Last year’s January sale, which consisted of three sessions, grossed $35,225,900, including private sales, from 724 horses sold. The average price was $48,655, with a median of $22,000. A total of 206 horses failed to meet their reserve, resulting in an RNA rate of 22.2%.
“The result for me was that the top 25 horses went from 18 different consignors to 24 different buyers,” said Cormac Breathnach, Keeneland’s senior director of sales operations. “And that is always very nice to have the strength and depth at the top of the market. The top 13 yearlings were all from different sires. So there is a lot of popular bloodlines and activity around those select lots.”
Keeneland’s vice president of sales, Tony Lacy, echoed Breathnach’s enthusiasm for the sale.
“Another really good day. I think it was a great, solid day of trading,” Lacy said. “If you look at the clearance rate and if you look at the average and median for the day, they were higher than last year, even with the higher volume. I think everyone felt like it was a very fair and strong market overall. We were very happy.”
Lacy and Breathnach were happy with the choice to condense the sale into two sessions, stating that sales never seemed to come to a halt.
“It really comes down to the number of entries at the end,” Breathnach explained of the decision to change the format. “You have the choice of two full, longer days or three shorter days. We always feel that the longer sessions are a fuller group of horses. If we put them against each other and you have real energy they will be better, rather than splitting the session into three days and having a shorter session at the end with some lesser horses.”
Towards the end of the second session a small yearling passed by Nyquist led to a bidding duel, which ultimately led to Brian Graves signing the ticket on behalf of En Fuego Stables to secure the colt for $525,000.
The colt, consigned as Hip 966, by Carolyn Conley Bloodstock, agent, was bred in Kentucky by Justice Stables, out of the stakes-placed Lemon Drop Kid mare Sorrentina Lemon.
“I bought him for a pinhooking group, and we will bring him back next year as one of our stars, at one of the select yearling sales,” Graves said. “He was just a specimen of a horse. He had everything you could wish for: sire strength, physicality, walk, athletic ability. I thought he was the best yearling here.”
Hip 966 was the fourth highest priced yearling of the January Sale, after Hip 114, a Rifle runner colt who brought home $800,000 from Marc Gunderson’s MWG during Day 1.
Graves said the price tag wasn’t a surprise.
“(The market) has been tough. I bought eight foals yesterday, but it wasn’t easy,” Graves said. “I think you just have to find your flow with the market and trust your gut.”
The colt is the mare’s fourth foal, and Conley said Hip 966 was the most beautiful foal the mare has ever produced.
“We have established a conservative reserve,” Conley said. “Bill Justice (of Justice Real Estate) is my other half, and he bred this colt. We have believed in this colt from the beginning. We are excited about his future. He has a beautiful character. And his walk – wow.”
“I was going to wait for the September sale, but Bill is a knowledgeable businessman and he said Nyquist is hot as hell, so we’re going to January.”
Carolyn Conley and Brian Graves
Conley sold a half-brother to Triple Crown winner mare Sorrentina Lemon To justify upon sale in January 2024 to PB Bloodstock for $400,000. The colt, later named Humility, fetched $1 million from CHC/Maverick Racing/Siena Racing at the September sale later that year.
Conley is a veteran of the thoroughbred industry and boasts an impressive career spanning decades and disciplines. Her experience includes 12 years as a broadcast anchor for Fox Sports and HRTV, a hands-on foundation that gallops horses for Hall of Fame trainers like Charlie Whittingham and D. Wayne Lukas, and time spent as a jockey agent on the Southern California track.
Conley has been submitting horses for the past five years and noted that it was a natural transition from being a jockey agent for two years.
“I was asked to sell or buy horses, so this was a natural progression,” Conley said.
“Cassie Lee is my right hand,” she continued. “She’s been with me since I started consigning. She runs the stable at the auction, shows the horses and takes them to the ring. I couldn’t do it without her.”
The most expensive yearling filly of the session was an Uncle Mo filly, listed as Hip 637, by Paramount Sales, agent. Rock Ridge Racing insured the filly for $420,000.
“Obviously her page caught our attention, but when you look at her, she just stood out to us,” said Codee Guffey of Rock Ridge Racing. “We’ll end up keeping her and hopefully add her to our racing stable and then bring her home and make her a broodmare after the race.
“We bought one last night (Hip 511), but that was our second sale purchase. We got the one we wanted, and it was exactly where we thought we needed to be.”
Paddy Campion of Paramount Sales said: “(Hip 637) was a well-balanced filly, with plenty of quality and good handling. There is built-in residual value from Uncle Mo, and with such a nice page.
“Her full brother (Treaty of Rome), who finished second in the Mucho Macho Man (Stakes) last year, had his first work back yesterday after a long break, so hopefully he can give the new connections an update or two!”
Paramount Sales led the consignors for the second and final session of the sale, selling 20 of their concept for a total of $2,334,000.
“It’s a great time to be selling horses,” Campion says. “Our impressions numbers were comparable to previous years, even with the shortened dates this year.
“As a consignor, it is a great feeling to walk into the ring in such an atmosphere, and we are very grateful to be able to do what we do. Keeneland has delivered a quality catalog and the market has responded with a thunderous demand for bloodstocks.”
Mares continued to be in demand until the end of the auction, with the most expensive mare Orinoco River fetching $500,000. The War front mare consigned as Hip 863, by Eaton Sales, agent, sold to the St. George Stables of Germán Larrea Mota-Velasco. The 7-year-old mare was a runner-up for trainer Donnacha O’Brien and was presented in foal to Taylor Made’s great sire Not this time .
Whisper Hill Farm’s $3.2 million acquisition of Tiffany Case (Hip 465) made the farm the top gross buyer for the January sale, with Marc Gunderson’s MWG following closely behind, leading volume with 15 purchases totaling $3,136,000. Taylor Made Sales Agency led the consignors, selling 87 units for $8,721,500.
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