Plum Pretty sells for $4.2 million

A day after Whisper Hill Farm owner Mandy Pope paid a world-record $10 million for Horse of the Year Havre de Grace at Fasig-Tipton’s fall selected mixed sale, she returned to action Tuesday at Keeneland, paying $4.2 million for 2011 Kentucky Oaks winner Plum Pretty.

In 2011, major dispersals by the estates of Edward Evans and Saud bin Khaled – including Royal Delta’s $8.5 million sale – bolstered Keeneland’s November sale. Together, those dispersals accounted for more than $72 million of the 2011 gross receipts. Figures this year fell across the board, and Keeneland said the bump from last year’s dispersals was the major difference.

At Tuesday’s opening session, 100 horses sold for a total of $27,665,000, down 56.3 percent from the $63,276,500 that 147 horses brought last year. The average price fell 35.7 percent to $276,650, and the median declined 44.6 percent to $127,500. Walt Robertson, Keeneland’s vice president of sales, pointed out that, minus last year’s dispersals, the median was $165,000, which would reduce the 2012 shortfall in median to 22.7 percent.