By Christie DeBernardis
The five-day Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale kicks off the American Thoroughbred sales season Monday with the first of two Book 1 sessions. The 1,892-horse catalog includes 726 broodmares, 147 broodmare prospects, 732 yearlings, 280 horses of racing age and seven stallion prospects.
“It's a solid January catalog,” said Keeneland's Director of Sales Geoffrey Russell. “We don't have any dispersals this year, so it's kind of a regular January catalog with a little bit of everything between racehorses and broodmares and short yearlings. It has it all.”
Russell added, “Going by the information we've heard, there are several weanling to yearling pinhookers that haven't fulfilled their quotas yet, so we hope that we have some stock here that will meet what they are looking for.”
Sales officials look to build on the momentum and positive numbers seen during the November Sale.
“The January sale traditionally follows on from the November sale,” said Russell. “There was definitely competitive bidding on the top lots there, so we hope that will continue on.”
Last year's January Sale saw 1,040 horses sell for a total of $35,463,000. The average was $34,099 and the median was $11,000. The sale was highlighted by the dispersal of the estate of Sarah J. Leigh, which provided the top two sellers and the co-highest priced yearling. Virginia Kraft Payson was the buyer on all three of those horses, stretching to a sales-topping $700,000 for the Grade I-placed Summer Solo (Arch), who sold in foal to Ghostzapper; going to $500,000 for that mare's then-2-year-old half-sister Summer Sweet (More Than Ready); and taking home an Arch yearling filly for $450,000.
Monday's opening session gets underway in Lexington at 10:00a.m.
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