Divine Queen Tops Keeneland November Sale Session
Multiple stakes winner Divine Queen (Divine Park)was purchased by Avout Bloodstock for $270,000 (approx. AUD$371,375) to top Friday’s session of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale in Lexington that saw a robust weanling market and sustained demand for mares and broodmare prospects.
Through the first five sessions of the auction, being conducted with Covid-19 protocols that include attendance limited to those essential to the sales process and health screening of all attendees, Keeneland has sold 1,028 horses for $134,078,000 (approx. AUD$184.42 million), compared with 1,159 that grossed $169,102,700 through the same period during the non-pandemic sale a year ago.
The cumulative average is down 10.6 per cent from $145,904 to $130,426 (approx. AUD$179,400), and the $75,000 (approx. AUD$103,160) median is only slightly below the five-day figure of $77,000 in 2019. This year’s RNA rate is 22.2 per cent.
Friday’s session saw 235 head change hands for $13,032,000 (approx. AUD$17.93 million), with an average price of $55,455 (approx. AUD$76,275) and a $42,000 (approx. AUD$57,770) median price. The RNA rate was 19.5 per cent. At the comparable session in 2019, there were 251 horses that averaged $56,851 on total receipts of $14,269,500, with a $43,000 median.
Friday’s session produced the largest number of internet bids and purchases during the first five days of the sale, with 431 and 31, respectively, although the $1,817,000 (approx. AUD$2.57 million) gross was fourth-highest. To date, 111 horses have been sold via internet, totaling $13,699,000 (approx. AUD$18.84 million).
Catalogued as a racing or broodmare prospect as Lot 1764 by Tom Evan’s Trackside Farm, the five-year-old session topper is a daughter of Divine Park (Chester House) who won the Dogwood Stakes (Listed. 7f) and Open Mind Stakes (Listed, 6f) at Churchill Downs and earned $339,334 from six wins in 23 starts while racing for her Kentucky breeders, Carl Hurst and William “Buff” Bradley, who also trained the mare.
“We bred her, foaled her, raised her and raced her, and we just sold her,” Bradley said. “Pretty much like we did Groupie Doll (two-time champion sold for $3.1 million). We were very excited to race this filly and then sell her as a mare and know she was going to go somewhere good. We have a lot of the family, and we have to keep the cash flow going and get ready for the young ones coming along. (She had) a lot of class. She showed it in the ring, walking up here, she’s all class. She was a very sound race mare; never once did she have a problem. I think we are very proud of that. (The price) was a bit more than what we were thinking, but we’re very happy with it.”
“She is a great-moving filly with a great walk on her,” Evans said. “She just showed her class that last two days. I think it was great to have her (in Book 3) for that reason (to stand out).”
Divine Queen was produced from the stakes-winning mare Town Queen (Williamstown), also the dam of stakes winner and Grade 3-placed Queen’s Award (Medaglia D’Oro) and to the dam of Grade 2 winner The Player (Street Hero).
The top-priced weanling was Lot 1586, a Nyquist (Uncle Mo) colt purchased by Sycamore for $225,000 (approx. AUD$309,480) from Mulholland Springs, agent.
Among the pleased consignors was Francis Vanlangendonck, whose Summerfield operation sold all four horses put through the ring Friday for total receipts of $232,000 (approx. AUD$319,100).
“It was a lot better than I anticipated,” Vanlangendonck said, noting the fervent demand for weanlings. “For the babies, it’s been really, really good. The buyers were pretty aggressive. It seems like for these lowered-value weanlings, there is a world of people wanting to buy. Those well conformed that vetted good sold really well, and even some that had issues are starting to sell.”
Vanlangendonck said supply and demand forces affected the market as some of the weanlings sold better than he initially thought they would after some breeders withdrew their horses in anticipation of a weak market.
“With people worried about what the market was going to be like, there were a lot of scratches,” he said. “I knew there would be a market for weanlings but thought it would be a little timid. When the supply started lowering, I felt we might do OK.”
Consignor Reiley McDonald of Eaton Sales said that as the sale moved into Book 3 Thursday and Friday, trade mirrored a similar market at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
“At the September sale, Book 5 was the strongest day by far, horse for horse,” McDonald said. “That was a confluence of the second wave of people moving out and the third wave coming in. That is happening here a little bit. I think we are getting ready to see a fall-off after today.”
McDonald said the mares who fit buyers’ criteria were still selling well during Book 3, but, as with every other sale, for those who fall below the mark there are few buyers.
“The mares that are legitimate, there are buyers here for them,” he said. “For horses that just have holes in them—they are a little old or their foals don’t vet right—there is no market for those.”
He said weanling buyers continue to be selective and are not forgiving if an individual has any veterinary issues. But they are willing to pay a premium for those that hit the mark.
“The weanling buyers are not putting up with any veterinary flaws,” he said. “If you jump through the hoops—you’re a nice physical and you’re clean (on the veterinary reports)—then you will get as much here as you will for a yearling. There is money out there, and people get hungry. Everybody gets shuffled back by the earlier higher-priced horses and get hungry in Books 3 and 4 because the pinhookers make their living reselling the foals.”