Keeneland September Sale Carries On as Planned

The Keeneland September Yearling Sale will be held as scheduled Sept. 13-25.

Normally, an auction beginning on its regularly scheduled date would not be noteworthy. But it is in 2020, when so many other sales have been canceled or rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are 4,272 yearlings cataloged for the sale, which consists of 12 sessions, with a dark day Sept. 15. The Sept. 12-13 sessions begin at noon, while the sessions thereafter begin at 10 a.m.

"I think we're very fortunate that we are conducting our sale on the dates that we said we're going to conduct our sale," said Geoffrey Russell, Keeneland's director of sales operations. "So many other sales companies in the Northern Hemisphere have to rearrange things but we are very fortunate to have our September sale taking place in September."

"I think people are happy to be back with a little bit of normalcy, even if we're all wearing masks," said Shannon Arvin, Keeneland president-elect and interim head of sales. "We're resilient and I think we've had great cooperation from our industry, and I think people are just so happy to be here."

The sale is being conducted in an environment with a litany of protocols and changes, with participants required to obtain a Virtual Badge in advance, after certain criteria were met. The Virtual Badge was designed in conjunction with Fasig-Tipton, which held its Selected Yearlings Showcase Sept. 9-10 so that once a participant was approved to attend, the Virtual Badge could be used for both sales.

All Keeneland employees, consignors and staff, as well as veterinarians and staff, farriers, van representatives, media, and any other essential staff who will be interfacing with the public daily must provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test within 10 days of their first entry to either the Keeneland or Fasig-Tipton sale grounds, according to the Keeneland website.

Buyers, owners, and agents are not required to be tested but will be required to complete a health questionnaire prior to the sale, with testing available to buyers if requested.

All patrons accessing the grounds (including buyers) will complete a daily temperature check, with additional safety measures of mask usage and social distancing in place.

VIEW: Keeneland's COVID-19 Protocols

Seating the pavilion will be limited to 40% of capacity, with buyers encouraged to use the seats only when bidding and not throughout the sale session. There will be only two, not the usual three, people in the auctioneers' stand and they will be shielded by plexiglass from the individuals handling the horses in the sale ring. Other changes include limited dining and drink options within the pavilion and there will be no printed sale summaries. Results will be available online only.

Consignments have been spaced to limit congestion during the inspection process and there have been more inspections taking place on farms prior to the sale, Russell said.

Russell and Arvin said all the logistics needed for the sale to take place had been a moving target.

"It's been such a movable thing it's been an unbelievable experience. If (COVID-19) was something that was very defined, it would have been a lot easier to do," Russell said. "But things changed every week. At one stage we were told we couldn't use the sales pavilion. And now all of a sudden we're told you can use 40% of the sales pavilion."

Keeneland also enhanced the virtual tools that could be accessed by buyers unable to attend the sale, including having online videos of cataloged horses and incorporating online bidding into the live bidding process.

The sales company, along with other industry groups including Fasig-Tipton, worked to help ensure that as many international buyers as possible would have the ability to attend the sale.

"There was a presidential travel ban on people coming from Europe, England, and Ireland so we've called on all of our friends to try to help us," Arvin said, noting that the offices of Sen. Mitch McConnell, Congressman Andy Barr, and United Nations ambassador Kelly Craft assisted. "There was an exemption available from that travel ban so we were able to get a waiver for quite a few of those people."

Russell said other industry organizations teamed in that effort, since there was also interest in making sure participants would be able to travel to the U.S. for the Breeders' Cup at Keeneland in November.

As it turns out, the travel ban is scheduled to expire at midnight Sept. 13.

Russell said there are three groups of Japanese buyers already on the grounds and that a group of Russian buyers is planning to attend. He said that South Koreans are not facing travel restrictions to the U.S.

Not expected to attend the sale are Sheikh Mohammed and Sheikh Hamdan, from the ruling family of the United Arab Emirates, but they will be well-represented at the auction, Russell said.

"They have their bases here in Kentucky, so they've got people here," he said.

At last year's September sale, Sheikh Mohammed's Godolphin purchased 10 yearlings for $16 million and Sheikh Hamdan's Shadwell operation purchased 18 for $11.07 million.

Keeneland's September sale, which saw 2,974 yearlings change hands for $372,348,400 last year, is historically the fourth major yearling sale of the season. This year, it has been preceded only by Fasig-Tipton's Selected Yearlings Showcase after that sale company's July sale in Kentucky and two auctions in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., were canceled.

Sellers, Buyers Glad for Opportunities

With the delayed start of the yearling sales season, sellers and buyers are grateful that perhaps the market schedule is back on track, with their hopes buoyed by the strong returns at the Fasig-Tipton sale earlier in the week, with 348 horses sold for $61.765 million.

"There were winners and losers as there always are in the game, but the fact we had a sale was fantastic," said Kerry Cauthen of Four Star Sales. "When you had a top-class horse, you got top-class money. It created a marketplace and allowed us to have commerce. People who understand what we were dealing with, I think, would see (Fasig-Tipton) as a confidence builder. It's a rocky ride when you're recovering and it's not just a nice, smooth curve back a position. I thought the fact we had commerce and you were able to get liquidity out of horses in and of itself was a touchdown."

Dr. Barry Eisaman, who with his wife Shari, is shopping for yearlings to sell as 2-year-olds, predicted prices will be down but that buyers have pent up demand.

"It's going to be down but I don't think it's going to be down as much as it could have been," Eisaman said. "People are tired of sitting on their hands and sitting on their money. And they're ready to play."

Even though the couple bought yearlings in a bull market last year and sold in a disrupted juvenile market in 2020, they made a profit.

"We sold every horse we had and we made money," he said. "We didn't have the rate of return we were used to in past years. A big unknown is what is the 2-year-old market is going to be like in the next cycle. Hopefully, it will be better than (this) year."