Keeneland Amends Start Times for Book 1 Sessions
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Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt
Keeneland September Sales from Sept. 7 to Sept. 23, 2018. Sept. 7, 2018 Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky.
With inspections of horses consigned to Book 1 of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale impacted by inclement weather Sept. 9, the sales company announced it would move back the start times for the Sept. 10-13 sessions from 11 a.m. ET to 1 p.m. daily.
Rain, heavy at times, began falling early Sunday and continued throughout the day, with the National Weather Service issuing a flash flood warning for Central Kentucky.
The marathon sale has been reformatted this year to begin with 989 yearlings offered in Book 1 during the first four days of the auction that continues through Sept. 23 (with no sale on Friday, Sept. 14).
"We want to give buyers sufficient time to inspect the horses in Book 1," Keeneland vice president of racing and sales Bob Elliston said. "The current heavy rain is making their work today extremely difficult and putting them behind schedule to review Book 1, which has cataloged 989 horses. This revised start time will allow them to catch up."
The activity level in the barn area was noticeably light Sunday morning, although some erstwhile buyers and consignors were trying to complete their work with the inspections taking place under the covered shed rows.