A total of $4,360,000 changed hands on 229 horses Wednesday in Lexington as the marathon Keeneland November Breeding Stock sale continued with the first of two Book 5 sessions. The average was $19,041 with a $11,500 median. The buy-back rate was 27.4%. Last year's corresponding ninth session featured a number of expensive racing prospects, making year-to-year comparisons difficult.
Cumulative trade through this point in the sale is remarkably close to what it was last year, with 2,712 transactions yielding gross receipts of $208,371,300 in 2016. The average of $108,301 is up $16 from last year's average of $108,205, while the median remains unchanged at $45,000. The RNA rate is 27.7% vs. 25.7%.
The session's top price was the $140,000 paid for Bamboozle (Tapit) (hip 3201), an unraced 4-year-old half-sister to MGSW and sire Tiz Wonderful (Tiznow). Carrying her first foal, by Midshipman, the grey was consigned by Padraig Campion's Blandford Stud and was signed for by Big Kid.
Not far behind at $130,000 was 10-year-old Minishaft (Mineshaft), who was offered as hip 3006 by Mr. & Mrs. T. Wayne Sweezey's Timber Town Farm on behalf of R. S. Evans. Minishaft, in foal to Evans' 'TDN Rising Star' and MGISW Tonalist, was picked up by Davant Latham, agent. The daughter of GSW Minidar (Alydar) is a half to GII Jim Dandy S. winner A Little Warm (Stormin Fever), as well as the dam of Grade II winner Mini Sermon (Pulpit). She was acquired here by Evans out the blockbuster 2011 dispersal of his late brother Ned Evans' estate.
A colt by Cairo Prince (hip 3339) led the way for weanlings, commanding a winning bid of $120,000 by Steve Shahinian on behalf of Harvey Clarke. Clarke was among the ownership group that campaigned Cairo Price to wins in the 2013 GII Nashua S. and 2014 GIII Holy Bull S. The grey colt was consigned by Brereton Jones' Airdrie Stud, which bred hip 3339 and stands Cairo Prince. He is out of a half-sister to GISW Request for Parole (Judge T C). According to TDN sales statistics, Cairo Prince ranks third among North American first-crop sires by weanling average at $93,055.
Two-time GI Carter H. winner and stallion prospect Dads Caps (Discreet Cat) (hip 3394) was bought back late in the day for $190,000.
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