Curlin Filly Tops Third Keeneland November Sale Session

Larry Best was an active player during the first two days of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale but was no longer in the building when an attractive 2019 filly by prominent sire Curlin  was led into the ring late during the Nov. 8 third session.

But that didn't stop him from outbidding the competition to secure the chestnut miss that was consigned as Hip 1039 by Indian Creek, agent, for $775,000 in the name of his OXO Equine to top the session. The price is the highest paid for a weanling at a North American auction this year.

Bred in Kentucky by Peter Redekop BC, the filly foaled Jan. 31 is a daughter of the Giant's Causeway mare Fly to the Stars, who has also produced grade 3 winner The Tabulator and stakes-placed Star Via Strada.

"She's a lovely filly with a great walk," said Taylor Made Sales Agency's Frank Taylor, who handled the bidding while talking to Best on the phone.

"She's always been very nice and straightforward; here, she's been an angel," said Indian Creek's Shack Parrish, who was awed by the price. "It's a little more than we expected. But it's huge for our team."

Fly to the Stars was consigned to the 2018 Keeneland November sale while carrying the filly in utero and was bought back on a final bid of $285,000. The mare was twice bought by Alistair Roden Bloodstock on behalf of two different clients. At the 2017 Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale, the mare was bought from Frankfort Park Farm for $21,000 while in foal to Street Boss  and then for $125,000 from Indian Creek's consignment to The November Sale, Fasig-Tipton's breeding stock sale, that same year.

Roden said the decision not to sell the mare last year proved most fortuitous.

"It paid off to keep her. Sometimes, RNAs work out good," Roden said.

Roden said the team at Indian Creek decided where the filly would sell and downplayed her placement in Book 2, noting she would have sold as well if offered in Book 1.

"It wouldn't have mattered if you had tied her to a fence on Versailles Road. They would have found her. She's that good of a filly," Roden said. "She looked fantastic."

The Curlin filly topped another robust session in which there was keen competition for the better lots as a broad buyer base withstood a cold day more akin to a winter sale than one in early fall.

Keeneland reported 232 horses grossed $31,527,500, for an average of $135,894 and a median of $105,000. The 70 horses that went unsold represented an RNA rate of 23.2%. At the same session a year ago, 243 horses grossed $35,026,000, with an average price of $144,140 and a $125,000 median.

Overall numbers are trending ahead of the same juncture a year ago.

Cumulatively, from 1,100 cataloged, 634 horses have sold for $139,307,000, compared with the $132,981,500 paid for 611 through three days last year. The cumulative average of $219,727 is almost on even terms with the $217,646 figure in 2018, and the median is unchanged at $150,000. 

"The quality today reflected the same quality we had yesterday," Keeneland director of sales operations Geoffrey Russell said. "We had a good cross section of international and domestic buyers. The weanling market was very strong today, again spread between both end-users and pinhookers. It was a good day, and we finished Book 2 very well."

Russell said it was more coincidental than by design that a filly like the Curlin session-topper ended up in Book 2 rather than Book 1 because weanlings are not inspected by the Keeneland inspection team to determine placement within the catalog.

"It's kind of a crapshoot in that aspect," he said. "It's all pedigree-based. Yes, we would have put her in Book 1 had we looked at her." 

Russell added Indian Creek wanted the filly to go through the ring before her dam, who was in foal to Street Sense  and was purchased by Springhouse Farm for $175,000.