“We are very encouraged by the depth of quality in sales,” said Cormac Breathnach, director of sales operations for Keeneland. “It’s always a dynamic kind of catalogue. We have a great group of about 135 horses that will be sold tomorrow and that are very attractive.
“There are a lot of very lightly raced horses, with only six or fewer starts as barmoters. There are about 30 black horses in the group; there are a few pedigreed fillies, it’s a really nice group of horses.”
One of the expected highlights of the sale is the winner of multiple bets Bishops Bay . After a victory in the Forty Niner Stakes (G3) on November 2 for trainer Brad Cox, the 5-year-old son of Uncle Mo earned a paid berth in the $500,000 Cigar Mile (G2) on December 6. He has won five of his seven starts this year, three of which came in ranked stakes races. He has an 8-3-0 record from twelve career starts and earnings of $702,800. He is offered as a racing or stallion prospect and shipped by ELiTE, agent, as Hip 4014.
“We have some headliners like Bishops Bay, World Record, and a horse like Divine Justice (3-year-old colt by Justify) who came out of our race and broke his maiden and went seven (furlongs) over the dirt,” Breathnach said. “Some really attractive prospects for people to move on from.”
ELiTE is putting a draft of 48 horses up for sale, including many racing, broodmare and stallion prospects from top stallions such as Constitution , Candy ride , Curl , Good magic , Rifle runner , In mischief , To justify , And Carpet among others.
In addition to Bishops Bay, the consignment has many other top offers such as Raw a 3-year-old son of Justify who captured the Sir Barton Stakes on the Preakness undercard and recently finished second in the November 8 Dwyer Stakes, winner of the graded stakes Fort Bragg (Tapit), ranked bets Tuscan gold (Gold Medal), and winner of the rated stake World record (Gunrunner). They are all offered as a racing or stallion prospect.
“On the buying side of demand, we’re definitely seeing catalogs flying off the shelves and credit applications coming in,” he says. “A lot of the end users, the agents and the trainers who are in the business of selling racing-age horses are here, and they spend all day shopping and looking through the barns.
“We are very optimistic about tomorrow’s sales.”
By November 11, Keeneland had reported 85 zeros.
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