Stallion shares in Horse of the Year and exciting young sire Flightline and also Widden Stud's new shuttle prospect Cogburn changed hands at the inaugural Keeneland Championship Sale.
Flightline, who stands at Lane’s End Farm and whose first foals are weanlings of 2024, sold for $2.5 million to Jane Lyons’ Summer Wind Equine to top Keeneland’s inaugural Championship Sale. The event, held Wednesday evening in the Paddock at Del Mar, site of the 2024 Breeders’ Cup World Championships on Friday and Saturday, featured a large crowd of participants from Europe, the Middle East, Asia, South America and across the U.S., spirited bidding and a party atmosphere.
“We have said from the beginning we wanted to be innovative and creative, and I think this sale accomplished those goals,” Keeneland President and CEO Shannon Arvin said. “Breeders’ Cup Week is about celebrating all the champions that are running this weekend. Keeneland has 58 sales graduates participating in the Breeders’ Cup. Hosting a boutique sale during Breeders’ Cup Week just made sense. But we wanted to have a party with a sale, not a sale with a party. That was the intention, and we are thrilled with the results.”
“We wanted to create the experience,” Keeneland Vice President of Sales Tony Lacy said. “What we’re really leaning into is to make the sales as fun and energetic as possible. Anytime you start something new there is always a learning curve. Tonight’s sale worked very well and the feedback has been incredibly positive. We have a great partnership with Breeders’ Cup and Del Mar, and we’re thankful to the people who supported us on the selling side. Buyers were really excited and hopefully it works out well for them in the very near future.”
Consigned by Lane’s End, agent, the Flightline share was offered by an original owner of Flightline.
Steve Jackson signed the ticket for Lyons, who bred and co-owned Flightline during his racing career.
“Jane loves the horse, and I thought it was a fair price,” Jackson said. “She has 10 or 12 foals by Flightline now. And she has plenty of mare power. The (Flightline) foals are very, very nice: athletic, plenty of muscle and correct with lots of presence.”
For the single-session auction, Keeneland sold five of the ten offerings for $4,325,000, for an average of $865,000 and a median of $475,000.
Larry Sarf’s LSU Stables paid the evening’s second-highest price of $850,000 for Pandora’s Gift (IRE), a multiple group/graded stakes-placed winner in England and the U.S. who finished third in Keeneland’s Franklin Stakes (G2) on Oct. 13. She is entered in the PNC Bank Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1). Pandora’s Gift was consigned as a racing/broodmare prospect by Stuart Williams Racing.
“We think she has good potential. We liked the way she ran on synthetic and we liked her movement,” Sarf said, confirming the filly will be trained by Christophe Clement.
A stallion share in Grade 1 winner and North American record holder Cogburn, the morning-line favorite for the Prevagen Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1), brought a final bid of $475,000 from Richard and Connie Snyder. Cogburn will be retired at the end of the year to WinStar Farm in Versailles, Kentucky, for the 2025 breeding season. The share was consigned by ELiTE, agent for the Cogburn Syndicate.
Reincarnate, a graded stakes-winning colt by Good Magic consigned by ELiTE, agent, sold for $375,000 to K.O.I.D. Winner at 3 last year of the Sham Stakes (G3) and the Los Alamitos Derby (L), Reincarnate is Grade 1-placed in the FanDuel Racing Pacific Classic Stakes and the Santa Anita Handicap Presented by Yaamava’ Resort & Casino in 2024.
For $125,000, Agave Racing Stable acquired a 25% interest in Grade 1 winner, millionaire and Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1) contender Gold Phoenix (IRE), consigned by Little Red Feather Racing, Sterling Stables and Marsha Naify. This year, Gold Phoenix won the Del Mar Handicap (G2) Presented by Japan Racing Association for the third consecutive time and took the Charles Whittingham Stakes (G2) Presented by FanDuel TV; last year he won the Frank E. Kilroe Mile (G1) and the Eddie Read Stakes (G2).
