Tiffany Case, the dam of Eclipse Award finalist Nitrogen, fetched $3.2 million to lead the Keeneland January horses of all ages sale as the mixed auction opened with a strong upper market. Keeneland reported 319 horses sold on Monday, the first of two sale sessions, for gross receipts of $31,706,400. Last year, 200 horses brought $18,087,000 in the first of three sessions. Both sets of figures include only horses sold through the ring, not yet including private sales that Keeneland will later factor into official results. “Today was a great day,” Keeneland vice president of sales Tony Lacy said. “Obviously, it's a long day, but I think the structure of what we did in creating two big sessions sort of lent into building a momentum that carried through right to the end of the day.” With two seven-figure sales leading the way – last year, three mares shared the sale’s overall top price at $700,000 – the average price was $99,393, jumping 10 percent from $90,435 in the 2025 opener. The median price, considered an important figure because it samples a bigger swath of the market and is not influenced by outlying prices as much as the average may be, dropped 35 percent to $42,000 from $65,000. However, the buyback rate, also considered a crucial figure in market health, improved to 25 percent from 32 percent. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. Tiffany Case's purchase by Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm made her the sixth most expensive horse ever sold at the Keeneland January sale. She is the highest-priced horse sold at this auction since champion Abel Tasman sold for $5 million in 2019, tying the high-water mark set by Mackie in 2000. The stakes-placed Tiffany Case was offered by Taylor Made Sales as agent for D. J. Stable, which offered a curated reduction of its bloodstock last November. This 13-year-old mare by emerging broodmare sire Uncle Mo is represented by just two starters, but both are stakes performers. Her first runner was Love to Shop, a Grade 2-placed stakes winner who sold for $700,000 at the 2025 January sale to tie atop the leaderboard. Tiffany Case later produced Nitrogen, a homebred runner for D. J. Stable who is an Eclipse Award finalist for 2025's outstanding 3-year-old filly. She was a graded stakes winner on both dirt and turf in her campaign, winning the Grade 1 Alabama last summer and finishing second in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Frank Taylor, representing the family consignment, said that since D. J. owns Nitrogen and a 2024 Gun Runner filly out of Tiffany Case, it helped with the decision to sell the broodmare following November’s additional reductions.   “That’s one of the reasons they decided to sell her,” Taylor said. “She’s really a neat mare. She has an ‘A’ foal. Every time she has a foal, it’s an ‘A’ individual, so that was good money for her.”   Adding additional commercial cachet to Tiffany Case’s offering, she was sold in foal to Not This Time, 2025’s runner-up on the general sire list and the nation’s leading 2-year-old sire and leading turf sire.   :: Subscribe to the DRF Post Time Email Newsletter: Get the news you need to play today's races!  “Not This Time had 17 yearlings bring over a million [last] year, and none of them were bred as good as this foal’s going to be bred,” Taylor said. “Hopefully they have luck with it. . . . The right people lined up on her and she presented herself very well here at the sale. I think with Not This Time, he’s so hot right now, and Nitrogen being [a finalist for] champion 3-year-old, everything was lined up.” Earlier in the session, Simply in Front, who won the Grade 1 First Lady Stakes during Keeneland's fall meet, returned to the grounds to sell for $2 million to Greenwell Thoroughbreds. She was consigned as a broodmare prospect by Richard Hogan as agent for racing owner Colebrook Farms.   “We’re excited about getting this one. . . . We think this is going to be a foundational mare for the farm,” said Greg Tramontin, representing Greenwell Thoroughbreds. He added that 5-year-old Simply in Front, by Summer Front, will be bred to Not This Time this year.   Simply in Front earned more than $2.8 million, with the Grade 1 First Lady highlighting her five stakes wins, which also included last year's Grade 2 Music City at Kentucky Downs and this year's Grade 2 Churchill Distaff Turf Mile. The mare is a half-sister to Grade 1 winner And One More Time, Grade 2 winner Honor D Lady, and stakes winner Churchtown.   A white-hot weanling marketplace, which followed a yearling sale season with gains, helped fuel November’s high-end mixed sales. Foals from the same crop – known as “short yearlings,” as they’ve only just passed a turn of the calendar – were thus considered likely to remain in demand at Keeneland's January sale. That projection was realized in an $800,000 Gun Runner colt who was purchased by Marc Gunderson to also rank among this sale’s top prices in the category. He is the fourth most expensive yearling colt ever sold at Keeneland January, a list topped by $1.15 million Videographic in 1998. Including fillies, the Gun Runner colt is tied for ninth most expensive yearling ever at this auction. Last year’s top price for a short yearling across the entire three days of the Keeneland January sale was a $400,000 colt. Led by the Gun Runner colt, three yearlings already surpassed that mark Monday.   “He was always very good, one we had a lot of excitement for coming into the sale,” said Jes Sikura, director of bloodstock for the Gun Runner colt’s co-breeder and consignor, Hill ‘n’ Dale. “I know there was a lot of popularity and [am] . . . so happy with the result and excited to see what his plans are for the future.” The colt is out of the Grade 2-winning A.P. Indy mare Deceptive Vision, dam of Grade 2-placed Ancient Peace. Deceptive Vision, from a deep Sam-Son Farm family, is out of Canadian champion Eye of the Sphynx, making her a full sister to Canadian champion and classic winner Eye of the Leopard and to stakes winner Hotep. Another Canadian champion, Desert Ride, is from the immediate family. For hip-by-hip results from Monday's session, click here. Keeneland January concludes with its Tuesday session. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? 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