$100,000 Mitole colt tops penultimate day of Keeneland's Breeding Stock Sale

Brisk trade and positive attitudes continued permeating the air around the sale arena and barns at Keeneland, which concluded its ninth session on Thursday with the cumulative average tracking 14.5 per cent ahead of last year and the median 40.4 per cent higher.

Comparisons with the same session of 2020 is a bit of mixing apples with oranges because several racing prospects were offered on this day a year ago, when nine horses sold for $100,000 or more and the top seller was the $525,000 racing prospect Hidden Scroll.

These strong sales in 2020 produced a $26,270 average compared with this year's ninth session average of $13,603. But no one at Keeneland this week has been complaining.

Cumulative results for the sale, including private sales, show 2,300 horses have sold for a gross of $198,665,100, which is 32.7 per cent ahead of the cumulative at this point a year ago. The overall average is $86,376 and the median is $40,000. The cumulative buy-back rate on 426 horses that did not meet their reserve prices is a healthy 15.6 per cent.

Mares and weanlings shared the stage during the session, with five of each occupying the top ten highest-priced horses for the day.

Weanlings took centre stage, however, with a $100,000 colt (hip 3154) by Mitole topping the sale. Rexy Bloodstock bought the colt bred by St Elias Stables and sold by Hill 'n' Dale Sales Agency for a pinhooking partnership. The colt is expected to be resold as a yearling, according to Ted Campion, with Rexy Bloodstock, who added that he knew he'd have to stretch.

"If you are going to be serious, it doesn't matter if it is today or Book 2. I'd rather have him and spend the money than not have him," said Campion.

John Sikura, with Hill 'n' Dale, said he expected the colt to sell well because he possessed all the right ingredients - a handsome colt that moves well and is by a fashionable young sire, in Mitole, who was an Eclipse champion sprinter with his first foals being weanlings.

Sikura said: "Everyone here are professionals and do this for a living. They don't care whether they're buying on Monday or Wednesday or Tuesday.

"They go through the book and they bid aggressively on what they want because they know how hard these individuals are to find - a typey, long, smooth horse. They'll stretch to buy them because they are the kind they want next year.

"There is great strength in the market. Unproven or moderate producers have been really popular. I see a significant uptick in the market for a mare up to $300,000. I was going to buy several mares to add some youth and pedigrees to our operation and I got outbid on many.

"I bought a few but it was a very strong market and it bodes well for the near-future of our business. The foals sell well, the yearlings sell well, the mares sell well, and all the money recirculates."

One of the young mares offered was the co-second-highest price of the session. Post Ranch (hip 3436), a four-year-old daughter of Malibu Moon, was consigned by Eaton Sales and sold to Springhouse Farm for $90,000. The mare was unplaced but she is out of the multiple Grade 1-placed winner Resort, making her a half-sister to the Grade 1-placed, Grade 2 winner Sightseeing and Grade 1-placed winner Sea Island.

"She was not in foal, but she had a great pedigree and was just a very pretty mare," said Reiley McDonald, managing partner with Eaton Sales. "She is by Malibu Moon, who seems to be hitting at every point in the market, and she stood out today. Actually, I think her not being in foal helped her because buyers had the option of breeding her to who they want to."

The co-second-highest price went for a Shawhan Place homebred son of Tapwrit, who Calumet Farm bought for $90,000. Eddie Kane with Calumet said the colt (hip 3250) was bought as a racing prospect.

"We were a little concerned [about being in Book 5] but the later books have actually been very good to us," said Courtney Schneider, director of sales and broodmare manager for Shawhan, who added the colt has been a standout since he was born.

"When we can bring in a good horse, we have been well rewarded. Today has been no exception."

Later in the session, three horses would exit the sale ring with $80,000 price tags and two had connections to Calumet's marquee sire English Channel, who tragically died this month due to sudden illness.

Brookdale Sales consigned two of the $80,000 horses - a nine-year-old stakes-placed Hard Spun mare named Kawfee Fa Marfa (hip 3343) in foal to English Channel, and a weanling English Channel colt (hip 3336) out of the Kitten's Joy mare Interrogation, who is a half-sister to two stakes winners and two Graded-placed winners and purchased by Greg Besinger.

"She was a very attractive New York stakes-placed mare in foal to English Channel and they are not going to be making any more of those," said Joe Seitz with Brookdale of the mare bought by Smiling Tiger Stallion.com.

"It was a combination of a hard-knocking race mare in foal to a really good, hard-knocking race sire. She really stood out today. People are looking for quality and she was like plucking an apple off the bottom of a tree."

Seitz said he noticed several savvy buyers sticking around to shop specifically for quality English Channel offspring.

"He is such a good horse, with so many Graded horses and this year he's done particularly well. We are going to really miss him," he said. "The colt was vetted repeatedly and was out constantly and sold accordingly."

The tenth and final session begins at 10am local time on Friday (3pm GMT) and will conclude with a single dedicated segment of horses of racing age that follows the conclusion of the breeding stock portion of the sale. A total of 290 horses of racing age have been catalogued.

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