Mo Town Colt Leads Way Into Book 4 at KEENOV

A total of 265 head changed hands for gross receipts of $6,278,400 Saturday during the first of two Book 4 sessions of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. The average price was $23,692 and median was $15,000. The RNA rate was a notably low 16.4%. While year-to-year comparisons are perhaps slightly inexact due to a smaller KEENOV catalog this year, during last year's corresponding sixth session the average was $29,426 and median was $20,000 with a 24.7% buyback rate.

Topping the day's trade Saturday was hip 1913, a colt from the first crop of Mo Town purchased by agent Davant Latham for $185,000. Consigned by Alliance Sales Agency, the Jan. 18 foal hails from the female family of recent local GII Lexus Raven Run S. heroine Venetian Harbor (Munnings) and Hall of Fame sprinter Safely Kept.

The session's second topper was also a foal by a stallion from a hot sire line, as trainer Wesley Ward went to $170,000 to secure a Practical Joke filly (hip 2088) from the Four Star Sales draft. Practical Joke weanlings brought $185,000 and $150,000 during the prior session.

Hip 2088 is out of a half-sister to GSWs Adventist (Any Given Saturday) and Dijeerr (Danzig). George E. Bates, Trustee purchased dam Yankee Bright (Elusive Quality) for just $1,000 in foal to Laoban here two years ago. The resulting foal was sold the next year for $2,000.

The day's top broodmare was 3-year-old Dane (Dansili {GB}), who sold to H.F. Farm for $150,000 in foal to Demarchelier (GB). Consigned by Claiborne Farm as hip 2174, the bay was a €410,000 in utero purchase by Peter Brant's White Birch Farm at the 2016 Goffs November sale. Her dam is Group 2 winner Peinture Rare (Ire) (Sadler's Wells), a half-sister to European Horse of the Year and sire Peintre Celebre (Nureyev).

Through three and a half books, not counting post-sale transactions, 1,247 horses have sold for $134,979,400. The average is $108,243 and median is $55,000, while the RNA rate is 23.4%.

The trend continued Saturday of more and more horses selling on the internet each session–39 were bought online Saturday for a combined $954,600. A total of 150 horses have now been sold electronically for $14,653,600.

Selling begins again Sunday at 10:00 a.m. ET and continues through Wednesday. Visit www.keeneland.com for more information.
 

Latham Playing the Mo-Mentum
Bloodstock agent Davant Latham set the bar relatively high early in Saturday's Keeneland November session when stretching to $185,000 for a weanling colt (hip 1913) from the first crop of Coolmore resident, GISW and 'TDN Rising Star' Mo Town.

Consigned by Ralph Kinder's Alliance Sales Agency and bred by Erv Woolsey and Kinder, the Jan. 18 foal is out of a half-sister to the dam of this year's flashy MGSW and MGISP Venetian Harbor (Munnings). His fourth dam is Hall of Famer Safely Kept.

“He was a beautiful horse; absolutely beautiful,” said Latham. “He had a big walk on him, and hopefully we'll do well with him. We will be selling him next year.”

Latham said his confidence in Mo Town, who stood for $12,500 in his first year at Coolmore in 2019 after annexing the GI Hollywood Derby in 2017 and GII Remsen S. the year before that, was bolstered by the success of other sons of Uncle Mo with first runners this season.

“[The Mo Towns] have been good overall, and further confidence comes from Laoban, Nyquist and Outwork,” he said. “I was lucky last year with a Nyquist who we pinhooked and sold in September. Those three are all in the top five freshman sires, so you've got to believe in the sire line and this was just a beautiful horse. We were very fortunate to get him.”

Despite a perceived buyers' market amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Latham said it had been difficult, particularly earlier in the sale, to land weanlings of perceived higher quality.

“This whole sale, it's been tough to find really high-quality weanlings,” he said. “There's been kind of a shortage–a lot of people are holding them, not willing to sell in the covid market; they're going to hold them and sell them as yearlings. So, for the really nice weanlings when they come up there, there's been a ton of competition. For us, we've got to be careful about what we pay for them because we're not an end user, so that knocked [us pinhookers] out on a lot of weanlings earlier because there were so many end users buying weanlings.”

The day's third-priciest weanling was also a colt by Mo Town–hip 2150, consigned by Lane's End, sold to Stella Stables for $75,000. He's out of a Bernardini half-sister to the dam of millionaire Stanford (Malibu Moon) and hails from a deep female family responsible for the likes of Johannesburg and Tale of the Cat.