Trainer Mark Casse reclined in a Keeneland sales pavilion seat having just completed a two-week stretch that included a title-clinching Breeders' Cup Juvenile score by Classic Empire, a gut-wrenching runner-up effort by Tepin in the Mile, cross-country travel, and finally a large chunk of his barn population being pieced apart in the dispersal of Conquest Stables at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale.
The second half of the Conquest Stables dispersal’s racing-age portion helped propel gains for a second day to close out Book 4 of the Keeneland November breeding stock sale Tuesday, topped by the $785,000 Conquest Enforcer.
Interest in the dispersal of Conquest Stables brought faces into the pavilion not often seen in Book 4 of the Keeneland November breeding stock sale, but it was a horse outside of the headlining draft who made history on Monday.
Multiple Grade 1 winner Constitution, who stood his first season this year at WinStar Farm, recorded a major coup with a seven-figure mare in his first auction as a covering sire.
With the weanling market expected to be strong at this sale, perennial commercial leaders War Front and Tapit were each represented by a seven-figure weanling last week.
The pattern of gains in a book’s opening session and declines during its second day continued into Book 3 of the Keeneland November breeding stock sale, with decreased returns during Sunday’s trade.
The fifth session of the Keeneland November breeding stock sale closed with steady gains in average and median sale price on Saturday, but a spike in the percentage of horses that finished under their reserves.
A market of ebbs and flows continued to fluctuate on Friday, with significant across-the-board declines closing Book 2 after the section opened on Thursday with gains.
The Keeneland November breeding stock sale rolled into Book 2 with across-the-board gains on Thursday, led by the $650,000 broodmare Easy Feeling.
Triple Crown winner American Pharoah got his first real test in the commercial arena this week, when mares carrying foals from his first crop went through the ring at the major Kentucky fall mixed sales. He passed in solid fashion, as 10 of those mares sold for an average of $440,000.
