TOPPER GOES TO SUMMERHILL'S ADMIRE MAIN CONNECTIONS

Click above to watch Azeri selling at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale
(Footage : Keeneland)

KEENELAND NOVEMBER BREEDING STOCK SALE 2009

International connections have been the lifeblood of Summerhill going back twenty years to the time the Maktoum family arrived with their first stallions. More recently, Summerhill has connected with Japan’s headline breeding dynasty, the Yoshida’s, and one of the family was in the news again yesterday.

Multiple champion Azeri made her second appearance of the year in the Keeneland sales ring Monday, and the second time was a charm, with the chestnut mare bringing a final bid of $2.25 million from Northern Farm’s Katsumi Yoshida to top the opening session of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale in Lexington. Azeri, in foal to Ghostzapper, failed to reach her reserve at $4.4 million at Keeneland in January. She sold yesterday in foal to Distorted Humor. The auctioneer looked to start the action at $1 million, but bidding began at a more modest $300,000. From there, bids came in rapid-fire succession in $100,000 increments, with Blandford Bloodstock’s Tom Goff among the bidders inside the pavilion. Bidding began to stall approaching the $2-million mark, but with encouragement from the auctioneer’s stand Azeri’s price tag inched up to the final figure. Shunsuke Yoshida, on the phone with his father Katsumi, did his bidding behind the pavilion and signed the ticket on the prized mare.

“We didn’t expect that we could buy this mare,” Yoshida said. “We just kept bidding up to our budget, and finally she came to us.”

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

KEENELAND ends with substantial declines

Bloodhorse reports that the Keeneland November breeding stock sale which coincided with a world economic crash ended on 17 November with substantial declines in every key statistical category.

The Lexington sales company reported that 3,019 horses were sold during the 15 day auction for a total $185,552,300, which was down 45.6% from the 2007 record gross of $340,877,200 when 3,381 horses were sold. The average fell 39% from $100,821 to $61,462, and the median price of $20,000 reflected a decline of 42.9% from the $35,000 figure last year.

When horses were consigned to the November sale earlier this year, there was an expectation that the market corrections seen in other auctions this year would continue, said Keeneland sales director Geoffrey Russell. However, that trend, coupled with the international economic problems, exacerbated the problem, as seen in the sale results.

“I think going in, everybody expected a correction, but external forces made it a lot worse,” said Geoffrey Russell. “Every nation in the world is in a recession. Pick up any newspaper and there are stories about the lack of consumer confidence. Our industry is not immune to those external forces.”

While the numbers do not bear it out, Russell said there has been solid trade at all levels and that many buyers found it difficult to get what they wanted.

“Horses have traded very well, both domestically and internationally to a wide range of buyers, albeit at a lower level,” he said. “The buyers say they are paying good money for everything they have bought. Pinhookers said it was hard to buy good foals. We still have great interest in Thoroughbreds, and we still have great interest in the breeding industry.”

Overall, it could have been much worse, said Geoffrey Russell, noting that the sale received solid support throughout from international buyers representing the so-called emerging markets.

“The biggest drop this year was from the European nations and domestically,” he said. “With the possible exception of our traditionally strong trading countries – England, France, Ireland, and Australia – the international markets spent as much this year as they did last year, if not more. We would be in a dire situation if they were not here. They don’t just show up because Keeneland is putting on a horse sale. That is something we have worked very hard to get going. We work 52 weeks a year to get them here.”