by Jessica Martini & Christie DeBernardis
LEXINGTON, Kentucky–The top price of the second session of the Keeneland January sale was realized early when Oussama Aboughazale bid $575,000 to secure Joyfully (Mineshaft), the fourth horse through the ring during Tuesday's final Book 1 session of the five-day auction. Buyers continued to be discriminating during the session and Book 1 concluded with figures down from the 2016 Book 1.
Through two sessions, Keeneland sold 384 horses for $21,573,600. The average fell 20.95% to $56,181 and the median was down 14.29% to $30,000. In 2016, 375 head sold during Book 1 for a gross of $26,651,600. The average was $71,071 and the median was $35,000.
“I thought the session started off exceptionally well,” said Keeneland's Director of Sales Operations Geoffrey Russell. “We wish the first page results were all the way through, but as we've talked about it in the past, mixed sales are hard sales to compare year to year and even session to session. But anything that had the perceived quality sold well.”
The buy-back rate, which was 38.95% during Monday's opening session, improved to 29.39% Tuesday for a cumulative figure of 33.79%.
“I think people have settled down and realized, 'We're at a horse sale and we're here to sell,'” Russell said of Tuesday's improved figure. “It's just a matter of getting a feel for the market and seeing where buyers are comfortable. January is always a little different from November and I think it was just a settling in.”
Kerry Cauthen of Four Star Sales, which consigned the day's second-highest priced lot, agreed Tuesday's activity was more brisk than Monday's opening session.
“I know the first day was a bit bumpy and I feel like today has gotten a bit more in line with our thinking,” Cauthen said. “Maybe with a first bumpy day, people are realigning their thoughts. I think it's a good, typical January sale. I think when you bring up a good offering, it brings good money.”
Paramount Sales sold Tuesday's top lot, the 5-year-old mare Joyfully, in foal to American Pharoah, and was the session's leading consignor by gross, with 38 head grossing $1,732,400.
Gabriel Duignan of Paramount, whose Springhouse Farm purchased the mare Chocolate Pop (Cuvee) for the day's second highest price of $460,000, acknowledged the January sale was frequently an all-or-nothing proposition.
“It's very polarized,” Duignan said of the market. “The good ones are making plenty, but it's chicken or feathers.”
Three Chimneys' Jacob West agreed with that assessment.
“This sale in particular is a little bit more harsh,” West said. “It is very, very feast or famine. It's a very, very harsh market. If they don't check all the boxes, as they say, you fall hard. It is what it is, but at the end of the day, it just shows people that you have to breed quality. If you bring a quality horse to the market, you get quality money. If not, you are going to be left standing on your own.”
Aboughazale, who continues to shop for broodmares for his new farm in Paris, was the leading buyer in Book 1. Through two days, Aboughazale's International Equities Holding has purchased 11 head for $2,251,000 and an average of $204,636.
Uncle Mo was represented by the two top-priced short yearlings Tuesday, with Maryland owner Ellen Charles paying $385,000 for hip 745 and Key Palm Stable paying $370,000 for hip 388, a son of Tuesday's topper Joyfully.
“Short yearlings sold exceptionally well, both to end users and to pinhookers,” Russell commented. “I think as we go forward, the short yearlings will go more to the fore than the mares and that's where you're going to see the strength in the next few days.”
Book 2 of the Keeneland January sale begins Wednesday at 10 a.m. and the auction continues through Friday.
More Joy for Aboughazale
Oussama Aboughazale's International Equities Holding, which purchased Delightful Joy (Tapit) for $700,000 during Monday's opening session of the Keeneland January sale, struck early in Tuesday's second session to secure Joyfully (Mineshaft) for $575,000. The unraced 5-year-old mare (hip 389), in foal to American Pharoah, followed her Uncle Mo short yearling (hip 388) into the sales ring. The colt brought a final bid of $370,000 from bloodstock agent Mike Ryan, who signed the ticket on the youngster as Key Palm Stable.
“She's lovely and her foal sold very well just before her,” Aboughazale said. “I think it's a good buy–I hope.”
Aboughazale recently purchased a farm in Paris on what was previously Crystal Springs Farm and has been active at the January sale as he builds a broodmare band for the farm.
“I just bought my farm here and we have to stock it with nice mares,” Aboughazale explained. “We don't want to start half-lame, we have to start well. That's why we are buying nice mares.”
Also Tuesday, Aboughazale purchased Jojo's Melody (Harlan's Holiday) (hip 386) for $150,000.
“These mares we felt had a lot going for them, especially the Tapit mare that we bought yesterday,” Aboughazale's advisor Frances Relihan said. “She is a very nice race filly with a great physical. Mr. Aboughazale has a share in War Front, so we thought she was a perfect cross, both physically and on paper. We're increasing the broodmare band and hoping for quality over quantity.”
Out of Rejoicing, Joyfully is a half-sister to multiple graded stakes winner Divine Oath (Broken Vow) and to graded stakes winner Auntie Joy (Uncle Mo).
She and her Uncle Mo yearling, bred by Chad Joe's Copper Water Thoroughbred Company, were consigned by Paramount Sales.
“That was on the upper side of what we thought she might bring,” admitted Paramount's Pat Costello. “It was a great price for both mare and yearling–they were two lovely horses. The Uncle Mo yearling was a cracker–a beautiful, big-walking horse. The mare was absolutely beautiful and when they produce that kind of foal, you know they are a good mare. It was a beautiful package that probably stood out in this sale.”
–@JessMartiniTDN
Aboughazale Diversifies at KEEJAN
Oussama Aboughazale, owner of Sumaya US Stable, recently purchased a farm in Paris, Kentucky and he made his presence felt at Keeneland January purchasing mares to fill it. At the close of Monday's opening session, he had purchased seven mares for a total of $1.011-million, including the day's second-highest priced lot at $700,000, Delightful Joy (Tapit).
The Jerusalem native kicked off Tuesday in the same manner, purchasing two more mares in the early part of the session, including $575,000 purchase Joyfully (Mineshaft), who sold in foal to American Pharoah. Aboughazale soon made it known that mares weren't the only thing he was after when going to $165,000 to acquire a yearling son of Quality Road (hip 475).
“I loved him,” Aboughazale commented. “He's lovely and he has a beautiful family. He's correct, he's beautiful, he's big and he has a nice character. I love Quality Road. He's very good.”
He added, “We bought a nice farm in Paris [Kentucky]. We want to start on the right foot with quality. We need quality.”
Consigned by Four Star Sales, the bay colt is out of GSW Part the Seas (Stormy Atlantic) and was bred in Kentucky by Glencrest Farm. –@CDeBernardisTDN
Another Quick Start for Copper Water
When Chad Joe first got into the racing game five years ago, one of the first horses to carry the colors of his Copper Water Thoroughbred Company was graded stakes winner Reporting Star (Circular Quay). Now in the midst of changing his focus to commercial breeding, Joe enjoyed another quick start in the sales ring when he sold Joyfully (Mineshaft) for $575,000, just moments after selling the mare's first foal, a colt by Uncle Mo, for $370,000.
Joe, president of the British Columbia-based Westcoast Mining Contractors, acquired Joyfully as a 2-year-old in 2014 and originally intended to race the bay.
“We got her through our bloodstock advisor Mike Miller two years ago,” Joe said of Joyfully. “We bought her as a 2-year-old and she had a small injury. We were giving her some time, but the family had done so well, Mike convinced me to breed her instead of race her, which is totally against my grain–the racing is fun.”
Joyfully's half-brother Divine Oath (Broken Vow) was a three-time graded stakes winner in 2014 and her half-sister Auntie Joy (Uncle Mo) won last year's GIII Regret S.
Joyfully sold Tuesday in foal to American Pharoah and, of the decision to breed to the Triple Crown winner, Joe said, “What's not to like? We have a great relationship with Coolmore and we're very loyal to them and they've been very good to us.”
Copper Water Thoroughbred Company is still in a transitory stage, according to Joe.
“This is our fifth year in the business and right now we've got 14 horses. We've actually changed our focus over to breeding, but we still have a few runners from our old stock. We'll continue with them until they are done racing. And then we'll be back to breeding again. We'll take our foals that maybe won't bring that much at sale and we'll race them ourselves.”
Tuesday's result will help put the new breeding venture on solid footing.
“These are really our first serious horses that we've sold at sales, so I'd like to say my expectations were high, but it's a real crap shoot,” Joe admitted. “We're most definitely happy with this result. It allows us to be competitive with some other horses that we're looking at [to buy] today. Our goal is to have five quality mares and rotate the babies through and then when we feel like we've outgrown them in dollar value–meaning that they'd be worth a few dollars–we'd move them along and try to recreate the same thing we've done with Joyfully and her colt today.” –@JessMartiniTDN
Uncle Mo Colt a Dream Come True for Charles
Longtime Maryland owner and breeder Ellen Charles has always wanted to own a horse by Uncle Mo and her dream came true late in Tuesday's session when she made the winning $385,000 bid on a Maryland-bred colt by the top young sire. He was the top-priced short yearling on the day.
“I liked everything about him,” commented Charles, who breeds and races as Hillwood Stable just as her mother did before her. “He's just a beautiful colt. Rodney Jenkins trains for me and he trains for the breeder of this colt [Nicewonder Stable] and I know all the family. Uncle Mo comes from my mother's breeding with her partner Mike Cavey, so it was kind of all in the family. I've wanted an Uncle Mo and he seemed like the right one, so we'll see.”
Charles added, “We don't usually come to this sale, but this colt was here so we thought we'd come down and see him.”
Consigned by Warrendale Sales, Hip 745 is a son of Gone to Utah (Salt Lake), who has also produced SW Away We Go (Tizway); MSP Powder Mountain (Whywhywhy) and Quiet Hour (Quiet American); and SP Gallivanting (Henrythenavigator).
The Uncle Mo purchase came not long after Charles snapped up a Flatter colt for $220,000. Bred by Martha and J. H. Mulholland, Tom Grether Farms, Sheffer Equine Partners and L. M. Powers, Hip 716 was offered here by his co-breeder's Mulholland Springs. The Feb. 27 foal is the first offspring out of the 6-year-old mare Dulce Periculum (El Corredor).
“He's just a handsome, well-made, beautifully-moving colt. He's strong and just a very, very nice colt,” offered Charles while sitting alongside Jenkins near the front of the pavilion. “We will race him. He will come home to Maryland and we will race him in Maryland with Rodney.”
Also headed back to the state where she was born is Hip 458, a yearling filly by The Factor. Consigned by Eaton Sales and bred by Dr. & Mrs. A. Leonard Pineau, the gray is the second foal out of stakes winner Music Please (Bowman's Band), herself a daughter of stakes winner Lady Beaumont (Lord Gaylord).
“I bought a The Factor filly earlier,” Charles remarked. “I love The Factors. You can really tell [when one's] a 'Factor.' They're very much of the type. She's a lovely filly and Rodney trained her mother and a lot of the family. Plus, she's a Maryland-bred.” –@CDeBernardisTDN
Chocolate Pop to Springhouse Farm
Chocolate Pop (Cuvee), the dam of graded stakes winner Airoforce (Colonel John), will be joining the broodmare band at Springhouse Farm after selling for $460,000 during Tuesday's second session of the Keeneland January sale. The multiple stakes placed mare (hip 686) sold in foal to Bernardini.
“She's a nice mare and a good producer,” Springhouse's Gabriel Duignan said of the 11-year-old mare's appeal. “It was on the outer limits of what we were going to pay. The plan will be to sell out of her, hopefully.”
Chocolate Pop, twice stakes placed at Aqueduct in 2008 and 2009, was purchased by Greathouse Bloodstock on behalf of Stewart Madison for $25,000 out of the 2010 Keeneland November sale. In foal to Colonel John, she RNA'd for $35,000 at the 2012 Keeneland November sale. That Colonel John colt, her first foal, was Airoforce, who won the 2015 GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. and GIII Dixiana Bourbon S. and was second in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf.
“To have that kind of a production from one of her first foals, I think she is the right kind,” said Kerry Cauthen of Four Star Sales, which consigned Chocolate Pop to Tuesday's sale. “I'm delighted to sell her and also glad to see her going to a great operation.”
Of the mare's final price tag, Cauthen added, “I think it was right in the hunt. You could have seen anywhere from $350,000 and I wouldn't have been that surprised at $500,000 or more. It's just a matter of who actually shows up and decides to compete. I saw a number of underbidders, it looked like maybe Gainesway was in there and Reiley McDonald. It was a very fair and competitive market.” –@JessMartiniTDN
Shanghai Bobby Filly Proves Popular
Hunter Valley Farm's Fergus Galvin came out on top of a spirited round of bidding Tuesday afternoon to take home a yearling filly from the second crop of champion Shanghai Bobby for $280,000.
“She was by far the best yearling on offer today,” Galvin remarked after signing the ticket out back beside the walking ring. “We are big fans of the sire. We think he is going to be one of the top freshman sires for his year.”
As for future plans for the New York-bred filly, Galvin said, “We will probably re-offer her later this year. We are not sure yet. She is a New York-bred, so it is possible that she will go to Saratoga. We will discuss that later on.”
Bred by Hidden Lake Farm LLC, David Campbell and Kingsport Farm, Hip 516 was consigned to the sale by Mulholland Springs. Out of Saravati (Giant's Causeway), the Valentine's Day foal hails from the family of MGISW You (You and I) and GSW You and I Forever (A.P. Indy). Hunter Valley Farm consigned Saravati at the 2015 Keeneland November sale, where she sold to these breeders for $40,000 with this filly in utero.
At $280,000, the dark bay was the most of expensive of the three yearlings by Shanghai Bobby to go through the ring Tuesday.
“At that sort of number, it's a bit more than we would have liked, but she is the real deal and by far our pick of the day,” Galvin said of the price. “Quality is shining through. Anything that looks like her is going to be at the top of the market and you have to be prepared to pay for them.”
Consignor Martha Jane Mulholland was also a bit surprised by the filly's final price.
“We had a $99,000 reserve on her, but I have not had as many scopes as we had on this filly in a number of years,” Mulholland commented. “She got a lot of action. A lot of people were very interested in her. We knew she'd sell well, but we try to put realistic reserves on them.”
Yearlings by Shanghai Bobby, whose first foals will hit the track this year, have proven to be quite popular in the sales ring. The Ashford Stud resident, who currently stands for $25,000, had 29 yearlings from his first crop sell for six figures in 2016, topped by a $575,000 colt at Keeneland September.
“Obviously Shanghai Bobby is very popular, but Harlan's Holiday, his sire, was our go-to horse for years and I'm hopeful that Shanghai Bobby will become our new go-to horse,” said Mulholland, who sold another daughter of the 2012 Champion Juvenile Colt (Hip 706) for $82,000 later in the session.
–@CDeBernardisTDN
Banner Day for Mulholland Springs
It was a great day at the office for Martha Jane Mulholland, whose Mulholland Springs had 10 horses sell for $1.431 million, making them the leading consignor by average with more than two horses during Tuesday's session. The highlight of the consignment was a New York-bred filly by Shanghai Bobby (Hip 516), who brought $280,000 from Hunter Valley Farm.
“We were very pleased with the sale today and it exceeded our expectations in many places,” Mulholland said just after a Flatter colt (Hip 716) she and her son John Henry Mulholland co-bred with partners sold for $220,000. “In some places not so much, but it exceeded our expectations overall. We are very happy. The good horses are really selling for top dollar here as usual. I don't think the weather hurt things. We are just very pleased.”
The Flatter colt, who will join Ellen Charles's Maryland-based Hillwood Stable, is out of another Mulholland homebred Dulce Periculum and the consignor was satisfied with the bay's final price.
“We had a $74,000 reserve on the colt,” Mulholland remarked. “We try to set our reserves at about half of what we think they are going to bring and let it be an honest market. He was an outstanding, classic-looking horse with a beautiful top line and good walk. He's very balanced, just everything you needed.” –@CDeBernardisTDN
West Wins Out on Bodemeister Colt
Hip 624, a yearling colt by young WinStar sire Bodemeister, summoned $195,000 from Three Chimneys' Jacob West, who signed the ticket as High Speed Stable.
“Obviously, Bodemeister is starting to heat up a little bit. He had the two horses finish second in the stakes last weekend in the Old Hat [with Bode's Dream] and the [GIII] Sham [with American Anthem],” remarked West, who was all smiles after signing the ticket at the back of the pavilion. “I think as the Bodemeisters get older, they are going to get better.”
West declined to name the client he purchased the colt for, but said, “The guy that I bought him for races. He hasn't really done a lot of pinhooking or anything. He might go on to race. He might pinhook. We don't know yet.”
Bred in Kentucky by Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Tait, the bay colt is out of stakes winner Yes She's a Lady (Yes It's True) (hip 623), a $190,000 purchase at the 2011 renewal of this sale who preceded her colt into the ring, selling to Richard Hogan for $210,000 carrying a foal by Hard Spun.
Yes She's a Lady had three foals prior to producing this yearling, two of which are winners already. The other, a newly minted sophomore colt named Miggsy (Hard Spun), was purchased by Robert LaPenta for $330,000 at the 2015 Keeneland September sale and has finished second in both of his starts for Rudy Rodriguez, most recently completing the exacta at Aqueduct on New Year's Eve.
“This colt's half-brother Miggsy has run second twice and put up a really good number last time,” West said of the yearling from the Brookdale Sales consignment. “I've been following [Miggsy], so I have a good idea about him. This horse on his own was a very nice individual. He stood on his own physically, vetted clean, jumped through all the hoops and brought what we thought he would bring. We are excited to own him.” –@CDeBernardisTDN
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