Market improves on second day at Keeneland October
Spurred by a sale-topping $400,000 yearling, average and total receipts improved and buyback rate declined at the second session of the inaugural Keeneland October yearling sale on Tuesday. On the day, 178 horses were sold for $2,982,400, an average of $16,755. Buybacks declined to 32% after soaring to 43% on Monday. Totals for the two-day sale added $5,092,500 to the pockets of consignors, an average of $15,068 for the 338 horses sold.
"That's better than the Thursday of the second week of Keeneland September," said Geoffrey Russell, Keeneland director of sales, "which is exactly what this sale was intended for, an alternative for a horse of that type that maybe the consignor wanted to get a little special attention for.
"It was a much better market today. I think maybe buyers got a little better sense of where the market is after yesterday."
As expected, an athletic half brother to 1999 Del Mar Futurity (G2) winner Forest Camp brought the highest price at the inaugural Keeneland October yearling sale, eliciting a $400,000 bid from agent John Moynihan, bidding for Louisville businessman Martin Cherry. Purchased for $500,000 by agent Chad Johnson as a weanling at the 2000 Keeneland November sale, the medium-sized Pleasant Colony colt was withdrawn from the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale of selected yearlings after developing shipping fever.
"We had loved this horse as a foal," Moynihan said. "In fact, I think we bid more than that on him last November. At Saratoga we were prepared to pay a good bit more for him but he got sick. In my opinion, if you look at the horses that brought $1-million at Saratoga, he's nicer than most of them.
"He's a beautiful horse. He looks fast, but he also looks like he'll go two turns. "
The second session also included the sale's second highest priced horse, a $157,000 colt by first-crop sire Banker's Gold out of Time for a Buck, by Damascus, purchased by agent Cecil Seaman from the consignment of Mill Ridge Sales. The chestnut colt is a half brother to stakes-placed winner Time to Bluff.—John P. Sparkman