LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 12, 2013) – Bidding by telephone, Arlington Park Chairman Richard L. Duchossois paid the day’s highest price of $450,000 to acquire 2013 Arlington Classic (G3) winner General Election during Tuesday’s eighth session of the 70th annual Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. The session included a number of horses of racing age, and 294 horses sold for $10,898,200, marking a 55 percent increase from the corresponding session last year when 279 horses sold for $7,017,200.
The average price of $37,069 and the $25,000 median price realized Tuesday both marked 47 percent increases from 2012, when the respective amounts reached $25,151 and $17,000.
Through the first eight days of the 10-day sale, domestic and international buyers continue to show keen interest in Thoroughbreds. A total of 1,937 horses have been sold for a grand sum of $190,315,000, which is an increase of 39 percent from last year’s comparable gross of $137,188,800. The average of $98,252 was 25 percent higher than the $78,304 last year. The median price of $47,000 rose 34 percent from 2012.
In 2006, Keeneland instituted a session that featured horses of racing age at the suggestion of WinStar Farm’s Elliott Walden and scheduled them to sell on a Tuesday, generally a dark day at racetracks to allow trainers to be at Keeneland. Highlighting today’s session were horses of racing age consigned by WinStar Racing and Adena Springs.
WinStar sold 23 horses for $1,806,000 to rank second behind the session’s leading consignor, Adena Springs, which sold 84 horses for $2,999,000.
“The overwhelming response to how they sold was a great surprise to us,” said Adena Springs General Manager Eric Hamelback. “We’re very pleased. (This is) a testament to (owner) Frank (Stronach) and his picking what we call ‘racehorse pedigrees.’ They’ve all gone out and run. Everything we brought through here today we felt someone could take right on back to the track.”
WinStar Racing, agent, consigned General Election, a 3-year-old son of Harlan’s Holiday out of the Kingmambo mare Menekineko. The colt, a half-brother to Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1) runner-up Ready’s Echo, has four wins in 10 starts and earnings of $285,189. Racing for WinStar and trainer Kellyn Gorder, he also won this year’s Jefferson Cup (G3) at Churchill Downs and John Battaglia Memorial at Turfway Park.
Walden, who is WinStar’s President/CEO and Racing Manager, was happy with the response to the WinStar consignment.
“I think it’s good,” he said. “(General Election) was right where we thought he’d be. I felt like he’d be around a half-million (dollars), give or take 50 (thousand) either way, so I was very pleased with the price.”
With the purchase of General Election, Duchossois was the session’s leading buyer.
Bobby Flay Thoroughbreds paid the day’s second-highest price of $345,000 for the stakes-placed 2-year-old filly Zloty. Consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency, agent, for Pete Bradley’s Bradley Thoroughbreds LLC, she is by Exchange Rate out of the Pulpit mare A. P. Reality. For trainer Chad Brown, Zloty won one race in three starts and earned $69,500. She was third in the Chelsea Flower Stakes at Belmont Park on Oct. 27 in her most recent race.
“We kinda thought she was worth $275,000, $300,000, so it was a bit more than we were thinking,” Bradley said about her sales price. “At the same time, when you’ve got a filly who is a good racehorse, that’s what people want.”
Bradley said Zloty was one of six juveniles that raced for a partnership, which intended to resell the horses after they had proven their talents on the track.
At $145,000, the highest-priced weanling on Tuesday was a Tapit filly sold to Wesley Ward, agent for Darrell and Evelyn Yates. Consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency, agent, the filly is out of the Green Dancer mare Rumba Punch and is a half-sister to stakes winner Lyin’ Heart.
The November Sale continues through Thursday. Sessions begin daily at 10 a.m. The sale is streamed live at Keeneland.com.
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