Anyone expecting the brisk trade of this year’s Keeneland September yearling sale to fall off as the middle market faded into Book 5 did not cash that bet on Wednesday, with across-the-board gains continuing to show the market’s buoyancy, and a $175,000 Atreides filly carrying the day’s banner.
The catalog for the 2017 Equine Sales Co. of Louisiana open yearling and mixed sale is now online, featuring 195 horses on offer.
In founding Postmaster Farm, brothers Brent and Todd Wilson kept the business in the family, right down to the name.
From a carefully-curated broodmare band that hovers around three dozen, Hinkle Farm was represented by three yearlings selected for Keeneland September's elite Book 1 catalog. The commercial operation also had several yearlings scattered throughout the middle and later books, finding strong results at the ongoing auction.
The bellwether Keeneland September yearling sale got off to a hot start last week with the much-discussed revamping of the auction’s elite books. The momentum has carried deep into the second week of the auction as this year’s yearling crop tests the middle and lower markets. Keeneland concluded its Book 4 portion on Tuesday with its average sale price trending well up and a fairly steady buyback rate, among the indicators of health across a good swath of the North American market.
The 2017 Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society (Alberta Division) Thoroughbred sale closed Sunday with solid gains across the board, led by a $45,000 filly by Point of Entry.
Book 4 of the Keeneland September yearling sale kicked off on Monday, and the session pushed the cumulative gross past last year’s final total, led by a $350,000 colt from the first crop of Cairo Prince.
Country music superstar Toby Keith has built a diverse Thoroughbred portfolio since entering the business in the early 1990s. His Dream Walkin’ Farms is perennially among the leading owners at Oaklawn Park and his hometown Remington Park, where the family keeps a finish-line suite.
Kentucky Oaks winner Cathryn Sophia and Grade 1 winner Her Emmynency have been cataloged to the Keeneland November breeding stock sale, both carrying their first foals, which are by Pioneerof the Nile.
There was still plenty of quality in the middle books of the Keeneland September yearling sale, as evidenced by a full brother to Preakness Stakes winner Cloud Computing among the yearlings in Book 3.
