moves to test the lower markets, but momentum still has the sale poised to finish with some of the best overall figures in its history over the weekend.

A total of 287 yearlings sold during Friday's session for gross receipts of $5,313,000, led by a $170,000 Mucho Macho Man filly. The average price for the session finished at $18,512, while the median was $11,000. The day's buyback rate finished at 16 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. However, last year's two-session Book 5 recorded an average price of $29,552 and median of $20,000.

Through 11 sessions, the cumulative average is still tracking at $146,727, an increase of 16 percent from the same number of sessions last year, when it sat at $126,602. The median price sits at $70,000, trending upward 8 percent from $65,000 at this point in 2017. The cumulative buyback rate tracks at 24 percent, slightly improved from 26 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 $373,567,600, 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.

The $170,000 Mucho Macho Man filly who topped the session sold to Reeves Thoroughbred Racing, which campaigned the 2013 Breeders' Cup Classic winner, currently a freshman sire for Adena Springs. The filly, bred by Equus Farm, was consigned by Eaton Sales, as agent.

The filly is out of the winning Awesome Again mare Carolina Sunrise, dam of eight winners from nine starters, led by stakes winner Reveron, who finished second in the 2012 Florida Derby, and stakes-placed Carolina Mist.

Carolina Sunrise is out of multiple graded stakes winner Stylish Star, making her a half sister to stakes winner Stately Star, dam of stakes winner Sentimental Value, and to Grade 1-placed Stylish Talent, whose three stakes-placed offspring are led by Grade 1-placed Patricia's Gem. It is the family of Grade 3 winner Brownie Points, dam of Grade 2 winner Synchrony

Keeneland September will conclude this weekend, with a pair of Book 6 sessions on Saturday and Sunday.

For hip-by-hip results from the sale, click here.