The post-sale figures after this year’s Keeneland’s January Horses of All Ages Sale were not what they seemed.
At first, it would appear the auction was down compared to last year’s sale. Total sales for this year were $48,280,100, compared to $42,480,500, with the average similarly appearing to decline. But the problem with comparing year over year numbers at any horse auction is context. Some years include a dispersal of a breeder’s stock which results in a group of horses going through the ring without a reserve price. Breeders who disperse at public auction often do so because they have reason to think the market will respond positively to the horses’ pedigrees, particularly if they come from a farm which didn’t often offer its best stock for sale.
In the case of the 2019 January sale, it was just one horse who moved the needle so drastically. Abel Tasman, the winner of the 2017 Kentucky Oaks and runner-up in that year’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff, went to the January sale last year. Most horses with her resume would sell in November, when recently-retired fillies typically command seven-figure price tags at either Keeneland or Fasig-Tipton. But Abel Tasman, who was owned by China Horse Club and Clearsky Farms, threw something of a clunker in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff just days before those auctions, finishing last of 11. The reasons for placing her in Keeneland January weren’t publicly revealed, but she certainly stood out more in that catalogue. Keeneland’s January sale is a mix of active broodmares, yearlings, and horses of racing age, and is one of the last spots for breeders to pick up a mare before the breeding season begins in mid-February. Prices at the top end of January tend to be lower than the top end of the November market.
Abel Tasman was the exception last year—she commanded $5 million from Irish-based Coolmore, equaling a record set in 2000. Her price was more than 10 percent of the whole auction’s sales receipts. She was subsequently exported to Coolmore’s Irish base, where she visited top international stallion Galileo.
Keeneland photo
“We are very pleased with the solid trade experienced throughout the January Sale,” Keeneland President and CEO Bill Thomason said. “If you take out the sale of Abel Tasman last year, the results are remarkably similar to 2019. The consistent thread that runs through all these sales continues to be demand for quality horses.”
The average for this year finished at $38,409, and the median at $14,000. The rate of horses not attaining their reserve (or minimum) price was 21 percent, compared to 19 percent last year. The top price was $640,000 for Enaya Alrabb, a daughter of top stud Uncle Mo from the family of the great Rachel Alexandra. Paramount Sales consigned the 4-year-old, who was bought by agent James Schenck.
Keeneland photo
Gabby Gaudet
Beyond the numbers, the story most people were talking about at Keeneland January had a human, not a horse at its center. History was made when Gabby Gaudet climbed into the auctioneer’s stand and took a seat at one of the microphones. In the course of a typical Keeneland auction, there are several people in the stand—an auctioneer who produces the fast-talking gibberish, responding to bid-spotters and announcing the prices, several people dealing with paperwork, and a second announcer who reads the highlights of the pedigree or performance record of the next horse to come into the ring. Gaudet became the first woman to serve the latter role at Keeneland (or any other Thoroughbred auction in North America) during this sale.
Gaudet is best-known for her work as an analyst and reporter for TVG, which broadcasts horse racing. The daughter of Maryland-based trainers, she has also worked on the broadcasts from the New York Racing Association, Gulfstream Park, Churchill Downs and Keeneland. Gaudet told the Paulick Report she didn’t focus too heavily on the historical implications of her presence in the stand—she had enough to think about already. Gaudet had to juggle incoming updates on withdrawn horses, requests from sellers on which bullet points to hit, along with the summaries she had already practiced for dozens of horses.
Gaudet told media that although the task was challenging, she hopes to return to the stand for future Keeland auctions.
The next public Thoroughbred auction in Central Kentucky will be Fasig-Tipton’s Kentucky Winter Mixed on Feb. 10 and 11.