Crew Dragon Tops Renewed Keeneland April Sale

Beautiful weather and a bevy of quality horses in training drew out a strong crowd of spectators and buyers April 26 for the The April Sale at Keeneland. The sale, which was planned strategically to fall after the conclusion of the Keeneland Spring Meet and at the start of the festivities leading up to the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1), saw 37 horses change hands Monday from 48 offered for receipts of $2,440,000.

At total of 78 horses were originally consigned to the one-day sale, 30 of which had been withdrawn ahead of the start. The average for horses sold on Monday came to $65,946 and the median was $45,000. The 11 horses that went unsold represented a buy-back rate of 23%. Thirteen of the 37 horses sold were purchased via internet bidding for receipts of $415,000. 

"I think we're very happy," said Keeneland director of sales Geoffrey Russell, who announced his retirement on Monday after 25 years with Keeneland. "We started this sale as part of the 2019 2-year-olds in training sale. It started on a good note and we had two very nice horses out of it. Unfortunately, COVID came last year and debunked us. We're now trying to get it back up and started again and give an opportunity to people who raced here during the spring to come back and hopefully sell some horses.

"I think it's a good start back and hopefully we can build on it. The numbers were about where we thought it would be. We had hoped for a bit more horses to be honest, but I think it all worked out very well." 

Monday's sale was only the second time in the past three years that the auction has found its place back on the Keeneland sales calendar. In 2019, the April sale was held earlier in the month during the opening week of the Spring Meet.

"We were looking at it for people to be able to race at the meet and hopefully market their horses afterwards after getting a win or a second," said Russell on the decision to push back the sale. "Everybody likes to have a winner at Keeneland. The other issue was trying to find a tie on the April sales calendar." 

This year's renewal was also billed as an integrated sale with consignors having the opportunity to sell horses remotely while they remained in training at their respective tracks. In addition, an enhanced digital catalog was provided that allowed the auction house to consistently update buyers on new information as well as which horses had been withdrawn or entered in a timely manner. 

"We ended up only with one horse off base. But our goal in that was in trying to expand the sale," said Russell. "We had three horses in California they were thinking of selling and they were going to stay there. We want buyers to be able to keep dates at racetracks. We don't want them to lose their dates by taking papers out of the racing offices. I think as the market goes on, I think people will be more comfortable doing that." 

"We were excited to try the digital catalog, that was something that lets us be more flexible and let entries come much later than we typically can when we have paper catalog," said Keeneland president and CEO Shannon Arvin. "We were able to provide a lot more information to our buyers." 

Topping the day's trade was Hip 50, a chestnut colt named Crew Dragon  consigned by Lane's End, agent. A son of WinStar Farm stallion Exaggerator   out of Go Go Dana (by Malibu Moon  ), the 3-year-old was purchased by bloodstock agent David Ingordo for $310,000 on behalf of unknown interests in California. 

"Keeneland did a great job of putting this sale together," said Ingordo, who signed the winning ticket D.M.I. "I think the timing of it was pretty good right before all the summer meets. I'm pretty impressed so far with the trade and the quality of horses that stayed on offer. As with a lot of these horses in training sale you get horses taken out because people are looking at the market and sometimes people get sentimental and don't want to sell at the last minute. But I think Keeneland did a great job with the way they put the catalog together quickly was impressive and I hope they continue to build on this." 

Previously owned by Kinsman Stable and trained by Bill Mott, Crew Dragon was bred in Kentucky by Lee McMillin and Eric Buckley. He holds a 1-1-4 record from six starts and earnings of $65,330. 

Second-highest seller on the day was Hip 48, a $210,000 Lemon Drop Kid   mare named Brooke Marie  who was consigned by ELiTE Sales as a racing or broodmare prospect. Purchased by Castleton Lyons, the 5-year-old is out of the Giant's Causeway mare Mamasez and was one of four horses who entered the sale off a win at Keeneland during the Spring Meet. 

Trained by Jonathan Thomas for Jim Bakke and Gerald Isbister, Brooke Marie was bred in Kentucky by Mr. and Mrs. Jerome Moss and David Ingordo. The mare was stakes-placed in 2019, running second in the Christiecat Stakes at Belmont Park, and holds a 3-3-1 record from 11 starts and $180,430 in earnings. 

As an active agent buying on behalf of a large contingency of clients, Ingordo said he had been impressed with the efforts of Keeneland and other auction houses and well as consignors to expand their digital marketing efforts in the wake  of COVID-19. 

"At the 2-year-old sales the way the online catalogs are, I think all the consignors—whether it's at this sale or at 2-year-old sales here or Fasig-Tipton and OBS—have a done a really good job providing credible video and information for potential buyers to see it all remote. I think if there is a good thing that came out of COVID for the horse business it's that we exponentially expedited the speed at which we are now providing really good photos and video. We weren't doing that before. This has really made it more professional and I think the industry on that side has really moved quickly and that's a good thing. Most of the clients I have are not always traveling, they're running businesses or training horses. A lot of the trainers I work for are hands on so they appreciate seeing the stuff that has been provided."