Neither Snow Nor Cold: Keeneland January Sale Opens Monday

[Wandering Eyes]

The Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale, which follows a week of snow and ice storms and amidst frigid temperatures, opens its three-day run Monday in Lexington, with bidding scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. The catalogue increased to 1,317 horses with the addition of five supplemental entries last Thursday, but there were already 340 head withdrawn from the auction as of Sunday evening.

The January sale follows a strong renewal of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, which set a record for median and produced a significant increase in average in 2024. Consignors are eager to see that competitive market continue into the new year, while still acknowledging a persistent polarization in demand.

“I think that you saw in November, the foal market was quite competitive,” said Jill Gordon of Highgate Sales. “If you brought a horse up there that vetted and that could jump through all the hoops, you had a lot of friends up at the ring. Conversely, if you brought something up there that had trouble with the vetting, or was perceived as not that kind of upper echelon, it got pretty lonely. And I think you can expect to see a continuation of that. I think there are a lot of those pinhookers who weren't able to get all of their orders filled. And hopefully with that trickle over effect, if you are wanting to pinhook weanlings to yearlings, this is one of your very last stops to pick those up.”

Chance Timm of Grovendale Sales said, given current conditions, an overall market assessment was less a barometer of success in the sales ring than the perceived quality of the individual offering at an auction.

“For me, I think these days it really is a horse by horse scenario,” Timm said. “It's hard to get swallowed up into saying the market is really strong in general. It just depends on the offering that you have. If you have the right stuff, it's plenty good, and if you don't, it's extremely lonely.”

A year ago, the January catalogue featured 1,487 head and was held over four days. The slimmed-down catalogue and cut back to three days comes amidst a growing proliferation of digital sales held throughout the year.

“The catalogue on a whole has contracted quite a bit,” said Gordon. “I think that is somewhat a function of the digital sales that have popped up and really taken a lion's share of that lower end of the market share where it makes more sense to offer them digitally than it does to ship them into a sale.”

Chief Stipe Arnold of Buck Pond Farm sees a place for both digital and live auctions on the calendar.

“You would think [digital sales] would have some bearing on the size of the catalogue, but I don't think it will be overwhelming,” Arnold said. “I think that people like to put their hands on horses and walk around and do business. And I think there is plenty of room for both the digital and the live sales. I don't think one will hurt another one.”

Following snow and ice storms in the Lexington area last week, temperatures during the three-day auction aren't expected to be well below freezing.

Chance Timm | Keeneland

“It definitely is a concern,” Timm said of weather conditions. “It's hard to expect the normal kind of traffic that you'd like under better conditions. As sellers, we want to see as many potential buyers as we can. I would suspect we won't get nearly as much traffic as we have in the past. But I think for the right ones, it's not going to matter. It will be some of the others that are in between who might suffer a little bit. But by and large, the ones that are deemed most desirable, they are going to find them no matter what.”

Gordon admitted weather conditions have caused delays in pre-sale videos.

“For a lot of people, having this storm and then temperatures not really getting to a place that we have been able to make a substantial headway on getting rid of a lot of this snow and ice, it affected a lot of their ability to do photos and videos on the farm,” Gordon said. “If they were scheduled and you can't get a clear pathway to shoot a photo and a video, then it's obviously going to affect some of the pre-sale work that we are usually able to put on and we may have to bob and weave a little bit. Hopefully we can get those done at ship-in, but historically when you are able to look at all those foals and flip through the videos–and some people can kind of short list off that–I don't think that's going to be as accessible this year, just because of the weather. But you hope that everybody puts on their winter vests and comes out and keeps shopping the way they did in November.”

Advances in online bidding, videos and photos will be even more important due to conditions around the sale, according to Arnold.

“I think your online presence could mean more to you this sale than it would normally,” Arnold said. “Because people who are online watching the videos could say, 'Yeah, I might bid on that horse.'”

Despite the winter weather, Arnold expects the buyers will be out in force on the sales grounds.

“Horse people are a different breed,” he said. “If you had a sale out in the middle of a field with 10 inches of snow, your hardcore people would be there because they'd think there might be a chance to buy something for less than what it otherwise would be. They'd want to participate. They are a rare breed. Always looking for an edge.”

The Keeneland January sale will be held Monday through Wednesday, with sessions beginning each day at 10 a.m.

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