Keeneland September Sale opens with new format

"We've been adjusting the format for the last couple of years to move with

the market," Keeneland Director of Sales Geoffrey Russell said. "We feel this

new format will work very, very well.

"Starting the Book 1 sessions at noon as opposed to 11 a.m. last year gives

buyers plenty of time to move through the barns in a manageable way to see all

the horses before the sale starts and gives consignors plenty of opportunity to

sell their horses," he added.

Russell described how 3,908 yearlings found their spots in the marathon sale.

The process began on May 1, the deadline to enter the sale.

"Then we take a selection of the horses that were entered and we physically

evaluate them," Russell said.

Soon after the Kentucky Derby until July 4, Keeneland's two inspection teams

traveled extensively to look at about 2,200 yearlings.

"With input from our consignors and the information of the physical

evaluation notes that we have and our own internal computer system, we then

graded the horses and placed them where we thought they will best sell," said

Russell, who spends hours studying the information to ensure the order in which

the horses are presented is the most effective.

"The computer system gives you the guide, then you also have the physical

component, which can change anything," he added.

For each book, the dams of the yearlings were placed in alphabetical order,

and a letter was randomly selected to determine which letter will appear first

in the catalog. Therefore, Hip No. 1 is out of Fairy Princess. The final horse

in Book 1 is out of Eyes On Eddy.

Russell called the yearlings in this year's sale "a solid group of horses."

Yearlings representing 239 of the world's leading sires have been cataloged,

among them being Arch, Awesome Again, Curlin, Distorted Humor, Duke of

Marmalade, Dynaformer, Elusive Quality, Fastnet Rock, Galileo, Ghostzapper,

Giant's Causeway, Hard Spun, Harlan's Holiday, Henrythenavigator, High

Chaparral, Iffraaj, Indian Charlie, Invincible Spirit, Kitten's Joy, Lemon Drop

Kid, Majestic Warrior, Malibu Moon, Medaglia d'Oro, Midnight Lute, More Than

Ready, Pulpit, Raven's Pass, Scat Daddy, Sea The Stars, Sky Mesa, Speightstown,

Stormy Atlantic, Street Cry, Street Sense, Tale of the Cat, Tapit, Tiznow,

Unbridled's Song and War Front.

Also cataloged are yearlings by such exciting freshman stallions as Blame,

Desert Party, Discreetly Mine, Eskendereya, Lookin at Lucky, Majesticperfection,

Makfi, Munnings, Quality Road, Super Saver, Tale of Ekati and Warrior's Reward.

Racing fans can follow the September Sale news via Facebook and Twitter.

Keeneland will provide a live stream of the sale on its website, keeneland.com,

which also will feature barn notes, session updates and press releases. 

Keeneland provides a number of innovative tools that offer convenience,

facilitate the sales process and deliver up-to-the-minute information to

clients and the media.  

Keeneland Pedigree offers expansive online catalog pages for horses listed in

Book 1, featuring links to race records, charts and race replays, and free daily

updates. The Consignor Portfolio enables clients to manage their consignment

information online with the ability to update all contact and account

information; submit and track paperwork; receive alerts about horses before,

during and after sale; and print account summaries and statements on demand.

Keeneland Portfolio allows buyers to maximize valuable information about horses

cataloged and sold at Keeneland. This tool assists with managing and updating

personal account information; creating "short lists" of horses for each sale and

establishing alerts for those horses; and accessing current and historical

account and sale information.

By Sunday morning, activity at the barns indicated that the yearlings were

attracting a lot of interest.

"It's been unbelievable," Gabriel Duignan of Paramount Sales said. "It

started the minute we started showing Friday morning and hasn't let up. There's

a great buzz around the place."

"We've got great action," said Michael Hernon, director of sales for

Gainesway. "The amalgamation of Book 1 into Book 2 is a very progressive move.

People in past years were slightly wavering away from Book 1. Now that they're

together, it's going to raise the market and there's going to be a very good

clearance rate. I would say it's a great move by Keeneland. We're delighted to

be here. This is the super market of horse sales."

"We've had great action at the barns," John Sikura of Hill 'n' Dale Farm

said. "We've showed a lot of horses. Everybody seems positive and encouraged and

enthusiastic to buy horses. You get a sense that the interest is deeper and more

widespread than it's been in the past several years."

"They're looking at them (yearlings), so everybody's pretty optimistic,"

Denali Stud's Craig Bandoroff said. "You just gotta stay level-headed. Everybody

thinks (the sale is) going to be good; all indications are it's going to be

good. The world's in a better place. I think the horse business is in a better

place."

Russell picked up on the same vibe.

"There's a great air of anticipation and excitement here," Russell said.

"We're just looking forward to getting it started."