Keeneland photos
Hip 288 Abel Tasman, Dermot Ryan of Coolmore Stud buyer, Taylor Made Sales, Mark Taylor, Consignor, 2019 Keeneland January Sale
The 2019 Thoroughbred sales season got off to a bang with Keeneland’s January Horses of All Ages Sale, which closed January 10 with a record average and median. The auction, which was primarily comprised of broodmares/broodmare prospects, stallions, and yearlings, also included a record-tying sale of $5 million.
The entry who lit up the board was Hip 288, more popularly known as Abel Tasman, a recently retired filly consigned by Taylor Made Sales. The 5-year-old won the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks in 2017 and was second in that year’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff, along with numerous other Grade 1 racing successes. Trained by Triple Crown-winning conditioner Bob Baffert for owners China Horse Club and breeder Clearsky Farms, Abel Tasman was awarded the 2017 Eclipse Award for Champion 3-Year-Old Filly and retired from the racetrack at the end of 2018.
Trained by Triple Crown-winning conditioner Bob Baffert for owners China Horse Club and breeder Clearsky Farms, Abel Tasman was awarded the 2017 Eclipse Award for Champion 3-Year-Old Filly and retired from the racetrack at the end of 2018.
The $5 million price tag wrote a storybook ending most breeders dream of. Clearsky Farm brought the filly to auction when she was a yearling and failed to sell her. The maximum bid that day: $65,000. According to Clearsky’s general Barry Robinette, the tepid interest may have had something to do with endoscopic examinations of the filly’s throat.
Most buyers at Thoroughbred auction at the middle and upper price points hire a veterinarian to review X-rays of the horse’s legs and may also ask for an examination of the horse’s throat. Certain types of throat abnormalities can interfere with a horse’s breathing when exercising at high speed. Many of those issues can be corrected, allowing the horse to go to the track, but potential buyers need to factor in the cost.
In Abel Tasman’s case, Robinette told The Blood-Horse there was some disagreement between veterinarians about whether their endoscopic findings would actually impact her athletic performance. With some ambiguity floating around and lots of other horses available at Keeneland September, buyers seemed to back off, leaving Clearsky with the horse. The farm put Abel Tasman into training and sold a share in her to China Horse Club in early 2017 when she looked poised to be a top contender for that year’s Oaks for an undisclosed sum.
By the time of her retirement, Abel Tasman had earned nearly $2.8 million on the track.
Keeneland photos
Hip 288 Abel Tasman, Dermot Ryan of Coolmore Stud buyer, Taylor Made Sales, Mark Taylor, Consignor, 2019 Keeneland January Sale
When the hammer fell at Keeneland January, the winning bidder was none other than Coolmore, the international racing and breeding group which is often at the top of purchase sheets. Now owned by the Magnier family, Coolmore has been a force in international sales and breeding since the 1970s. The company was born out of a four-way partnership with a specific business plan: buy high-dollar colts at auction and syndicate them after their retirement at a profit. The group focused on sons of Northern Dancer, the top stallion on the market at the time. They found early success with a horse named The Minstrel, who cost $200,000 in 1975, won the English Derby on the track, and was syndicated at stud for $9 million. The same year, the group bought a colt named Alleged for $170,000 and syndicated him for somewhere between $13 and $16 million after he retired a winner of two French classic races.
At the time, Coolmore was among the first to invest in this high risk/high reward business model, which has continued to fund an operation of hundreds of broodmares, a healthy stable of racehorses, and dozens of stallions across bases on three continents.
Abel Tasman was the only purchase for Coolmore at Keeneland January, and is certain to be added to its star-studded broodmare band, either in Kentucky or at its home base in Ireland.
Overall, numbers were strong. Average price was a record at $51,048, while median tied the record at $20,000. Total sales finished at $46,759,600, up 34 percent from last year. The RNA rate finished at 22 percent, down slightly from last year.
The next major Thoroughbred auction in Central Kentucky will be Fasig-Tipton’s Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale Feb. 4-5.