Keeneland completed its one-day sale of 2-year-old racehorses in training on April 7, and the results were strong despite a high number of withdrawn entries. Of 125 horses originally cataloged to sell, only 38 actually did so; 70 horses were marked as “out,” meaning they were withdrawn from the auction before going through the ring, and the remainder (30.1 percent) did not attain their reserve.
Total receipts were down from $11,640,000 for 59 horses last year to $8,769,000 at this year’s edition, a decrease of 24.7 percent. The average and median prices were both up, however — the $230,763 average was a 17 percent increase over 2013, and the $200,000 median was up 33 percent from last year’s median of $150,000.
Although Keeneland’s director of sales Geoffrey Russell did note the disappointing number of outs, he also pointed out that the top-selling horse was the first seven-figure
2-year-old the sale had seen in five years.
“A disappointing number of outs but, unfortunately, Keeneland doesn’t have any control over that,” said Russell. “The horses that went through the ring sold very well. There was a large number of trainers and a healthy pool of buyers here, underlining the fact that Keeneland is a great place to sell 2-year-olds.”
That top seller was Hip 55, a colt by Malibu Moon who brought $1 million from a partnership of Mt. Brilliant Farm, Gainesway Farm, and Robert LaPenta. The colt is a half brother to Tapit, the Gainesway Farm stallion who is currently sitting at the top of the North American general sire list with seven graded stakes winners so far this year. Tapit’s stud fee is $150,000.
On April 3, Hip 55 worked an eighth of a mile in :09 4/5 seconds during the sale’s breeze show preview. Trainer Chad Brown will take over conditioning of the horse.
The Keeneland sale was not the first this year to see a high number of horses withdrawn or unsold. In March, Fasig-Tipton held a select sale of 2-year-olds in training in Ocala, Fla., in which 68 horses out of 157 were scratched before entering the sales ring, and 38 did not attain their reserves. That sale did not demonstrate strong numbers for horses that did sell like those at Keeneland April however, with the total sales dropping almost 25 percent and average dipping just over 26 percent.
Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company also held an auction of 2-year-olds in March, where the percentage of horses not sold increased from 21 to 24 percent from 2013, but similarly to Keeneland, its numbers were otherwise strong. In fact, OBS March set records, with total receipts of $37,817,500, up 31.3 percent from 2013. OBS March was also larger (with 411 entries) than either Keeneland’s April auction or Fasig-Tipton March, both of which are branded as “select” sales with rigorous entry requirements on the part of the sales company.
It’s not unusual for 2-year-old sales to have a higher amount of horses scratched before auction time as compared to other auctions, but the amount of RNA entries was on the high side for both sales. Pundits in the trade press have speculated that while the upper level of the market (those spending seven figures on young horses) is alive and well, buyers who would normally attend select sales hoping to catch a horse at a middle market price are either not attending or not opening the purse strings.
Scheduling could be a factor in the select sales’ performance, too — Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company has slated the largest auction of the 2-year-old season in late April. More than 1,200 horses are entered in that sale, which gives consignors an easy back-up option if their horses do not attract the desired amount of attention in a small, select market.
The next Thoroughbred auction in Lexington will be July 14, when Fasig-Tipton hosts a combined sale of horses in training and the first yearling auction of the season.