
PlumPrettyandentourage
Plum Pretty and entourage
Lexington, Ky - The opening day of Keeneland’s November Breeding Stock Sale closed strongly despite the difference in this year’s catalogue. Keeneland officials had anticipated that buyer spending would be lower this year, given that the 2011 roster included horses from the notable Edward P. Evans dispersal on Day One.
This year’s opening day saw 100 horses sold, as compared to 147 last year, for an average of $276,650 and a median of $127,500, representing a 35.7 percent and 44.6 percent decline, respectively. Gross sales for Tuesday’s session were $27,665,000, as compared to $63,276,500 in 2011.
“This is a tough sale to compare, if not impossible. This year we were minus Spring Hill [the Evans dispersal], and tomorrow we will be minus Chanteclair [the Palides Investments dispersal],” said Walt Robertson, Keeneland’s vice president of sales. “I think all in all this was a pretty good horse sale … By and large, when we take the biggest dispersal (by gross sales) out of the [session] that’s ever been, it was a pretty good day.”
Robertson noted that upon removing the Evans dispersal horses from the 2011 Day One numbers, they were much more comparable to this year’s with 84 sold, and an average of $268,952, and a median of $165,000. With the dispersal horses removed, the 2012 figures look much more optimistic—a 2.9 percent increase for the average, and only a 22.7 percent decrease for the median. This year’s rate of horses not sold was 30 percent, as compared to last year’s 16.9 percent, when the dispersal horses were sold without reserve.
Tuesday’s session included five horses to top $1 million.
Harmonious, Hip 24, was the first horse to pass the seven-figure mark early in the sale, bringing $2.8 million for Lane’s End Farm, agent for Pam, Martin, and Emily Wygod. The broodmare prospect is the winner of the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup S (G1) at Keeneland and the American Oaks Stakes (G1), and is a daughter of now-deceased sire Dynaformer.
“She’s a beautiful mare. She’s got good size and scope; Dynaformer was a top stallion; she’s a grade-one winner,” said Benoit Jeffrey on behalf of Mandore International Agency, who purchased the mare for an undisclosed buyer. Benoit said no stud plans have been made yet.
The sale topper for the auction’s first session, as expected, was Hip 96, 2011 Kentucky Oaks winner Plum Pretty, who dropped the hammer at a cool $4.2 million to buyer Mandy Pope of Whisper Hill Farm.
“I’m obviously upgrading our broodmare band and making some big adjustments to the quality that we have,” said Pope. “She’s obviously another fantastic race mare. Another very kind mare … she is very well-balanced and has a lot of size to her.”
While she was hoping the price might be lower, the high-priced action at Monday night’s Fasig-Tipton sale prepared her for a multi-million dollar tag.
Pope, who also purchased Fasig-Tipton’s sale topper Havre de Grace for $10 million Monday night, said that both mares will live at Lexington’s Timber Town Stable. She hopes to sell both mares’ colts commercially, but hopes each will eventually produce a filly she can keep. No stud plans have been finalized for either horse.
“They will have a very loving home, and I may just move into the barn, in the stall between the two of them,” chuckled Pope.
“Mandy Pope’s representing America well,” said Frank Taylor of consignor Taylor Made Sales. “I thought it was a fair price … she’s just a beautiful mare.”
Prior to her sale, Taylor Made hosted Plum Pretty Day at Keeneland, at which fans were invited to see her parade in the paddock and entered a contest to meet the horse and win her halter.
Another notable seven-figure sale was that of Hip 149, Zazu, winner of last year’s Lady’s Secret Stakes (G1), who brought $2.1 million. She was purchased by Katsumi Yoshida of Japan’s Northern Farm. Yoshida also purchased Art Princess, Zazu’s half sister at Keeneland’s January Horses Of All Ages Sale for $400,000.
“She’s a tough filly to see go,” said consignor Bill Farrish, who sold the Tapit mare for Jerry and Ann Moss, who also own the famous Zenyatta. “It’s a numbers thing, I think, they didn’t want to have as many [broodmares].”