Keeneland November sale concludes with 1 percent gain

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Keeneland November breeding stock sale, which offered broodmares, racing or broodmare prospects, weanlings, and racing or stallion prospects to a number of levels in the market over a nearly two-week run, concluded on Sunday with relatively steady figures compared to the 2018 edition of the sale.

The 12-session Keeneland November sale finished with 2,667 horses sold, including private sales, for gross receipts of $200,139,400. That marked a gain of 1 percent in total revenues from 2018. Last year’s sale, held over the same run of 12 sessions, finished with 2,644 horses sold for $197,851,300, also including private sales.

The average price finished at $75,043, a tick upward of less than 1 percent from $74,830 last year. The median remained even at $25,000.

The cumulative buyback rate finished at 20 percent in a selective marketplace, a solid improvement compared to 23 percent last year.

Horses sold as breeding stock generally represent a longerterm investment for the buyer; this is also the case when end users purchase weanlings, as opposed to pinhookers. Because of this, mixed sales can be viewed as a major indicator of the perceptions of the overall health of the bloodstock industry. In what has been a tumultuous year for the Thoroughbred industry, the relatively steady figures are a positive sign.

“I think we’re very satisfied with the outcome,” Bob Elliston, Keeneland’s vice president of racing and sales, said. “We really spent a lot of time pushing hard up front with our Book 1, and we were very satisfied there, with an increase in gross, and I think that set the stage for solid trade throughout.

“There was solid trade throughout by domestic interests and foreign interests,” Elliston continued. “The foreign interests, we’ve seen them active throughout the sale right up into Book 6, with Turkish and Saudi interests, who were buying truckloads of horses, it feels like. I’m very pleased with how it’s gone in this difficult environment for the horse industry over 2019.”

The single-session Book 1 portion of Keeneland November, which kicked off the sale on Wednesday, Nov. 6, indeed showed an increase in gross, as not only were more horses sold compared to 2018 – 163 to 134 – but more of those sold for seven figures, with 14 compared to nine at that threshold in 2018. Leading the sale for the second time in her young broodmare career was Eclipse Award champion juvenile filly Take Charge Brandi, who lit the bid board at $3.2 million as she went home to Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm while carrying a foal from the first crop of Triple Crown winner Justify.

She was one of 13 horses who sold as Elevage Bloodstock, headed by John Sikura of Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm and Craig Bernick of Glen Hill Farm, liquidated their broodmare and weanling assets, accounting for $11.7 million in gross sales. Sikura, whose Hill ‘n’ Dale handled the consignment, said Elevage will continue to be involved in stallion holdings as it re-focuses its business strategy. 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 unusual for one of the partners to go home with the horse.

Hill ‘n’ Dale also consigned Take Charge Brandi to the 2015 Keeneland November sale for owner Willis Horton, and Sikura went to $6 million to purchase her, making her the most expensive horse sold in North America that year.

Take Charge Brandi, by Giant’s Causeway, is a halfsister to multiple Grade 1 winner Omaha Beach and Group 1-placed Courage Under Fire. Her second dam is multiple Grade 1 winner and Broodmare of the Year Take Charge Lady, dam of Eclipse Award champion Will Take Charge and Grade 1 winner Take Charge Indy.

Classic sire Curlin was responsible for the two most expensive weanlings of the sale, both sold to Larry Best, as that segment of the market showed strength at the top. Eight youngsters sold for $500,000 or more in Book 1, compared to six last year. Three weanlings then sold for $500,000 or more over the two days of Book 2, compared to two in the book in 2018.

Best, who races as OXO Equine, referenced a strong yearling market when purchasing the top pair of Curlin weanlings. He went to $775,000 for a filly by the stallion and from the family of Grade 1 winner Bellamy Road, and landed a colt for $750,000.

“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.”

In addition to the annually active Japanese and European interests at the top end of the market, Saudi Arabian and Turkish interests emerged to fuel sales results in the second week of the auction. Leading Saudi Arabian owner Khalid bin Mishref purchased the two most expensive horses from the selection of racing and stallion prospects, landing 2-year-old maiden winner Liam’s Legend for $325,000 and graded stakes winner New York Central for $240,000.

Mishref plans to aim New York Central, the winner of the Grade 3 Maryland Sprint Stakes in May, at the $1.5 million Dirt Sprint on the undercard of the inaugural $20 million Saudi Cup next February.

Another notable name offered as a racing or stallion prospect was multiple Grade 2-winning millionaire Catapult. He will stand overseas after being purchased for $50,000 by Arif Kurtel, one of 59 purchases for the prominent Turkish owner and breeder.

Another returning international face at Keeneland November was the Korean Racing Authority, with its KOID buying arm signing for 44 horses.

As Keeneland November concluded, its overall leading sire by all gross sales was Gainesway’s perennial leading sire Tapit, with 47 horses sold for a total of $6,586,900. Justify, who entered stud this year for Coolmore, was the leading covering sire by gross by a wide margin, with 15 mares in foal sold for a total of $11,195,000.

The leading first-crop weanling sire was Juddmonte’s champion Arrogate, with three sold averaging $315,000.