Keeneland HORA Sale Off the Mark at $1M in First Year

The inaugural Keeneland November Horses of Racing Age Sale took place Nov. 17, seeing fireworks come late in the day when the dynamic supplemental catalog began. This is the first time the sale has been its own stand-alone sale, with a brick-and-mortar catalog of current-form individuals with recent success on the racetrack or juveniles ready to hit the track.

"It was a very healthy day of trade," said Keeneland vice president of sales Tony Lacy. "There was plenty of action in the barns, in the back rings, and a lot of action in the repository. We know this is a good time of year for people trying to reorganize their barns to transition horses in or out of their programs. They are looking for horses to run at Oaklawn or Fair Grounds or other winter tracks, and here they can do their homework and be well educated on the horses in front of them. It's very welcome for both buyers and sellers."

At the conclusion of selling Thursday, the juvenile colt by Into Mischief  , Hip 5352, saw lively bidding with partner Gandharvi Racing bidding through agent Mick Wallace victorious at $1 million to dissolve the partnership they shared with China Horse Club.

Highgate Sales consigned the colt for the partnership, which initially purchased the colt out of Gaudete for $350,000 from the 2021 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. The sale-topper is a half brother to group 3-placed Snowboarder  and from the family of La Comete, dam of leading sire Munnings   and grade 2-placed Munnings Sister .

Gandharvi also acquired a 2-year-old colt (Hip 5348) by Quality Road   for $250,000 from Highgate Sales. Out of the winning stakes-placed Sweet Dreams , by Candy Ride  , he is a half brother to grade 2 winner Subconscious  and from the family of champion Gold Beauty and grade 2 winner Strike Charmer .

The consignment led by the partnership of Jill Gordon and Jacob West saw 15 of the 16 horses from their banner sell for receipts of $3,383,000, at an average price of $225,533, to be the days leading consignor.

"Never did we imagine in year one when we started Highgate at the Fasig-Tipton February with a sales topper and to close the year at the Keeneland November HORA with another sale topper—it's beyond anything we could have imagined," Gordon expressed. "We can't express gratitude to our clients for putting their faith and horses in our hands. It's been an incredible year."

"This segment is its own sale now, and we think it's off to an excellent start," Keeneland director of sales operations Cormac Breathnach said. "It's contiguous with the Breeding Stock Sale, but it's a different market with a later entry deadline and more flexibility with supplements. There's now a concentration of racehorses before trainers rather than before when the racehorses were spread out over days with breeding stock. We did a little over $6 million in gross last year when we put the racehorses at the end of the Breeding Stock Sale, and this year we did just over $11 million. That's significant. We've set a baseline for the November Horses of Racing Age Sale, and we'll try to grow it from here."

The single day of selling saw 170 of the 201 horses through the ring sell for gross figures of $11,547,500, suitable for an average price of $67,926 and a median of $35,000. Thirty-one individuals failed to meet their reserve price to represent an RNA rate of 15.4%.

China Horse Club made four purchases Thursday for a gross of $1,385,000 to be the day's leading buyer.