Keeneland 2009 September Yearling Sale

Horsemen worldwide converge on Keeneland every September for the past 66 years for the annual Yearling Sale. This years sale ran from September 14- 28. A total of 5, 891 yearlings were cataloged for sales, including 2,662 colts, 2,425 fillies and three geldings.

Recognized as the world's premier yearling markets, the September sale has produced many classic winners and champions, such as 2007-2008 Horse of the year Curlin and 2008 champions Zenyatta, Stardom Bound, Forever Together, Benny the Bull and Good Ba Ba. (Gotta love crazy horse names.)

Keeneland's September sale produces more North American graded stakes winners than all other United States company sales combined. Additionally, buyers representing 48 different countries- unparalleled in the Thoroughbred auction industry- attend the Keeneland sales. Last year while sitting in nursery with the girls I chatted with a veterinarian in our ward who works at a number of horse farms. He had previously worked for Taylor Made farm, who is one of the leading sellers of yearlings. He stated that he would be busy with the upcoming sales. As I asked for more details, I knew I wanted to attend and see these one year old horses, which can often go for insane amounts of money.

I also found out that this is the one time of the year that the Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum (Crown prince of Dubai) flies into Lexington on his 747 (he paid for the Bluegrass Airport's runway to be lengthened allowing his jet to land) to attend the sales.

I never made it to the sales last year, so I was determined to go this year and hoped to visit on the first day so I could take a photo of the Sheikh's plane parked at the Bluegrass airport that is across the street from Keeneland and see many of the expensive horses sold. But I got my dates wrong and didn't find out until Wednesday at cub scouts (from the same vet) that the sale started on Monday instead of on Friday like I had thought. The Sheikh had left the day before and there were no sales on Friday.

So the girls and I went to Keeneland the next Tuesday. While we didn't see horses sold for a million dollars or more, we did get to see some beautiful horses and witness how the auction worked.

I LOVED the auctioneers voice. It had a lovely melodic tone. I couldn't make out a lot of what he said, but the rhythm and sound was soothing.

Most of the horses we saw auctioned went around $50,000. The most expensive horse was being sold as we were leaving (had to make it back before the boys got off the bus) and was at $220,000.

The Tuesday before (second day of the sale) two horses went for $1 million each and one went for just over $2 million. The buyer of the $2 million and one of the $1 million was John Ferguson, who is the Sheikh's buyer.

I loved learning more about the horse industry which is a huge part of the economy, culture and history of this part of Kentucky.