Demand Remains Strong as Book 3 Concludes with $875K Not This Time Colt on Top

[Wandering Eyes]

LEXINGTON, KY – The Keeneland September Yearling Sale rushed to the conclusion of Book 3 with demand remaining strong right through to the end of its sixth session Sunday evening. Through both Book 3 sessions, 563 yearlings sold through the ring for a total of $109,983,000. The section's average of $201,804 rose 26.5% from last year and the median rose 23.1% to $160,000.

During last year's Book 3 section, 526 horses sold through the ring for a gross of $83,880,000 for an average of $159,468 and a median of $130,000.

Through six sessions, 1,216 horses have sold for $417,622,000. The cumulative average is $343,439–up 19.04% from the same point a year ago–and the median is up 19.05% to $250,000. The buy-back rate stands at 26.30%. It was 28.51% a year ago.

“It's unbelievable,” bloodstock agent Jacob West said of the market this week at Keeneland. “It's so many factors that have come together in so many ways. I am just happy for the breeders. I know how hard it is to get to this point. If they raise a good horse, they deserve to get paid.”

Bloodstock agent Pete Bradley said the results from Keeneland through Book 3 have reminded him of a bygone era.

“Between tax laws and everything else, there is more money flowing around here than I've seen since I was a pup in the Northern Dancer days,” Bradley said. “Good horses are just hard to buy.”

A pair of colts by Not This Time brought the session's top prices, with Repole Stable and St. Elias Stables teaming to purchase a son of the stallion for $875,000 from the Taylor Made Sales Agency consignment and bloodstock agent Pete Bradley going to $775,000 for a colt from the Dixiana Farms consignment. The stallion was also responsible for the co-highest priced filly of Sunday's session when Justin Casse purchased a filly from the Burleson Farms consignment for $600,000 late in the day.

The Keeneland September sale continues through Saturday with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m.

 

Repole, Viola Join Forces for $875k Not This Time Colt

Mike Repole's Repole Stable and Vinnie Viola's St. Elias partnered up on 74 yearlings over two years to be the leading buyers at the 2021 and 2022 Keeneland September sales, but their names didn't appear together on the result sheets in 2023 or 2024. The two men have teamed up again to purchase a pair of yearlings at the Keeneland September sale this week. After going to $1 million to acquire a colt by Nyquist (hip 266) Tuesday, the Repole/St. Elias partnership purchased a colt by Not This Time (hip 1762) for a session-topping $875,000 during Sunday's sixth session of the auction.

“This colt was a big, good-looking horse who was well spotted in Book 3,” said Repole advisor Jacob West, who signed the ticket while seated alongside Viola's representative Monique Delk. “He was a horse who stood out to both of our teams. I think it's the same old play book. Mike and Vinnie are looking for two-turn, Classic-type horses. And Not This Time has proven that–it looks like they appreciate a little bit of ground. And we've both had luck with the stallion.”

The colt was consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency on behalf of his breeder, Jane Lyon's Summer Wind Equine. He is out of the unraced Sweetened (Candy Ride {Arg}), who is a full-sister to graded winner Confidence Game. The yearling's third dam is Vertigineux (Kris S.), who produced champion Zenyatta.

 

Bradley Gets in on Time

The demand for yearlings by Not This Time continued unabated during the second Book 3 session Sunday at Keeneland. Early in the session, bloodstock agent Pete Bradley purchased a son of the Taylor Made stallion (hip 1619) for $775,000.

Pete Bradley | Keeneland

“Not This Time has been almost unaffordable all week long,” Bradley said after signing the ticket on the yearling who was bred and consigned by Dixiana Farms. “This was a very nice colt. I stretched for him, but that's what you have to do to find a nice horse in this day and age.”

Bradley said the colt would be trained by Chad Brown.

“It's a group that is looking to find colts that could make stallion prospects,” he said of his clients.

Bradley, acknowledging there are many such buying groups shopping for those colts with stallion potential, said it has been tough going buying at Keeneland this week.

“For the group I bought this colt for, I struck out on probably 10 horses,” he said. “I have been trying to buy them in the $500,000 range. And I've been close on a couple, but again you have to push to get the horse who looks to be a serious athlete.”

The colt is out of multiple stakes-placed Luzmimi Princess (Malibu Moon), who is a half-sister to multiple stakes winner Heartwood (Tapit).

Dixiana purchased Luzmimi Princess, in foal to American Pharoah, for $375,000 at the 2019 Keeneland November sale. Her Twirling Candy filly sold for $575,000 at the 2023 Keeneland September sale.

 

NOTHING BUT NET

Shea D Summer Continues to Reward Moore

Virgnia breeder Amy Moore of South Gate Farm purchased multiple stakes winner Shea D Summer (Summer Front), in foal to Not This Time, for $260,000 at the 2022 Keeneland November sale. The mare's first foal, It's Our Time, sold for $425,000 at last year's Keeneland September sale before airing by 17 1/4 lengths while earning 'TDN Rising Star' status in his Aug. 16 debut at Saratoga for Double Down Horse Racing and trainer Tom Amoss

A daughter of Bolt d'Oro led all fillies at Keeneland Sunday with a $600,000 final bid | Keeneland

The mare's second foal, a filly by Bolt d'Oro (hip 1722), continued to reap rewards for Moore when selling for $600,000 to Susan Naylor Sunday at Keeneland.

“Shea D Summer met all my criteria,” Moore told TDN's Chris McGrath earlier in this month. “Number one, for me, a mare has to have raced successfully. I know a lot of people do have success with unraced mares, but a small program like mine can't be discovering whether or not they'd have had ability if only they'd been sound. She was versatile, too. She won on a fast dirt track and on a wet dirt track. She finished second on turf. And she was a young, attractive mare.”

Moore told McGrath she saw similarities in the mares first two foals.

“She's a very nice filly,” Moore said of hip 1722. “She looks a good bit like him. On the smaller side, just as he was, so someone's got to be willing not to insist on a 16-hand yearling. But she has that same temperament, too, which I think stands them in good stead.”

Shea D Summer has a weanling by Forte, the champion 2-year-old colt of 2022 who was bred by Moore's South Gate Farm, and the mare was bred back to Muth.

The post Demand Remains Strong as Book 3 Concludes with $875K Not This Time Colt on Top appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

View the full article