Tiznow filly attracts $400K on Day 9

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Legends Racing, the partnership group founded earlier this year by Olin Gentry, Thomas Gaines, and Tripp Hardy, struck again late Wednesday on Day 9 of the Keeneland September yearling sale, paying $400,000 for the session-leader.

The immediate beneficiary was Overbrook Farm, which consigned the Tiznow filly through the Eaton Sales agency. Sold as Hip No. 3238, the dark bay or brown filly is out of Grade 2 winner Katz Me If You Can, who earned $410,947. The filly is a half-sister to the mare's first runner, the three-time winner Unkatzable.

That brought Legends Racing's total number of purchases in the first nine days of the auction to 29 yearlings for aggregate expenditures of $12,010,000.

A day earlier, at Tuesday's eighth session, prices continued their downward trend, and so did the auction's overall bottom line. The Tuesday session sold 270 yearlings for $14,116,400, a decrease of 12 percent from last season's eighth day, when 286 sold. The session average fell 6 percent to $52,283. Median stayed the same at $40,000, but the buyback rate jumped form 23 percent last year to 28 percent.

Through Tuesday, the auction cumulatively had sold 1,967 yearlings for $295,453,300, a drop of 13 percent from last year's returns at the same point, when 1,983 had sold. The eight-day average fell 12 percent to $150,205, and the overall median was down 5 percent at $95,000. Still, buybacks were holding nearly level with last year, ticking up only slightly from 25.1 percent in 2007 to 25.2 percent in 2008.

Tuesday's session-topper was a $250,000 Indian Charlie filly out of stakes winner Her She Kisses, by Dehere. Mill Ridge Sales, agent, sold the filly to agent John Brocklebank.

The Keeneland September yearling sale cataloged a record 5,555 horses this year, pointing out the oversupply in today's commercial Thoroughbred market that auction officials in the United States and Great Britain have blamed, in part, for downturns in the market.

The September sale continues through Sept. 23, with sessions starting at 10 a.m. each day.