Even in a booming yearling sales market, Keeneland's marquee September Sale has exceeded expectations, selling a remarkable 13 seven-figure yearlings in Book 1 and passing its 2021 gross numbers Monday despite having five sessions left to go. Tuesday, Keeneland's VP of Sales Tony Lacy joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland as the Green Group Guest of the Week to talk about the banner results, the preparation that goes into selling over 4,000 yearlings, what the future of the sale will look like and more.
“I think you had to be cautiously optimistic, seeing the figures of the other sales during the year,” Lacy said of expectations heading into September. “They were up, they were healthy. The demand for horses right now is really good. I think the industry's in a great spot, and we're in a little bit of a golden era, to be quite frank. There's a lot of enthusiasm. Coming out of COVID, a lot of people are really appreciating having fun, getting together with friends and enjoying being at a social event like racing can provide. I feel that we've got to not take this time for granted, look at ways of how we can capture what's working and maintaining that certain uplift that we're enjoying right now.”
Elsewhere on the show, which is also sponsored by Coolmore, the PHBA, XBTV, Three Chimneys, West Point Thoroughbreds and Legacy Bloodstock, Joe Bianca, Bill Finley and Randy Moss reacted to the continued dominance of Charlie Appleby, persisting issues with timing races and more. Click here to watch the show; click here for the audio-only version or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
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