Keeneland concluded its last public Thoroughbred auction of the year on Sunday with relatively even numbers, but the results have industry officials contemplating whether a change in the commercial breeding business is forthcoming.
The annual November Breeding Stock Sale traditionally incorporates recently retired and veteran broodmares, in addition to weanlings, stallion prospects, and horses of racing age. Mares make up the largest category, and as in the September Yearling Sale, horses are organized into catalogues based on their anticipated price range.
A total of 2,653 horses sold this year for $215,213,000, down 1.7 percent from $218,959,400 from last year. The average price of $81,121 was down 4.6 percent from last year, while the median of $25,000 was down 16.7 percent.
The rate of horses not attaining the reserve was 26.9 percent, up from 25 percent last year.
Book 1 sees the highest prices of each auction, and this year included 18 horses selling for $1 million or more. The most expensive was a 10-year-old mare named Unrivaled Belle, a daughter of now-deceased sire Unbridled’s Song. In her racing days, the mare won the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic in 2010 for trainer Bill Mott and owners Gary Seidler and Peter Vegso. Unrivaled Belle raised $3.8 million from Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm. Unrivaled Belle last sold in 2011 for $2.8 million, and has been consigned both times by Eaton Sales.
Tapit, who stands at Gainesway Farm, remains one of the hottest commercial sires, with seven mares selling carrying his foals for a total of $9,625,000.
One additional horse topped seven figures later in the sale: Uptown Twirl, a 3-year-old half-sister of recent Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Classic Empire, drew $1,075,000 during the auction’s second week. This marked the first time the auction had seen a seven-figure price tag so late in the sale, the latter part of which was enhanced by a large dispersal.
Ernie Semersky and Dory Newell’s Conquest Stables announced its intended liquidation earlier this year. The partnership entered the racing world in 2012 and has financed a large stable based primarily in Canada, winning two Sovereign Awards, seven Breeders’ Cup starters, and eight graded stakes wins. Dispersals require horses to be sold without reserve, but they also give buyers the chance to purchase bloodlines to which they normally wouldn’t have access. The Conquest Stables dispersal, which went through Lane’s End Farm’s consignment, was on the larger side of recent dispersals.
“The Conquest dispersal was unique for us in some regards because they were mostly horses of racing age,” said Keeneland director of sales operations Geoffrey Russell. “The last time we had a similar number of horses of racing age in one consignment is when Adena Springs sold here. It was just mainly trying to aim and get exposure to trainers and racetracks that we had all these horses of racing age available. I think it worked out very well.”
This year’s auction, which added one day to its schedule for a total of seven catalogue books, and numbers dropped off noticeably after Book 4.
For several years and many auctions, officials at both Fasig-Tipton and Keeneland have stressed that quality sells at their auctions, whether they’re selling breeding stock, racing stock or yearlings. The middle and lower ends of the market have struggled, which is why Russell expressed concern over the additional horses catalogued at this year’s November auction.
“Just because you breed a mare doesn’t mean she has to go to a sale. Some of these horses just don’t meet the criteria, the profile, for the commercial marketplace. It doesn’t mean they can’t produce nice horses, they’re not commercial product. There’s no reason why they can’t be bred and go on and have homebreds and race and do all the rest, but if these are horses that you’re breeding on a commercial basis, that’s not the thing to do.
“The number of annual sale days is ticking up again. This is a troubling sign given buyers’ selectivity,” Russell said. “We as an industry don’t want to forget the difficult lessons we learned from a similar situation just a few years ago.”
The next major public Thoroughbred auction in central Kentucky will be Keeneland’s January Horses of All Ages Sale, which will take place Jan. 9-13.