Legal Move sells for $245K as sale nears its end

It didn't happen until the last half-hour of the auction, but the Keeneland November breeding stock sale produced one six-figure horse Saturday at a session that produced mixed results overall.

The session-topper was $245,000 Legal Move, a 4-year-old Canadian-bred colt offered as a racing or stallion prospect. The Bold Executive colt was in the Lane's End consignment and sold to Bruno Schickedanz. Lane's End was the agent for Woodford Racing in the sale.

The colt is a six-time stakes winner at Woodbine. To date, he has earned $782,181.

Legal Move is out of the stakes-placed Country Store mare Charity Country, who also is the dam of stakes winner Its Launch Time and stakes-placed Our Miss Jones.

Saturday's session grossed $2,257,800 for 242 horses, up 5 percent from last year, when 202 horses sold. But average price fell 12 percent to $9,330, and median was off 23 percent at $5,250. In addition to the bump in gross, buybacks were well down, falling to 18 percent from 27 percent last year.

Through Saturday's 13th session, the auction had sold 2,680 horses for $183,643,800, a decline of 46 percent from last year at the same stage, when 3,098 horses had sold. The $68,524 average was down 37 percent, and the $25,000 median represented a drop of 38 percent.

Buybacks overall were up, from 22 percent last year to 28 percent.

The auction was to continue through Monday with sessions daily at 10 a.m.