On the track McKinzie made a good first impression and then served up some impressive reminders of his talents into his 5-year-old season.
Now it’s McKinzie’s first crop of yearlings making a good impression at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale. The sale will move into the Book 4 Monday, Sept. 18, in Lexington, where 15 of his foals are scheduled to be offered.
McKinzie grabbed some headlines in Book 2 when his yearling half brother to this year’s Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Mage sold for $1.2 million to Mayberry Farm. Consigned by Runnymede Farm, agent, the colt is out of the stakes-winning, grade 2-placed Big Brown mare Puca , who also has produced stakes-placed winner Gunning .
Ryan Norton, stallion director for Gainesway Farm where McKinzie stood the 2023 season for $30,000, said the seven-figure colt will bring attention to the young sire.
“Everybody would love to have a million-dollar yearling in their first crop,” Norton said. “I think it’s huge. It shows he’s throwing a nice individual that can really ring the bell out at the sales. Obviously he had a nice family update there, but nonetheless you still have to have the physical regardless of what update to get to $1.2 million and be the highest-priced first-crop yearling of the year.”
After the sale, Romain Malhouitre of Runnymede told BloodHorse that the yearling’s breeder, Robert Clay’s Grandview Equine, liked the sire a lot. He said the yearling proved to be “the best mix between the sire and mare.”
Through the first two books of the 2023 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, 21 yearlings by McKinzie sold for $6,352,000 in the ring; an average of $302,476.
This McKinzie filly out of It’s Mine is scheduled to enter the ring Sept. 17
In terms of physicals, Norton said it’s clear that McKinzie will provide some height to his foals.
“McKinzie himself has a huge shoulder and he’s putting that big shoulder on a lot of his foals as well,” Norton said. “His foals are tall with great bodies and huge shoulders.”
On the track McKinzie didn’t wait long to display his talents, winning his maiden special weight debut at Santa Anita Park in 2017 and following that effort with a victory in the Los Alamitos Cash Call Futurity (G1). McKinzie would then register top-level victories as a 3-year-old and a 4-year-old, taking the 2018 Pennsylvania Derby (G1) and the 2019 Whitney Stakes (G1). In his 5-year-old season, he won the Triple Bend Stakes (G2).
A sign promoting McKinzie at the Gainesway consignment
Norton said that kind of record is appealing to a wide range of buyers.
“Everybody wants soundness when they buy a horse; they want to know they’re going to have a horse that can run and have double-digit starts,” Norton said. “Being a grade 1 winner at 2, 3, and 4 shows that he had quality early on, that he was sound and could carry that quality through his 5-year-old year.
“I think the pinhookers like him because he can offer a little 2-year-old form and the end users will like him because they know they have a horse who can stay sound and race at their top level for several years.”
