Young broodmare Ducru sells for $300,000 at Keeneland November

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The young broodmare Ducru sold for $300,000 as the Keeneland November breeding stock sale continued on Sunday, wrapping up its Book 4 portion with relatively steady cumulative figures.

Through the first seven sessions of Keeneland November, comprising the auction's single-session Book 1, plus two sessions each for Books 2, 3, and 4, a total of 1,573 horses have sold for $172,893,000. The similar section of the market last year grossed $193,781,900 for 1,734 horses over six total sessions, two in each book.

The cumulative average price currently sits at $109,913, while the median sits at $52,000. The average is down less than 2 percent from $111,754 at this point of the 2017 sale, while the median is unchanged. The buyback rate sits at 26 percent, up from 23 percent.

Grandview LP went to $300,000 for Ducru, a 4-year-old Broken Vow mare who was sold carrying her first foal, to the cover of Violence. Hill 'n' Dale Sales consigned the young broodmare as agent.

Ducru is out of the stakes-placed Dixie Union mare Union City, making her a half-sister to multiple graded stakes winner Unified and to stakes-placed Honkeytonk Man. Union City is a full sister to Grade 2 winner Dixie City and a half-sister to stakes winner Win the War. Two of her half-sisters are stakes producers, and it is the extended family of champion and prominent sire Dehere.

The Sunday session's top weanling was a $180,000 Kantharos colt purchased by Magnolia Farm from the consignment of Hunter Valley Farm, agent. The colt is the first foal out of the winning Include mare Cebu, a half-sister to Neolithic, who finished third in both the Pegasus World Cup and Dubai World Cup.

Keeneland November concludes this week with a pair of Book 5 sessions, a single Book 6 session on Wednesday, and two Book 7 sessions slated for Thursday and Friday. The Book 5 sessions on Monday and Tuesday will be highlighted by a selection of male racing prospects, racing or stallion prospects, and stallions, a market that has grown in recent years. Recent graduates of this portion of the sale include multiple Grade 1 winner Diversify.

Those offered as stallion prospects or racing/stallion prospects this year include Brazilian Group 1 winner Vettori Kin, who is a Grade 3 winner in the United States; graded stakes winners Decorated Soldier, Guest Suite, and Projected; stakes winners Counterforce, Hedge Fund, and Seattle Serenade; and graded-placed Machtree and Prospect Park.

A handful of active stallions also are on offer, with those shopping at this sale typically including foreign markets looking to boost their bloodstock industries. The most familiar name in this category in the catalog is I Want Revenge, the 2009 Wood Memorial winner whose oldest runners are 3-year-olds. The Stephen Got Even stallion most recently stood at Millennium Farms in Lexington, as did fellow sale entrymate Hakassan, a Chilean champion whose first foals are yearlings.

Other stallions on offer are graded stakes winner Exhi, sire of stakes winner Victory Day and standing at Highfield in Canada, and Grade 2-placed stakes winner Japan, who stood at Waldorf Farm in New York and whose first foals are yearlings.

For hip-by-hip results from Keeneland November, click here.

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