Keeneland September Yearling Sale leading consignor Gainesway got Book 3 moving with two offerings bringing $550,000 and $525,000 early in the fifth session.
The $550,000 yearling is a Tapit colt bred in partnership with Whisper Hill Farm out of stakes winner Yawkey Way , dam of Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1) winner Spun To Run and stakes winner Tap It All . Frank Fletcher Racing Operation signed for the bay colt consigned as Hip 1137.
The next horse to bring more than half a million dollars was an Into Mischief filly out of a half sister to champion 3-year-old filly and female sprinter Covfefe , also by Into Mischief. The yearling filly out of the Discreet Cat mare Acrobatique was bred by familiar connections to her dual grade 1 winning sister in LNJ Foxwoods and Helen C. Alexander. Charlotte Weber’s Live Oak Plantation signed for the filly consigned as Hip 1145.
“It’s a little spotty (today), the top lots are breaking through,” Gainesway’s general manager Brian Graves said. “Anything with a little vet work, you struggle to move it along. We were happy with the Tapit colt; he was another Gainesway/Whisper Hill partnership and exceeded our expectations. We followed that up with the Into Mischief filly, and everybody was pleased. I think from here on the market is going to get fairly realistic.”
Through the first four sessions, Gainesway led all consignors at the sale with gross receipts of $32,475,000. Approaching the midway point through the fifth session, that sale total exceeded $35.4 million.
CHC, Qatar Racing Team-Up to Land Kitten’s Joy Colt
Without many foals of the late Kitten’s Joy remaining, a powerful new buying partnership of CHC/Qatar Racing struck to land one of his colts for $585,000 during the opening session of Book 3 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale Sept. 16 in Lexington.
This is the penultimate crop of yearlings for champion turf horse Kitten’s Joy, who finished as leading sire in 2013 and 2018. Kitten’s Joy died in July 2022. He has 63 yearlings in his current crop.
“The Qatar team left out yesterday, Sheikh Fahad and David Redvers, we all agreed (including Michael Smith of CHC) he might have been the best physical Kitten’s Joy we’ve seen in the last 2 or 3 years, he’s an outstanding horse,” Fergus Galvin, U.S. racing manager for Qatar Racing said. “He’s a beautiful specimen. Having his 2-year-old be second in the Summer Stakes (G1) earlier, we might have had to pay more (if he sold any later in the day). We are happy with the pedigree.”
Consigned by Hill ‘n’ Dale at Xalapa, agent as Hip 1285, the colt is out of the stakes-winning Silent Name mare Hopping Not Hoping , who has produced one other winner. The colt was bred by Murray Smith, in Ontario.
The colt was the sixth purchase overall by the new partnership. The gross price of their first half-dozen yearlings is $2.96 million, good for an average of $493,333. All six yearlings purchased have been colts and they’ve been by sires Practical Joke , Uncle Mo , Authentic , Quality Road , and Speightstown .
Galvin said the new partnership has positioned them well at the sale.
“It’s something Sheikh Fahad and Teo (Ah Khing) put together before the sale, to purchase colts, mainly to race here in the U.S. but this one will go to England to race, for obvious reasons,” Galvin commented. “Sheikh Fahad has had success with Kitten’s Joy and just felt he was probably one of the best physicals we have seen for a long time.”
Galvin said the partnership may purchase another yearling or two.
