The Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale, which follows a week of snow and ice storms and amidst frigid temperatures, opens its three-day run Monday in Lexington, with bidding scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. The catalogue increased to 1,317 horses with the addition of five supplemental entries last Thursday, but there were already 340 head withdrawn from the auction as of Sunday evening.
The January sale follows a strong renewal of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, which set a record for median and produced a significant increase in average in 2024. Consignors are eager to see that competitive market continue into the new year, while still acknowledging a persistent polarization in demand.
“I think that you saw in November, the foal market was quite competitive,” said Jill Gordon of Highgate Sales. “If you brought a horse up there that vetted and that could jump through all the hoops, you had a lot of friends up at the ring. Conversely, if you brought something up there that had trouble with the vetting, or was perceived as not that kind of upper echelon, it got pretty lonely. And I think you can expect to see a continuation of that. I think there are a lot of those pinhookers who weren’t able to get all of their orders filled. And hopefully with that trickle over effect, if you are wanting to pinhook weanlings to yearlings, this is one of your very last stops to pick those up.”…