November Book 3 Concludes

LEXINGTON, Ky – The second and final session of Book 3 of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale concluded Sunday evening in Lexington with numbers down slightly from the two corresponding sessions a year ago. During the two Book 3 sessions, 459 head sold for $24,122,700. The average dipped 3.7% to $52,555 and the median fell just 1.2% to $40,000. Over the two days, 13 horses sold for $200,000 or over, with a top price of $550,000.

During the 2015 Book 3, 474 head sold for $25,849,000. The average was $54,534 and the median was $40,500. The top price was $370,000, one of nine offerings to sell for $200,000 or over.

The 3-year-old filly Moonlight Sky (Sky Mesa) became Sunday's highest seller when bloodstock agent Lincoln Collins made a final bid of $240,000 to secure the racing prospect for Triton Stables. There were six weanlings to bring six figures Sunday, led by hip 1838, a filly by Uncle Mo purchased for $180,000 by Peter O'Callaghan.

Taylor Made Sales Agency led all consignors Sunday, selling 26 horses for a total of $1,336,000 and an average of $51,385. Taylor Made's Mark Taylor saw a definite trend Sunday.

“We did not have many foals in today, but the foals that we had sold well,” Taylor commented. “I think the younger mares are selling for fair prices. I think older mares, especially in the nine-13 range, if they don't have a runner, they are heavily discounted. And even older mares, if they are 17 or 18, even if they are the dam of a graded stakes winner, nobody wants the maintanence and the risk. I think at this level of the market, they want to figure that they can get most of their money back out of the first foal–that's what the horses are bringing.”

The Keeneland November sale continues Monday with the first of two sessions offering horses of racing age. The session will feature several offerings from the dispersal of Conquest Stables, consigned to the November sale through the Lane's End. (Click here for Christie DeBernardis's preview of the Conquest Stables Dispersal.) The sale continues through next Sunday with sessions beginning daily at 10 a.m.

Moonlight Sky Going North of the Border

Moonlight Sky (Sky Mesa) will be targeted for a return to the racetrack after selling for $240,000 to bloodstock agent Lincoln Collins on behalf of the partnership group Triton Racing.

“Nice racehorses are hard to buy, particularly ones that have a bit of residual value,” Collins said after signing the ticket on the 3-year-old early in Sunday's session of the Keeneland November sale. “We felt that she has her conditions and we can have some fun with her. We're happy to have a filly like that.”

Moonlight Sky (hip 1751), a $285,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase in 2014, raced nine times for owner John Oxley and trainer Mark Casse. A maiden winner at Churchill a year ago, the chestnut entered the November sale off four straight runner-up efforts against allowance company over the turf.

Moonlight Sky, out of Vargas Girl (Deputy Minister) and consigned by Denali Stud, is a full-sister to graded stakes winner Sky Girl. Vargas Girl is a half-sister to Moonlight Sonata (Carson City), the dam of Wilburn (Bernardini) and Beethoven (Sky Mesa).

“She'll probably go back to Canada to race and probably to Roger Attfield, but the decision hasn't been made yet,” Collins said. “He has done very well for us over the years, so with a bit of luck we've bought a decent racehorse.”

Attfield trained Triton Racing's Uchenna (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) to a win in the 2015 GIII Ontario Matron S. Triton also campaigned 2014 GIII Robert J. Frankel S. winner Lady Pimpernel (GB) (Sir Percy {GB}).

Uncle Mo Filly Top Weanling Sunday

Pinhooker Peter O'Callaghan signed for Sunday's top-priced weanling, going to $180,000 for a filly by Uncle Mo (hip 1838). The bay filly is out of the unraced Savviest (El Corredor), a half-sister to Grade I winner Tactical Cat (Storm Cat), and was consigned by James Keogh's Grovendale.

“The sire is exceptional and she was a good Uncle Mo–she was very like him,” O'Callaghan said of the weanling's appeal. “She had his head and eye and looked like an athletic filly.”

The Uncle Mo filly was one of six weanlings to bring six figures during Sunday's second and final Book 3 session.

O'Callaghan admitted he was finding plenty of competition for the most highly valued weanlings.

“I think it's been the same story here for a while now, through the yearling sales and the weanling sales,” he said. “It's tough to buy them and, if you have less than the most desirable ones, it's tough to sell them. We're trying to buy at the upper end of the best foals and it's very competitive. You have to pay a real premium for them. We've bought less numbers this year than last year, not by design, but because we can't get them bought. The competition is strong.”

O'Callaghan finds himself fighting off both end users and other pinhookers for quality offerings that seem to be in shorter supply.

“There were a lot of nicer, well-bred foals withdrawn in the early books, so there was less on offer,” he explained. “We are competing against some top-level pinhooking groups and there is a lot of end-user money here, but there is always end-user money here. You expect that and you know you have to work around them a little bit. But that was a little bit of the trouble this year in the first couple of books, there just wasn't enough quality to go around. There are enough numbers to go around, but of the quality stock that you are trying to buy to bring back to [September] Book 1 or take to Saratoga, it's just hard to get your hand on those types.”

Still, O'Callaghan is happy to see breeders of quality foals rewarded for bringing top individuals to market.

“It's very hard to breed a very nice horse, so we expect to pay a premium for them and it's important that breeders get rewarded for those,” he said. “You can't complain about it. It's important for the business that people are rewarded for good horses.”

Sugar Cone Back to Arnold

Sugar Cone (Street Sense), a Keeneland maiden winner for G. Watts Humphrey, Jr. and St. George Farm Racing last October, will return to trainer Rusty Arnold after Humphrey bought out his partner on the 3-year-old filly, who was officially listed as an RNA at $270,000.

“We've had the whole family for two generations, so we love her,” Humphrey said. “I had a partner who wanted to sell, so I bought his half.”

Humphrey bought Sugar Cone's dam Double Scoop (Seeking the Gold) for $400,000 at the 2001 Keeneland September sale. The 3-year-old filly was fourth in last year's GII Golden Rod S. and, while she hasn't raced since May, has been training steadily at Keeneland.

“She'll go right back over the across the road to Rusty Arnold,' Humphrey said. “She should be ready to run by the end of Churchill.”

Brook Ledge Expanding Upwards

Brook Ledge Horse Transportation, which was started by Bill and Bob Gotwals with one truck back in 1955, has expanded operations to offer clients air transportation after the purchase of Robert Nataf's equine air transportation company Horse America earlier this year.

“It just felt like that piece fell right into the puzzle,” Brook Ledge Vice President of Sales Glenn Brok said of the acquisition of Horse America. “When I started with Brook Ledge 30 years ago, it was a horse transportation company that just hauled Standardbreds. I was a Thoroughbred guy and when I joined, Brad Gotwals was looking to move in the direction of hauling Thoroughbreds. The company has grown quite a bit since that time and we've added a lot of people. We haul a lot of Thoroughbred racehorses and we haul a lot of showhorses. It just seemed like a lot of people needed transportation, but they needed it by air. We had only been ground transportation up to a little more than a year ago. It just made sense to give people a full service. If we are picking them up at the airport or if they need to make flight arrangements, why not offer them a complete package.”

Brad Gotwals found the perfect conduit for expansion after a meeting with Horse America manager Nicole Normington.

“Nicole mentioned her boss Robert Nataf, who owned Horse America and Horse France, was looking to get out of the business,” Brok recalled. “He wanted to stay involved, but slow down a bit. It was just a natural fit and good timing. So we bought his company [this past spring] and he stayed on with us as a consultant for five years.”

Brook Ledge is now in a position to offer clients one-stop shopping.

“We can price it more palatably by wrapping the ground and the air together,” Brok explained. “I think it allows us to be more competitive. We already have people everywhere. We have two agents at Belmont, an agent in Saratoga, an agent at Gulfstream, an agent in Fair Grounds and three people in California. We can have someone there to load and unload horses no matter where they are in the country or in the world.”

While Brook Ledge is busy training its agents to be federally qualified as equine flight attendants, the company is also offering trainers the chance to have their own grooms gain qualification to travel with their charges.

“It's always a problem when trainers have a stakes horse flying to California or Europe, they want to send their grooms and they want their grooms to be one of the paid attendants,” Brok said. “We are offering to get their grooms qualified as flight attendants. It's just one more service that Brook Ledge is offering our clients.”

Brok continued, “You need two attendants, one has to be a head groom and one can be a second groom. So we can get those grooms that are in those stables qualified and licensed to be second grooms and fly with their horses. It's a task that we're familiar with, but it's a hassle for people in the barns. They're not familiar with the red tape and the procedures. And now we are.”

Brok admitted he has enjoyed the ride with Brook Ledge.

“I started on the racetrack in 1969 walking hots,” he said. “And now I'm part of the largest horse transportation company in the world, not just this country, and now we have one more venture. It's fun.”

Sisterson Keeping Options Open

During his time as an assistant to trainer Doug O'Neill, Jack Sisterson got to experience both of the barn's GI Kentucky Derby winners, but the Englishman recently gave up life on the backstretch to take a position with Reiley McDonald's Eaton Sales. He joined the Eaton team just four days ago and headed straight out to work the Keeneland November sale.

Sisterson, a University of Louisville graduate who has also served stints with trainers Todd Pletcher and Eddie Kenneally, credited O'Neill with giving him the impetus to leave California.

“Basically, Doug sat me down and said, 'You've been with me for five or six years now and you've experienced the highs and the lows, so why don't you go out and experience this side of the business and see where it takes you,'” Sisterson said.

Still in just his first week on the new job, Sisterson is making the most of the opportunity of working with one of the sale industry's leading consignors.

“I'm just basically learning the ins and outs of the business right now,” Sisterson said. “I'm just shadowing Reiley and asking a lot of questions. I'm in learning mode at the moment.”

Of the future, the 32-year-old continued, “It was a dream of mine to be a trainer, but I'm in a position now where I'd like to grow in this business and if it works out, I'd like to be part of a consignment myself. I'm still just learning right now, so I'm keeping all my options open.”

Asked if he was missing the racetrack, Sisterson said, “It's still early days–it's just my fourth day.”

Still the chilly temps in Lexington this week must be quite a shock after spending a half-decade in sunny California.

“I forgot my gloves,” Sisterson laughed.

Illuminant Goes West

GI Gamely S. winner Illuminant (Quality Road), a $900,000 purchase at last week's Fasig-Tipton November sale, will resume training in California with Mike McCarthy under a partnership with SF Bloodstock and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners.

“We're very exciting to have Eclipse and Aron Wellman involved in her 2017 campaign,” commented SF Bloodstock's Tom Ryan. “She's had her time off and ready to get back to it. Whitey [McCarthy] came to Fasig to watch her sell last week and was the first to congratulate everyone on the purchase and impress on us how talented Illuminant really is. She's big and beautiful with a Grade I already under her belt. We look forward to mapping out a campaign with Aron and Mike.”

Fourth in a pair of graded events at Santa Anita last winter, Illuminant was third in the Apr. 16 GI Jenny Wiley S. before winning the Gamely in her most recent outing May 30. The 4-year-old filly has hit the board in 7 of 11 starts for McCarthy and Eclipse Thoroughbreds, with four wins and earnings of $367,650.