Mare Belle Street sells for $550,000 at Keeneland breeding auction
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The well-related young broodmare Belle Street sold for $550,000 to lead the Book 3 opener as the Keeneland November breeding stock sale moved deeper into the marketplace with continued gains.
Keeneland reported 252 horses sold on Saturday, the first of two Book 3 sessions and the fourth of 10 sessions overall at this auction, for grosses of $19,981,500. In last year's comparable Book 3 opener, 226 horses brought $13,141,000.
Saturday's average price was $79,292, rising 36 percent from $58,146 in the comparable session last year. The median soared 49 percent, to $65,000 from $43,500. The buyback rate was fairly steady, checking in at 24 percent compared to 25 percent.
Belle Street was purchased by the partnership of Gary Broad and Walmac Farm, from a draft of mares offered by Godolphin. The unraced 3-year-old by that operation's stallion Street Sense is offered carrying her first foal, from what will be the final crop of prominent sire Bernardini, who died in July.
Belle Street is out of the Grade 3-placed, stakes-winning Dixieland Band mare Away, dam of seven winners from nine starters. Those are led by Grade 2-winning filly Eight Belles, the star-crossed runner-up in the 2008 Kentucky Derby. Away also produced stakes-placed All Hands and Escape Route, and is the second dam of stakes winner Sky Captain. This is the immediate family of Grade 3 winner and prominent sire Belong to Me.
A Darley stallion was also responsible for the day's highest-priced weanling, as a Nyquist filly sold for $210,000 to Bolster Bloodstock. The filly, consigned by Taylor Made Sales, as agent, is out of the Orientate mare Chifa. Grade 1 winners Dream Tree and Golden Ticket appear on the catalog page.
For hip-by-hip results, click here:
http://flex.keeneland.com/summaries/summaries.html