Big Surge at Keeneland November Sale

Two major dispersals, one of which included the $8.5 million racing or broodmare prospect Royal Delta, helped create big surges in business at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale. The auction ended its 11-day run in Lexington Nov. 17 with increases of 41.5% in gross revenue, 62.2% in average price, and 41.2% in median price from a year ago.

The buy-back rate was 19.8%, down from 22.5% in 2010, when 2,929 lots were sold.

“The dispersals were phenomenal successes,” said Geoffrey Russell, Keeneland’s director of sales. “When you sell collectors’ items, you get collectors’ prices and it (the momentum generated by the high prices) rolled over to include other horses in the sale and continued into the start of the second week.”

The auction’s final results included a gross of $208,511,200 for the 2,554 horses and stallion shares that were sold. The average was $81,641 and the median was $24,000.