Take Charge Brandi comes out on top again at Keeneland November

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Champion Take Charge Brandi led another edition of the Keeneland November breeding stock sale, taking another trip home to Hill 'n' Dale Farm for a $3.2 million price tag, as the auction opened with its select Book 1 portion on Wednesday.

Keeneland reported 163 horses sold in the single-session Book 1, including private sales that occurred on the grounds prior to the close of the session, for gross revenues of $70,449,500. More horses were sold in the book, compared to 134 last year, and there were more seven-figure horses overall, with 14 compared to nine at that threshold in 2018. That added up to a solid increase in gross, from $61,583,500, including private sales, in 2018.

"We had more horses cataloged up front, and I was really happy about the supplement there at the end," Bob Elliston, Keeneland's vice president of racing and sales, said. "Two millionaires [in the supplemental catalog] at the end, on top of what was originally cataloged. If you had a quality mare, there were tons of buyers on them, and that's what that represents, I think."

However, there was restraint at the top of the market, leading to a drop in the average price. Two mares sold for prices in excess of $4 million in 2018's Book 1, a mark that was not surpassed on Wednesday. The session average finished at $432,206, a drop of 6 percent from $459,578. The median was $300,000, down 14 percent from $350,000. The buyback rate was 25 percent, compared to 21 percent in Book 1 last year.

Elliston spoke to Keeneland's reported statistics for each sale session now including private sales, as opposed to in past years, when only horses sold at the fall of the hammer were reported.

"I think that's more consistent with how other sales companies report those numbers, and we've done ourselves a disservice by understating how much commerce is actually getting done here," Elliston said. "It's a more accurate reflection of the business being done on our grounds. Yes, we would prefer it to happen right there in front of us [in the ring], but it does happen in the back as well."

Take Charge Brandi led Book 1 while carrying a foal from the first crop of Triple Crown winner Justify. She was one of 13 horses who sold on Wednesday as Elevage Bloodstock, headed by John Sikura of Hill 'n' Dale Farm and Craig Bernick of Glen Hill Farm, which liquidated its broodmare and weanling assets, accounting for $11.7 million in gross sales. That included two of the day's top three prices, and three of the top five. Sikura, whose Hill 'n' Dale handled the consignment, said there was "no animosity whatsoever" between he and Bernick, two high-profile players in the bloodstock industry, and that Elevage will continue to be involved in stallion holdings as it re-focuses its business strategy.

"We were initially going to be a stallion investment company, which has been a big part of our portfolio," Sikura explained. "Then we started to buy some mares. And some of the partners thought that we should be more direct and concentrate our assets as we originally planned."

Sending horses through the auction ring in such situations is common in order to establish a fair current market value on the horse, and it is not uncommon for one of the partners to go home with the horse. Sikura signed the sales ticket for Take Charge Brandi, and also took home her weanling Tapit colt for $600,000.

Take Charge Brandi, by Giant's Causeway, won the 2014 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, the Grade 3 Delta Downs Princess, and the Grade 1 Starlet Stakes to earn that season's Eclipse Award as the nation's outstanding 2-year-old filly. She also won the Martha Washington Stakes early in her 3-year-old season. Hill 'n' Dale consigned Take Charge Brandi to the 2015 Keeneland November sale for owner Willis Horton, and Sikura went to $6 million to purchase her that day. She was the most expensive horse sold in North America that year, and was the sixth-highest-priced broodmare or broodmare prospect ever sold at Keeneland November.

Sikura said Take Charge Brandi's outstanding female family, which has continued to fire on the racetrack, made him determined to go home with the mare. Take Charge Brandi's dam, the winning Seeking the Gold mare Charming, is also the dam of Omaha Beach, a Grade 1 winner both sprinting and routing this season, and recently second in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile. Charming, also the dam of Irish Group 1-placed Courage Under Fire, is out of multiple Grade 1 winner and Broodmare of the Year Take Charge Lady. That mare, who most recently produced a reported foal in 2017, is the dam of Eclipse Award champion Will Take Charge and Grade 1 winner Take Charge Indy.

"It's an impeccable female family, and you get almost no opportunity to get into this family," Sikura said. "The second dam is no longer producing. Her dam, Charming, is owned by Coolmore - it's very selective and hard to get those offspring, as well. Omaha Beach is a great stallion prospect. So for me, to collect fillies [from the family] is a great opportunity."

Take Charge Brandi's first foal is an unstarted Curlin colt who sold for $850,000 at the 2018 Keeneland September yearling sale to John Oxley; her Tapit colt was a private purchase by Phoenix Thoroughbreds this year after he was a $775,000 buyback. Sikura said that offering younger mares, whose foals have not yet performed on the racetrack, can be a bit of a difficult sell. This alludes to the fact that both Take Charge Brandi and another mare, Callback, previously went through the auction ring for higher prices.

"The mares have had a couple of foals, and it's kind of like, how good is the half-baked cake going to taste when it's not ready yet?" Sikura said.

Elevage's other offerings attracted both international and domestic interest. Callback sold for $2 million to Northern Farm of Japan, the third-highest price of the sale overall. The Street Sense mare was sold carrying a foal by Medaglia d'Oro, and was followed through the ring by her current Medaglia d'Oro weanling colt, who was a $400,000 purchase by Sikura.

Elevage had purchased Callback for $2.8 million at the 2015 Fasig-Tipton November breeding stock sale. Northern Farm was an underbidder that night, and jumped at another opportunity to attempt to purchase the mare.

"Last time she was in the ring, we were outside," Shunsuke Yoshida of Northern Farm said. "It's a good feeling to get her."

Callback, winner of the Grade 1 Las Virgenes Stakes, is a half-sister to stakes winner and producer Defy Gravity. Their dam, Quickest, is a half-sister to five stakes horses, led by Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver. This is the extended family of champions Numbered Account and Rhythm and Grade 1 winners Bluegrass Cat, Dance Number, Frost Giant, Girolamo, Got Lucky, Imagining, Got Lucky, and Private Account.

"It’s a stallion-making family, and, obviously, it’s a great female family," Bernick said.

Claiborne Farm, as agent, went to $1.5 million to purchase Mei Ling from the Elevage group. The Grade 3-placed stakes winner, by Empire Maker, was offered in foal to Medaglia d'Oro. Bernick did emerge with her Tapit weanling filly, for $350,000.

"I bid really hard on the mare," Bernick said. "I wasn’t able to get her, but we got the filly. We have a War Front filly out of the mare, and now the Tapit as well. They’re great people who bought the mare. The first two foals are with us, and they own the mare, so we’re all on the same side."

A partnership dissolution was also the story behind the day's second-highest price overall, as Grade 1 winner Eskimo Kisses sold for $2.3 million to Shadai Farm of Japan. The To Honor and Serve mare, who is a granddaughter of Kentucky Derby winner Winning Colors, was campaigned by a group including Gainesway Stable, Harold Lerner, Nehoc Stables, and Magdalena Racing.

"I'm a little bit sad that she sold, but we brought her here to sell," said part-owner Michael Hernon of Gainesway, which also consigned the mare. "Maybe we'll take a trip to Japan to see her. ... She's going to a great home. It's a little bit bittersweet, but you know, we're in the business of selling horses and breeding horses, and she's a really good one. So they got something special, and we'll look forward to good news from her. We wish them the very best."

Eskimo Kisses scored her signature victory in the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes in 2018, defeating eventual Grade 1 winner She's a Julie by 6 1/2 lengths, with multiple Grade 1 winner Midnight Bisou third.

"She was my favorite of the sale," Tetsuya Yoshida of Northern Farm said.

Eskimo Kisses was offered in foal to classic sire Curlin, who was also responsible for the most expensive weanling of Book 1. Larry Best went to $750,000 for a colt from the consignment of Eaton Sales, as agent. The colt is the first foal out of the Grade 3-placed Macho Uno mare Banree, a half-sister to Grade 3 winner Gloryzapper.

Best, who races as OXO Equine, has been active purchasing weanlings at the upper end of the market at both Fasig-Tipton and Keeneland this week, and says that a strong yearling market led him to seek out the opportunity.

"I think the elevated yearling market is driving some people to buy [in the weanling market] at higher prices," Best said. "There's too many cases where quality buyers couldn't buy at the yearling sales, so they're coming here looking for talent. And if it's [by] a strong sire, like Curlin, it's gonna sell at a good price."

Keeneland November continues with a pair of Book 2 sessions on Thursday and Friday, and continues with daily sessions through Nov. 22. For hip-by-hip results, click here.

--additional reporting by Matt Hegarty