Keeneland Association officials have made several adjustments to the format for its 2011 September yearling sale, which begins Sunday, Sept. 11.
“The changes made to last September’s format were positively received, and largely met Keeneland’s goal to better serve the needs of our customers in today’s dynamic market,” said vice president of sales Walt Robertson. “These alterations reflect a ‘fine-tuning’ of that format in an effort to help consignors and buyers better navigate the first week and to further encourage buyers to stay deeper into the sale.”
The format for the 2011 September sale will be as follows:
--Book 1 remains unchanged: A selected sale of approximately 200 yearlings on Sunday and Monday evenings; sessions will start at 7 p.m. ET
--Book 2: Approximately 900 yearlings selling Tuesday--Thursday; roughly 300 horses per day, once again in alphabetical order by dam in a single catalog. There will be single stabling for all Book 2 consignments. Sessions will start at 11 a.m. on these days.
--Friday will be a “dark” day in which no selling will take place.
--Book 3: Begins Saturday; sessions will start at 10 a.m. daily through the remainder of the sale.
In 2010, Book 2 horses were sold from Tuesday through Friday, with a daily start time of 10 a.m., and Saturday was the dark day in which no sales took place.
“We indicated last year that we would tweak the format based on feedback from our constituents,” said director of sales Geoffrey Russell. “We have worked extensively with them to craft these changes, which we believe will have a positive effect on the sale.”