Don’tforgetaboutme highlights Day 4 at Keeneland November

Don’tforgetaboutme brought the top price of Keeneland November’s fourth session (Keeneland Photo) Don’tforgetaboutme, a three-year-old winning half-sister to recent juvenile stakes winner Mo Tom, sold for $675,000 to Claiborne Farm Bloodstock, agent, to top Thursday’s fourth session of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, which was marked by increases in average and median prices. During the session, the second of two days that make up Book 2 of the sale, Keeneland sold 224 horses for a total of $25,013,000, down slightly from the gross of $25,351,500 for 245 horses sold in 2014. The average of $111,665 was 7.91 percent higher than $103,476 from last year, while the median of $90,000 rose 5.88 percent from $85,000 in 2014. “Overall, I thought this session was very good,” Keeneland Director of Sales Geoffrey Russell said. “We had nine horses that sold for $300,000 or more compared to five last year in the corresponding session, which indicates consistency at the top of the market. The major players are still here buying horses, but you’re seeing some new people come onto the (results) sheets. That bodes well for the continuation (of the sale). “Foals sold exceptionally well today,” Russell continued. “The foal market has started to change a little bit. In the past, pinhookers dominated the weanling purchases for resale value, but now we’re seeing end-users participate in the foal market. That’s good for the market and good for the industry.”

Through the first four days of the sale, Keeneland has sold
732 horses for $164,679,000, an increase of 9.13 percent from $150,904,500 for
789 horses sold through the corresponding period last year. The average of
$224,971 represents a 17.63 percent gain from $191,260 in 2014, while the median
of $137,500 is 30.95 higher than last year’s $105,000.

Don’tforgetaboutme, a daughter of Malibu Moon, was
consigned as a racing or broodmare prospect by Four Star Sales, agent for JSM
Equine and Greathouse Horse Properties. She is a half-sister to stakes winner
Beautician, second in the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1), and stakes
winner Bella Castani. On Sunday, her half-brother Mo Tom, a colt by leading
freshman sire Uncle Mo, captured the Street Sense S. at Churchill Downs.

“She’s a beautiful filly and we really love her page,”
Claiborne President Walker Hancock said. “We’re going to breed her to (Claiborne
stallion) War Front. (She has) a great family, a lot going on. We’re excited to
have her.”

Don Alberto Corporation paid the day’s second-highest price
of $480,000 for Patsy Boyne, a three-quarter sister to Irish highweight High
Chaparral  and Group 2 winner Black Bear Island, in foal to Scat Daddy. John
Stuart’s Bluegrass Thoroughbred Services, agent for Merriebelle Stable,
consigned the four-year-old mare, who is out of the Darshaan mare Kasora. 

“(Don Alberto) made a good buy,” Stuart said. “She’s a
beautifully bred filly. (She was) the best-bred filly in the sale. It’s been a
good day for us.” 

Springhouse Farm went to $380,000 for Roughing, a
three-year-old daughter of Eskendereya, in foal to City Zip. Consigned by Four
Star Sales, agent, Roughing is out of stakes winner Playcaller, by Saratoga Six.
She is a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Diplomat Lady and Grade 2 winner Dream
Play, dam of Australian Group 2 winner Zulu Land.

Selling to Blandford Stud, agent, for $360,000 was
Mississippi Queen, carrying a foal by Scat Daddy. The four-year-old daughter of
Artie Schiller, out of the Silver Hawk mare Siempre Asi, is a half-sister to
Grade 1 winner Asi Siempre. She was consigned by James Keogh (Grovendale),
agent.

At $350,000, the session’s top-priced weanling is the filly
by Scat Daddy of the Fusaichi Pegasus mare Obsequious, sold to Crupi’s New
Castle. Eaton Sales, agent, consigned the filly, whose third dam is 1992
European Horse of the Year User Friendly.

“I just loved her,” J.J. Crupi said. “Just a beautiful
filly, a great big walk to her. I thought she was one of the nicest weanlings in
the sale. I think you get value in weanlings. You can get them when they’re
young and raise them the way you want to.”

The November Sale continues through Friday, November 13.
Sessions start at 10 a.m. (ET). The entire sale is streamed live at
keeneland.com.