Bridging The Gap: Hooked On Keeneland

Keeneland's marathon September Yearling Sale drew to a close on Sunday, and by all accounts it built on record renewals in both 2017 and 2018 with vibrant trade beginning during the three-day Book 1 and continuing to trickle down throughout. As is the case at any top-grade yearling sale there was strong international participation at the top of the market, in particular from the Maktoum Brothers Sheikh Mohammed and Sheikh Hamdan. Those two men were the first and second leading buyers, having shelled out a combined $27,070,000-good enough for an eye-watering 17% of the total Book 1 aggregate and around 7% of the sale in total. Sheikh Mohammed may have experienced a rare denial for a top lot when missing out on the record $8.2-million American Pharoah filly out of Leslie's Lady bought by Floridian businesswoman Mandy Pope, but he made up for it by taking home the four top-priced colts: a $4.1-million son of Curlin out of Bounding (Aus) (Lonhro {Aus}), a half-sister to this year's G1 Investec Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}); a $2.9-million War Front colt out of GI Kentucky Oaks winner Believe You Can (Proud Citizen); a $2.5-million Tapit half-brother to GI Kentucky Derby Nyquist (Uncle Mo), who stands at Darley's Jonabell Farm; and a $2.15-million Medaglia d'Oro son of Grade I winner Tara's Tango (Unbridled's Song).

Also playing at the top of the market were typical characters like Coolmore, Juddmonte, Phoenix Thoroughbreds, Peter Brant and Shawn Dugan buying for Al Shira'aa Stables, but a sale that sees some 3,000 horses go through the ring for as much as $8.2-million and as little as $1,000 is about so much more than the seven-figure headliners.

American-breds have become a firm fixture at the European breeze-up sales in recent years, with this year alone sires like American Pharoah, Medaglia d'Oro, More Than Ready, Uncle Mo, Kitten's Joy, War Front, Speightstown, Street Sense, Malibu Moon, Elusive Quality, and Candy Ride (Arg), as well as some lesser-known names like Competitive Edge, Daredevil, Orb, Carpe Diem, Summer Front, Shanghai Bobby, The Factor, Mineshaft, Frac Daddy, Street Boss, Super Saver and Palace Malice accounting for some top prices and successful pinhooks transatlantically.

As such, the European breeze-up pinhookers were pounding the pavement in Lexington well into the four-figure lot numbers. Tom Whitehead's Powerstown Stud signed for nine this year up from six in 2018, and it's plain to see why. Powerstown's 2018 pinhooks included a Malibu Moon colt bought at Keeneland for $50,000 that brought £220,000 at Doncaster, and a $55,000 Elusive Quality colt that made £110,000 at the same sale. At Arqana's May Breeze-Up Sale, Powerstown's $80,000 son of Summer Front (himself a son of War Front who was a multiple graded stakes winner on the turf) made €240,000, while a $37,000 son of the unheralded Medal Count turned €110,000. Powerstown pushed its ceiling slightly higher at Keeneland this year, buying nine total for an average of $60,444 and a high of $125,000 for a Distorted Humor colt (lot 720) from the family of young American sire Fed Biz. Whitehead is surely hoping lightning will strike twice after signing for another Summer Front colt, lot 2641 for $45,000, and other sires on his list included Dialed In, Orb, California Chrome, American Pharoah and Mshawish.

Speaking of Mshawish, Taylor Made's son of Medaglia d'Oro who has his first yearlings this year was himself a significant Keeneland to Europe pinhook, having been scooped by Johnny Collins of Brown Island Stables for $10,000 in 2011 before selling to Al Shaqab for €170,000 at Arqana. Mshawish went on to become a Grade I winner on both turf and dirt and stands for $15,000. He had 20 yearlings sell at Keeneland for an average of $32,935, and those included one of the three bought by Collins, lot 1774, a $60,000 colt out of the Invincible Spirit (Ire) mare Refreshing (GB) from the family of Group 1 winners Sholokhov and Soldier of Fortune (Ire). Collins also took home a colt from the third crop of Noble Mission (GB) (lot 2619) for $21,000 and a son of Munnings (lot 3178) for $30,000. That colt is out of the Galileo (Ire) mare Astorgs Galaxy (GB), a three-quarter sister to the G1 Prix Saint-Alary second Asti (Ire) (Sadler's Wells).

Brendan Holland of Grove Stud took a punt on a first-crop son of American Pharoah at Keeneland last year at $275,000, and it paid dividends at Arqana eight months later when the colt sold to MV Magnier for €1.1-million. Now named Ocean Atlantique, he was a debut winner at Saint-Cloud for Andre Fabre last week. The Indian Creek-bred was one of three bought by Holland last year and this year he upped his haul to seven. Most of those were by sires recognizable in Europe-two War Fronts, two Kitten's Joys, a Medaglia d'Oro and a Pioneerof the Nile.

Norman Williamson of Oak Tree Farm was the man behind the transatlantic pinhook of this year's GI Preakness S. winner War Of Will (War Front), who was bought privately at Keeneland after failing to sell for $175,000 in the ring and was secured by Justin Casse and repatriated for €250,000 at Arqana. Williamson, who this year signed for a Quality Road colt for $125,000 and a son of American Pharoah for $30,000, told the TDN after War Of Will won the GIII Lecomte S. in January that unearthing a diamond in the rough, “can happen with the numbers in Keeneland, and I think this is a typical example that you can maybe afford a colt with a pedigree like him, and then he's eligible for a worldwide market. War Of Will ended up in France and then he ended up back in America again all in the space of a few months. It shows you what can happen in the world we're living in.”

These certainly just scratch the surface of the Keeneland graduates that could wind up breezing in Europe next year, as also scouting the grounds at Keeneland were the likes of Mick Murphy and Sarah O'Connell, Mags O'Toole and Eddie O'Leary, Roger O'Callaghan, Gay O'Callaghan, Michael Fitzpatrick, Stephen Hillen, Jim McCartan, Malcolm Bastard, Justin Rea, Willie Slattery, Cian Hughes and Emmet Mullins. American-based Australian Byron Rogers was also buying to breeze in Europe.

Another who has trod many miles around Keeneland over the years is trainer Robert Cowell, who was as busy as ever this year through Book 5, buying 10 yearlings. Cowell bought Pocket Dynamo (Dialed In) for $35,000 two years ago and that one nearly pulled off a true fairytale for owner Tom Morley in Royal Ascot's G2 Norfolk S., missing by a nose to Wesley Ward's Shang Shang Shang (Shanghai Bobby) before being sold privately to Phoenix Thoroughbreds. More on this in Tuesday's TDN.