Buyers at the eighth session of the Keeneland November breeding stock sale kept things rolling Nov. 12, pushing the gross, average, and median towards positive gains in a session-to-session comparison over 2006.
A total of 244 horses were sold for $11,270,200, a gain of 10.7% over 2006’s eighth session, yielding a 16.6% gain in average to $46,189 and a 20% rise in median to $36,000. The buy-back rate was 24.7% against 23.3% in last year’s session.
Keeneland director of sales Geoffrey Russell – who noted this year’s eighth session actually outperformed last year’s seventh session on average and median – said an under-performing U.S. dollar has provided strength to international buyers.
“It has provided encouragement for more people to come here, although it makes it tougher for the domestic buyer to compete,” he said, noting active buying efforts from individuals hailing from South Korea, Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela. “There is no question; the currency issue is the story of the November and September sales.”
The session-topping price was the $220,000 given by WinStar Farm for Reinfree out of the Hidden Brook consignment for Adena Springs. A 10-year-old daughter of Unbridled-Demure, by Dr. Fager, who was bred in Kentucky by Alexander-Groves, Reinfree has produced three winners from her first four foals of racing age. She was purchased in foal to Stavinksky by Adena Springs’s Frank Stronach for $190,000 at the 2001 Keeneland November sale.
The second highest-price was the $190,000 given by Red Clover Bloodstock for the top-selling weanling, a son of Harlan's Holiday-So Re So, by Relaunch. Consigned by breeder Brereton C. Jones’s Airdrie Stud, the colt is out of a mare that produced stakes-winner Triano, by Pioneering, who had 22 victories in 39 starts and $461,213 in earnings.
The top-selling weanling filly was a daughter of Purge-Saintly Hertfield, by Saint Ballado, who sold for $135,000 to Shivananda Racing out of Dave C. Parrish Jr.’s Indian Creek consignment. Bred in Virginia by Lady Olivia @ North Cliff, the filly is out of an unraced dam who is a half-sister to gr. III winner Got the Last Laugh.
Hidden Brook was the leading consignor of the session, selling a total of 37 for $1,836,700. Following WinStar Farm’s lone purchase, other top buyers included Agropecuaria Unida, which purchased five for $219,000, and Alberto Figueiredo Neto, who bought four for $217,000.
Through eight sessions, the gross is up 7.8% to $313,574,100, the average is up 10.6% to $167,418, while the median was flat at $75,000. The overall buyback rate of 23% is up just a tick from the 22.9% of 2006.
