A War Front colt capitalized on the recent catalog updates provided by older relative Departing, selling for $1 million to Coolmore-affiliated M.V. Magnier during Monday’s opening session of the Keeneland September yearling sale.
A Medaglia d'Oro filly from the family of multiple Grade 1 winner Verrazano became the first horse to reach seven figures during Monday's opening session of the Keeneland September yearling sale, as Alan Cooper signed the ticket at $1.5 million on behalf of the Niarchos family's Flaxman Stables Ireland, Limited.
The yearling market will get its most substantial test of the year this month, when Keeneland offers a 3,908-horse catalog at its September yearling sale Sept. 9-21. Solid performances at several key, but smaller, select and regional auctions have made auction officials and consignors generally confident that the reformatted 2013 September sale will perform well – and could even improve over last year’s large gains in average and median.
Horses to watch in the opening sessions of the 2013 Keeneland September yearling sale.
A solid group of first-crop sires will be represented by yearlings at the Keeneland September sale, featuring several stallions that have a good chance to carve out productive careers based on their racing accomplishments, pedigrees, and opportunity at stud thus far.
Record figures were reached at each of the three Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. juvenile sales, and most major North American 2-year-old auctions posted steady-to-spectacular gains, especially in average sale prices. Now, as the auction calendar rolls into the Keeneland September yearling sale, the pinhooking market that drives the juvenile season must once again restock for next year’s sales.
Keeneland’s September yearling sale, with 3,908 horses on offer, presents the best look at the health of the Thoroughbred yearling market. In the month leading up to the two-week auction, positive results from the 2-year-old auctions and smaller yearling sales have many market players feeling confident. Daily Racing Form’s senior bloodstock correspondent, Glenye Cain Oakford, spoke with Nick de Meric, a leading yearling-to-juvenile reseller, and Case Clay, president of the major consignor Three Chimneys Farm, about their assessments of the yearling market and what it means for their own participation at opposite ends of the yearling-auction transaction.
Equine Sales Company of Louisiana held its second annual yearling sale on Sept. 4, and the company reported on Sept. 6 that 132 hips sold from 161 offered, resulting in a healthy buyback rate of 18 percent.
Saturday’s open session of the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society’s premier yearling sale posted declines in gross, average, and median, following similar across-the-board reductions endured in the select session.
Fasig-Tipton has cataloged 279 horses for its fall mixed sale, to be held Oct. 7 at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
