Sponsored content: Keeneland September sale: Plenty of value to be found at top of the market

It’s the seven-figure yearlings that generate the spontaneous applause and make all the Book 1 headlines at the Keeneland September yearling sale. But there is a consistent stream of highly successful runners that passes through the sales ring early on in the September sale perhaps with less fanfare and fewer lightbulbs illuminated on the results board. The adulation for these value buys is held until they cross the wire first in important races.

For proof, look no further than 2015 Book 1 graduate Bricks and Mortar, now a leading contender for 2019 Horse of the Year.

Bred by renowned horseman and breeder George Strawbridge Jr. out of his stakes winner and multiple group-placed mare Beyond the Waves, the colt was foaled and raised at Arthur Hancock’s famed Stone Farm. The Strawbridge-Hancock bond was forged in their youth at Saratoga – their fathers attended Princeton together – and their professional relationship began in 2001.

With all that history on the catalog page and a colt by three-time champion sire Giant’s Causeway standing in the ring, Bricks and Mortar was a tremendous value the second the gavel fell to Oak Bluff Partners (Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables and William Lawrence).

“He was correct and balanced, medium-sized, a typical Giant’s Causeway, not a flashy show horse, and he scoped well,” Hancock recalls. “He sold for $200,000. Mike Ryan picked him out and bought him, and his record speaks for itself.”

Some 92 yearlings sold for more money that afternoon, but none have earned anywhere near the acclaim of Bricks and Mortar. He’s now a four-time Grade 1 winner, with nearly $4.9 million in the bank, a resume that secured a lucrative stallion deal from Japan’s Shadai Stud. Bricks and Mortar now is being considered for the $4 million Breeders’ Cup Turf and, very likely, some major Eclipse Award hardware.

The 2016 September sale produced a pair of Book 1 bargains in millionaire Group 3 winner Mozu Superflare and Mia Mischief, a speedy Grade 1 winner on American soil.

Mozu Superflare is by Speightstown out of the Belong to Me daughter Christies Treasure, whose first foal was on the page in 2016 as graded stakes winner Sacristy. Bred by Jonathan Clay’s Alpha Delta Stables LLC, the filly was offered by Lane’s End Farm as Hip No. 251 during session 2 of the 2016 September auction. Japanese-based Capital System Co. signed the ticket for $125,000.

With Speightstown yearlings going for an average of nearly $300,000 that year, Mozu Superflare was another bargain.

“Jonathan Clay is a longtime friend and client of Lane’s End Farm who primarily breeds to sell,” said Allaire Ryan, Lane’s End’s sales director. “Mozu Superflare was a medium-sized, physically forward yearling. In fact, all of the foals out of Christies Treasure are – she consistently throws plenty of strength and natural substance to her foals. Fillies with pedigree consistently draw attention of international buyers, and these particular clients had her vetted prior to the sale, so we knew of their interest in her.”

Winner of her debut at Kokura in August 2017, Mozu Superflare has won on five subsequent occasions, with her signature victory, so far, coming in the Group 3 Yukan Fuji Sho Ocean earlier this year at Nakayama. She has banked $1,303,036, more than 10 times her purchase price.

A few hours after Mozu Superflare sold, an Into Mischief filly out of the Speightstown daughter Greer Lynn was led into the Keeneland sales ring as Hip No. 377.

Bred by Spendthrift Farm when their star stallion was standing for just $20,000, she was consigned by Vinery Sales. The growing buzz around Into Mischief, who was up to a $45,000 fee in 2016, and the filly herself made an ideal Book 1 candidate.

“When we put her in Book 1, Into Mischief was definitely on the upswing and she was definitely a Book 1 physical,” Vinery Sales co-owner Derek MacKinzie recalled.

She’s also a cautionary tale of how a singular factor can dissuade all but the shrewdest buyers.

“As a yearling, Mia Mischief was a beautifully balanced filly with so much power in her hind quarters and had plenty of size and bone,” MacKinzie said. “She looked like a bodybuilder. She was so naturally muscled. She would have brought a lot more money if she had walked bigger. Just had very little stride to her.”

In the end, it was the McKathan Brothers who snapped her up for their resale operation for $135,000.

“After placements were done there was still plenty of time to improve her walk, but nothing really worked and we realized it was just the way she is,” MacKinzie said. “It’s probably the equivalent of asking a bodybuilder to run a marathon, not going to happen. She’s definitely evidence that there’s too much emphasis put on big walkers at the yearling sales, especially for sprinter/miler types on dirt. I always bring up her name when buyers at the yearling sales are complaining if a good-looking, strong-bodied-type yearling doesn’t have much stride at the walk.”

Her walk is plenty good enough when she enters the winner’s circle, which she has done thus far on seven occasions in her 17-race career. Her biggest wins have come on some of racing’s biggest stages – the Grade 2 Eight Belles on Kentucky Oaks Day in 2018 and the Grade 1 Humana Distaff on this year’s Kentucky Derby undercard. Her earnings stand just $16,000 shy of $1 million.

Much like Bricks and Mortar in 2015, Book 1 of the 2017 September sale produced an important runner backed by historic connections. Bred by the Niachos family’s Flaxman Holdings Limited and raised at Lane’s End Farm, A Thread of Blue scored in the Grade 3 Palm Beach over the winter and, most recently, captured the inaugural $1 million Saratoga Derby Invitational. The colt by Hard Spun sold as Hip No. 4 out of Lane’s End’s star-studded Book 1 consignment that year, and he’s a good example of the early bird getting the graded stakes-winning 3-year-old.

“A Thread of Blue was foaled and raised in the same crop as classic winner War of Will on our Oak Tree division. Both colts were offered out of the same shed row in Barn 6 at Keeneland September,” Ryan said. “The history of the Niarchos program speaks for itself, and there are limited opportunities for buyers to invest in a Flaxman Holdings pedigree because the majority of their horses are bred and raised with the intention to race.

“A Thread of Blue was a colt with good size, depth, and length for his sire. He moved well with a big, smooth stride. He was not a muscular, robust individual, but he had class and presence, which made you think ‘he’s a runner.’ ”

Merties Stable, the only one to vet A Thread of Blue, signed the $150,000 ticket and made a nice score when the colt was resold at 2 for $430,000. Current owner Leonard Green is certainly ecstatic with an excursion to the Saratoga winner’s circle, not to mention the $879,290 that A Thread of Blue has earned so far in his 10-race career.

Lane’s End earned a $5,000 Keeneland September Seller Bonus for A Thread of Blue’s victory in the Palm Beach.

Columbiana Farm also is a beneficiary of the Seller Bonus program inaugurated by Keeneland in 2017. The central Kentucky farm raised and sold By Your Side and earned a $5,000 check when the colt triumphed in the Grade 3 Sanford Stakes on July 13 at Saratoga. The victory also made him first black-type winner by Constitution.

Placing a yearling in Book 1 by a $20,000 first-year sire can be risky, but the Columbiana team – and the Keeneland yearling inspectors – knew they had the goods. Their astute judgment was rewarded all around with a $240,000 bid from Brad Anderson’s Anderson Stables, the second-highest payment for a yearling from Constitution’s first crop.

“By Your Side was a very nice horse growing up, never had any issues, always very athletic and correct,” said Homer Rader, Columbiana’s farm manager. “He was a little weak on pedigree for our first group, but he made up for it with athleticism.”

“We put a value on them and turn in a wish list to the sales selection team at Keeneland, and they do their magic after inspecting the yearlings. We were very pleased with the hammer price of the colt,” Rader added.

From Horse of the Year contenders to Japanese stars to accomplished 2-year-olds with limitless futures, the past few years certainly prove that value abounds at the top of the Keeneland September sale.