Prank pulls off sale-topping $1.6 million bid at Keeneland January opener

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Prank, dominant winner of her only start, sold for $1.6 million and Canadian champion Curlin's Voyage, in foal to Flightline, sold for $1 million to lead Monday's opening session of the Keeneland January horses of all ages sale. Those rare seven-figure price tags helped power the sale to an improved average figure as it kicked off a four-day run.

Keeneland reported 225 horses sold during Monday's Book 1 opener for gross receipts of $17,547,500. In last year's corresponding first session, 224 horses sold for $16,261,900. Both those figures represent horses sold through the ring, with private sales conducted later not yet factored in.

Monday's average price for horses sold through the ring was $77,989, a jump of seven percent from $72,598 last year.

While the top of the market was competitive, the median did fall 20 percent, to $32,000 compared with $40,000.

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The buyback rate was 30 percent, improving a tick from 31 percent in the corresponding 2023 session. Among the high-profile buybacks was Star Act, the dam of Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner and Eclipse Award finalist Just F Y I. Breeder George Krikorian retained the mare after she failed to meet her reserve with a high bid of $950,000.

Topping those who did sell, the hammer fell at $1.6 million for Prank, after a prolonged bidding war in which the last several hundred thousand was achieved in jabs of $25,000 or $50,000 at a time. The Coolmore group won out, with Tom Wachman, grandson of the international outfit's principal John Magnier, signing the ticket in the back ring.

The filly's price, achieved in the opening hours of the session, made her the first horse to sell for seven figures at Keeneland January since champion Abel Tasman sold for $5 million, also to Coolmore, at the 2019 edition of this sale.

The 19-year-old Wachman, an accomplished show jumper who said he is learning the ropes working at Thoroughbred auctions, said this is the most expensive horse he has yet signed a ticket for, but "that is what they thought" the price of 4-year-old Prank joining the broodmare band might be.

"She’s a lovely filly, a very good race filly," Wachman said. "She is obviously a very good racehorse. That is why they liked her so much."

Prank was consigned as a broodmare prospect by Gainesway, which owned a share in her along with StarLadies Racing and LNJ Foxwoods. The filly, a $500,000 yearling, romped by 9 3/4 lengths in her debut on July 31, 2022, at Saratoga, geared down at the end while running 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:03.94 to earn a 91 Beyer Speed Figure.

On Aug. 20, it was reported that Prank had undergone surgery that week to repair a hairline fracture of her left front ankle, getting two screws placed into her left foreleg during the procedure. The injury sidelined the filly for the remainder of the year. She returned to the work tab the following March at trainer Todd Pletcher's winter base at Palm Beach Downs, recording two three-furlong breezes before again going to the sidelines. Prank breezed twice more in August 2023 at WinStar's training center in Kentucky, most recently going three furlongs on Aug. 9.

"She won by the length of the stretch basically, and then got injured and wasn’t able to make it back, but she had the brilliance the people want," Gainesway's Brian Graves said. "The type that if you pass that on to your foals, they could be Grade 1 winners. We certainly thought she had the ability to be a Grade 1 winner. The day she broke her maiden, you would have said she’s the best 2-year-old in America, colts or fillies. ... She went to a smart operation who knows what they're doing. That was a fair bit more than we thought she would bring today. We wish the buyers all the luck and we are very appreciative."

Prank is a daughter of five-time reigning leading sire Into Mischief, whose work as a broodmare sire is led by 2023 Breeders' Cup Classic winner White Abarrio. The filly is out of the winning Pulpit mare Callingmissbrown, dam of 2022 Belmont Stakes winner Mo Donegal.

Callingmissbrown is out of Grade 1 winner Island Sand, dam of six winners, including Grade 1-placed Maya Malibu. This is the family of Canadian champion Eternal Search and Queen's Plate winner Niigon.

Wachman said the well-bred Prank is likely to go to Triple Crown winner Justify for her first mating. Justify, who is based at Coolmore's Ashford Stud, sired a pair of 2023 Breeders' Cup winners in Just F Y I and Hard to Justify; led North America's second-crop sires list; sired 2023 Cartier Award European champion juveniles in City of Troy and Opera Singer; and is off the mark with group stakes winners as a Coolmore Australia shuttle sire.

While Prank was part of the original catalog for this sale, Canadian champion Curlin's Voyage added some additional spark as a supplemental entry, as she became the only mare in the sale offered in foal to unbeaten Horse of the Year Flightline. She lived up to her expectations, selling for $1 million to K I Farm of Japan late in the session. She was offered in the consignment of Hill 'n' Dale, which bred her, and which co-campaigned her with Windsor Boys Racing.

"I liked the pedigree, the physical, and who she was in foal to," K I Farm's Tomoyuki Nakamura said through a translator. "Everything matched up. I liked everything about her. The price was just about what I was expecting. The plans for her and if she will stay in America are still to be decided."

Curlin's Voyage, an Ontario-bred daughter of Curlin, was a two-time Canadian champion, honored with the Sovereign Award as outstanding 2-year-old filly for a campaign in which she won the Grade 3 Mazarine Stakes, and taking the Woodbine Oaks the following season to earn the 3-year-old filly title.

Curlin's Voyage delivered her first foal in 2022, and thus does not yet have a runner. The Flightline foal she is carrying is her third foal, and she continued an outstanding market reception for the in-utero first crop of that champion. At last November's two major-market mixed sales in Kentucky, 13 mares in foal to Flightline sold for an average of $1,074,231.

Curlin's Voyage is out of the winning Stormy Atlantic mare Atlantic Voyage, also the dam of stakes-placed Brass Compass. Atlantic Voyage is a full sister to Grade 1 winner Stormello and to Grade 2 winner My Best Brother, as well as a half-sister to Grade 3 winner Gala Award and stakes winner Cherry Lodge.

Keeneland January's Book 1 portion concludes with a Tuesday session that marks the halfway point of the sale. The auction then concludes with a two-session Book 2, on Wednesday and Thursday.

"There’s a lot of depth through tomorrow’s session," Keeneland director of sales operations Cormac Breathnach said. "We had a couple of real highlights today, but there are a lot of nice horses in tomorrow’s session too. ... I was really pleased with the depth of the buyer bench. There were a lot of different people signing tickets in the ring, and a lot of important buyers from America, but also internationally. We’re looking forward to tomorrow and into Book 2."

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