Curlin Filly Tops Book 3 Finale

With a noticeably livelier session of bidding, Book 3 of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale concluded Monday evening with strong results. A filly by Curlin topped the session and the book when selling for $975,000 to the bid of Vern Dickman of Dickman's Legacy Ranch. Hip 2061 was consigned by Lane's End on behalf of breeders Stonestreet and Nick Lotz.

During the two-session Book 3, Keeneland sold 536 yearlings for a total of $40,652,500. The average was $75,844–an increase of 9% from last year's Book 3 figure–and the median dipped 3.5% to $55,000. The buy-back rate was 26.8%, up from 19.4% a year ago.

Last year's Book 3 saw 571 head sell for $39,734,000, an average of $69,587 and a median of $57,000.

“It was a very good day,” confirmed Keeneland's Director of Sales Geoffrey Russell. “The breakout horse was very exciting, a little unexpected I would think, but very exciting and again proved the fact that there is still plenty of money here for the right horse. All day there was a great vibe to the session. If you brought up a very nice horse, you were very well-rewarded.”

The top 2014 Book 3 price of $375,000 was bettered six times during Book 3 this year, with the $975,000 topper one of nine to break $300,000. In fact, the two top lots in Book 3 both bettered the top Book 2 price of $700,000.

“I think it comes down to, good horses no matter where they are placed are bringing premium prices,” Russell said. “People are willing to give premiums for perceived quality and it makes no difference what level of the market. And I think they are stretching on those ones. I just think it is the nature of the market that people are finding these horses and when they stand out, they are willing to stretch on them.”

Through seven sessions, a total of 1,504 yearlings have sold for $245,570,500. The average is up 5.42% to $163,278 and the median is up 5% to $105,000. At the conclusion of Book 3 after eight sessions of last year's September sale, 1,588 yearlings had grossed $245,951,500 for an average of $154,881 and a median of $100,000.

The recently relocated Curlin, who will stand at Hill 'n' Dale in 2016, was Monday's leading sire, with five yearlings sold for a gross of $2,095,000 and an average of $419,000. Spendthrift's Into Mischief, who was represented by the day's second-highest price at $450,000, was the second leading sire with six sold for a gross of $860,000 and an average of $143,333.

“Into Mischief and Curlin seemed to have a great day today,” Russell said. “They were two sires who, every time one came up, it seemed to bring good money. They are both very good, solid racehorse sires and this part of the market needs to buy racehorse sires. They delivered.”

For the second straight day, Lane's End led all consignors with 30 yearlings sold for a total of $3,711,000 and an average of $123,700.

The Keeneland September sale continues with the first of two Book 4 sessions beginning at 10 a.m. Tuesday. The auction runs through Saturday.

Curlin Filly Lights Up Keeneland…

A filly by Curlin catapulted to the lead of Keeneland September's second Book 3 session Monday when Vern Dickman, bidding alongside bloodstock agent John Brocklebank, went to $975,000 to secure hip 2061. Out of stakes winner Epitome of a Lady (Poteen), the youngster was purchased to pinhook. Dickman signed for the filly under the banner of his fledgling Dickman's Legacy Ranch.

“Vern said that he wanted to buy quality horses and for Dickman's Legacy Ranch to be known for selling that kind,” Brocklebank explained. “So we are trying to put together a barn full of those kind of horses.”

Dickman is founder of the Utah-based Spring Communications.

Vern Dickman | stayparkcity.com

“We are trying to buy the best kind of horses we can to re-sell,” Dickman said. “We've been buying all year, in California, Washington, three or four places. And we're just going around trying to buy good horses and this is the best one we've seen, so I wanted to have it.”

Asked how long he had been in the racing business, Dickman dead-panned, “Oh. A long time.” Before adding, “About a year.”

Of his interest in yearling-to-juvenile pinhooking, he said, “I know that it's better than doing stocks–and I have lots of stocks. So now I'm trying bloodstock.”

The juvenile, who was consigned by Lane's End on behalf of breeders Stonestreet and Nick Lotz, will join Brocklebank's St. George, Utah, training center.

“She is an exceptional horse,” Brocklebank said. “We literally checked out everything. We even had her heart done and we never do that. It kept coming back from when you first see her falling in love with her and then everything just falling in line. As for the price, everyone wants a really good horse. And she just happened to cost $975,000. But that's what we are trying to do–re-offer that kind. And I know it's a bit of a ways to get going before we're on somebody else's money, but it's kind of fun to have those kind. People will want them anyway, so they are trying to figure out a way to get her. She is going to be available.”

The session topper is one of about 30 to 40 yearlings Dickman has purchased this season.

“They are all just really, really good individuals,” Brocklebank said of the group. “We'll put a good base in them and then we'll go back to re-offer them and see where they all stack up.”

Curlin Filly a Score for Lotz…

When Epitome of a Lady went through the sales ring at the 2012 Keeneland January sale, veteran horseman Nick Lotz saw a good opportunity. He snatched the mare up for a bargain $2,500. That buy looked prescient Monday when the mare's filly by Curlin sold for a session-topping $975,000.

“I was surprised to get her for that price,” Lotz, owner of Briarbrooke Farm in Paris, admitted Monday afternoon. “She had had a first foal for the Mulhollands and then she had failed to conceive. I thought she was a mare with some upside, so I bought her.”

Stakes-winning Epitome of a Lady, who is from the family of Barbara Banke's Grade I winner Hot Dixie Chick, produced a colt by Big Brown in 2013. Her Curlin filly was part of a foal share with Curlin's majority owner Stonestreet.

“I don't think any of us knew where she would end up,” Lotz said of the filly's final price. “Under the terms of the foal share contract, the offspring would sell without reserve and maybe that gives buyers more confidence that they are only bidding against each other and not against the breeders. But she was a very nice filly and very well-received.”

Lotz has worked at several of Kentucky's breeding operations, most notably Claiborne Farm. He purchased the 222-acre Briarbrooke Farm in 1983 and among the horses he has raised are GI Belmont S. winner Victory Gallop and GI Kentucky Derby third-place finisher Impeachment. He also bred graded stakes winner Bella Bellucci.

“I breed for the market, but I also board about 40-45 mares for clients and raise a lot of horses for clients who like to race,” Lotz explained.

Lotz said the successful sale was only part of the equation. Now the filly has to prove her worth on the racetrack. “I thanked the buyers and I told them I hope she runs better than she sold,” he said.

Epitome of a Lady produced a filly by Alternation this spring and is back in foal to Jimmy Creed.

Asked who the mare might visit next year, Lotz laughed and said, “I think you know where I'm thinking of going next year.”

Into Mischief Sets Early Pace at Keeneland…

A colt by Into Mischief jumpstarted Monday's session of the Keeneland September sale, selling for $450,000 to the bid of bloodstock agent Dennis O'Neill, acting on behalf of a newly formed partnership between Zayat Stables and Glenn Sorgenstein and Josh Kaplan's W.C. Racing.

“We had been discussing the horse back and forth for a while,” O'Neill, sitting alongside Zayat Stables' Sobhy Sonbol, said. “He was everything we were looking for at the sale. We tabbed him early on and we're really excited to get him. He was a gorgeous colt, he was very well balanced and extremely athletic. He had a great mind–he was so good out back and walking in before the sale.”

The bay colt (hip 1972) is out of Amusingly (Distorted Humor) and from the family of Grade I-placed Maniches (Val de l'Orne {Fr}).

W.C. Racing campaigned two-time GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Goldencents, also by Into Mischief, and O'Neill admitted the yearling's sire was a major draw.

“I was talking to Sobhy about how there are certain Into Mischiefs that have that certain head and that body and those are the ones that are really nice,” O'Neill said. “He was talking about Vyjack and I was talking about Goldencents. He was a lot like them–just a very classy-looking horse.”

This is the first time Zayat and W.C. Racing have teamed up and it will also be the first horse trained by O'Neill's brother Doug for Ahmed Zayat's operation, but O'Neill is hopeful it won't be the last partnership.

“Hopefully there will be many more,” he said. “It's the first horse we've had for Mr. Zayat, so we're really excited. He'll go out to California to Doug. Doug just called me about it and he is on cloud nine.”

The top Book 3 price at last year's sale was $375,000. The Into Mischief yearling's final price tag was the second to better that mark in 2015's Book 3, following the $710,000 bid for a Quality Road colt Sunday.

Asked if he was surprised he had to bid that high for the yearling, O'Neill said, “Yes and no. With the way it's gone, with the one who sold for all that money yesterday, you don't know where you are going to be. And we were right at our limit. You have to pay for good horses, there's no doubt about that.”

The colt, bred by Joe Murphy, was a $92,000 Keeneland November weanling purchase by Headford Farm. He was consigned the September sale by St. George Sales.

“It was obviously above expectations,” Archie St. George admitted of the price. “He was a really nice horse. Ben McElroy picked him out as a weanling and he has improved and developed since then. He is a lovely horse by a very good stallion. He did it himself.”