Lexington, KY - Keeneland’s one-day sale of two-year-olds in training finished well ahead of last year’s figures. Both gross sales ($11,640,000) and the average price ($197,288) were up 19.3 percent from last year’s figures, while the median price jumped 25 percent from $120,000 to $150,000.
“Today’s major indicators are positive, ” said Walt Robertson, Keeneland’s vice president of sales. “Average, median, and gross up while the percentage of horses not sold decreased. We also saw a good cross-section of buyers today as well.”
Some 21 hips were unsold, while 57 of the 137 catalogued were withdrawn before the sale began.
“In the two-year-old world, for as long as I can remember, those are good numbers, ” said Robertson, who believes that buyer confidence and strong offerings combined with market changes to produce this year’s gains. “I think there’s a lot of confidence in the world, and certainly in our market. And, as I’ve said for the last few years, supply and demand is our friend. We’ve got very good demand, and the supply side is less than what it was in years past.”
The highest price of the day was for Hip 51, a bay filly by popular commercial sire Unbridled’s Song, who brought the hammer down at $700, 000 for consigner Wavertree Stables. John McCormack Bloodstock signed the sales ticket for the filly on behalf of an unidentified client.
“For that kind of filly, you’d have to be thinking of that level, ” said John McCormack in reference to her price.
At Thursday’s Breeze Show preview, Hip 51 worked a sharp 1/8 of a mile in 10 seconds flat.
The filly is out of Eden’s Causeway, and is a half-sister to Eden’s Moon, a multiple graded stakes winner who herself brought $390, 000 at sale as a two-year-old at Fasig-Tipton Mid-Atlantic.
“She was a wonderful filly from the day we got her, ” said Wavertree’s Ciaran Dunne. “From day one, we knew she’d be a special offering.”
Based in Florida, Dunne’s Wavertree Stables consigned five of the top six horses by price at Monday’s sale, grossing a total of $4,445,000 for 19 horses sold.
The second-highest price on the day was Hip 55, a colt by Arch out of Falling Springs who brought $535,000 for consignor Eddie Woods. A half-brother to graded stakes-placed Easy Gallop, the colt was purchased by agent Steven W. Young.
The auction proved that the fastest horses at the breeze show are not necessarily the most expensive. Hip 78, the fastest horse to work 1/8 mile in 9.80 seconds, brought $300,000 for consignor Niall Brennan Stables. The quickest horse at ¼ of a mile, Hip 1, brought $120, 000 to buyer Klaravich Stable and consignor Eddie Woods.
Keeneland’s spring meet continues through April 26.