Trotting filly Keys a million-dollar bid in Lexington
The Walner filly out of French Café — bred by Marvin Katz and Al Libfeld and raised and sold by Kentuckiana — was purchased for $1 million by Patty Key on opening night at Fasig-Tipton. It’s the most expensive standardbred yearling filly ever sold at auction.
story by Dave Briggs, quotes by James Platz and Dave Briggs
Long before placing the final, session-topping bid of $1 million on Monday night (Sept. 29) at the opening session of the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale, trainer Noel Daley said he expected the taps on his shoulder to stop.
Daley was bidding on Hip #70 Dejeuner for Patty Key, who sat behind him at the Fasig-Tipton Sales Pavilion and tapped him on the shoulder every time she wanted him to bid.
“Half a million was supposed to be our top, which is a lot,” Daley said. “She’s game, and she’s not even drinking.”
He was joking about the last part. He was clearly delighted to be entrusted with training the daughter of Walner out of French Café that was bred by Marvin Katz and Al Libfeld and consigned by and raised at Kentuckiana Farms. Though, Daley did acknowledge there might be some extra pressure with the assignment.
“We better send her home in her own trailer, I guess,” he said, laughing.
Katz and Libfeld, who also bred the sport’s first $1 million yearling, Maverick, may be the only people that have bred two standardbred yearlings to sell for seven figures at auction. There have only been four in history — and the previous three were all colts. At the 2019 Lexington sale, Maverick sold for $1.1 million and Damien, bred by Fredericka Caldwell and Bluestone Farms, sold for $1 million. Last year, at the Standardbred Horse Sales Company yearling sale in Harrisburg, PA, Hanover Shoe Farms’ Cambridge Hanover sold for $1 million. Amazing Catch holds a record for the most expensive standardbred sold at auction with a bid of $1.85 million, but he was sold as a 3-year-old in the 2024 Mixed Sale in Harrisburg.
Dejeuner is now the most expensive standardbred yearling filly ever sold at auction.
“I’m thrilled for Mrs. Key,” Katz said. “I’m happy [Dejeuner is] going to a good home with someone who has been in the business for a long time. It’s clear evidence that if you put good horses in the sale, you’re going to be well rewarded and it’s very gratifying. I wish her nothing but the very best of luck with her.
“She’s great for the business and, as a breeder, I love it.”
After the hammer fell, the auditorium erupted in applause.
French Chef is a Katz and Libfeld homebred out of their great Hambletonian Oaks-winning mare Creamy Mimi.
Kentuckiana part-owner Bob Brady said, “We knew [Dejeuner] was extremely nice coming in. She checked all the boxes. Great size, conformation was excellent and just a giant pedigree that always produces and it’s been a filly family. So, expectations were very high. She was going to be the sale topper for us, but you can’t predict a million dollars. It was just a great sale.
“I wish Mrs. Key all the luck in the world with her.”
Daley said Dejeuner’s, “family was right. We gave [Key] a choice of about five… I wanted a horse that can win at the races, but they wanted her as a future broodmare and she had the residuals because she has a great family.
“But she’s still got to be good on the track.”
As for Key herself, Daley said the widow of Hall of Famer Bob Key, “wants to play and it’s great.”
Co-sales manager David Reid said he is proud of the fact that three of the four million-dollar yearlings have been sold in Lexington.
“It goes back to that you can’t do it without the breeders and the consignors,” Reid said. “We compliment them all the time. It’s very rewarding to do that tonight, but there’s a lot of hard work and luck and everything has to tick all the boxes and, when it happens, it’s fascinating, it’s fantastic for all sides. In fairness, like I said, Mrs. Key has retooled her program that she started three or four years ago and God bless her.”
On Monday, 120 yearlings went through the ring, grossing $21,801,00, averaging $181,675 and posting a median of $150,000. Eighty-two yearlings sold for $100,000 or more.
The gross was down 2.2 per cent from last year’s Day 1 session of $22,294,000, which was the best in history. The Opening Night average was down 4.7 per cent from the all-time record average of $190,547 reached in 2024. The median matched last year’s $150,000, but was off 11.8 per cent from the record median of $170,000 set in 2023. The number of yearlings selling for $100,000 was up 7.9 per cent from 76 in 2024, but down 21.7 per cent from the record of 97 $100,000+ yearlings sold on Day 1 in 2023.
“It was a robust market, led by trotters,” said sale co-manager Bruce Brinkerhoff. “Trotting fillies led the way. We sold a filly for a million, another for $900,000 and another for $800,000. That makes it a remarkable evening. The market was exceptionally strong. Consignors brought a great set of horses and they sold very well.”
Reid said, “We were talking about it coming into the sale, in the pedigrees there’s a lot of youth, young families, trotting filles and people investing in their broodmare bands. Today was a classic example of that on a couple of occasions. The Cedar Dove sold for lot of money, the other one sold for a lot of money. Hip 4, right off the bat, sold for $800,000; that’s the sister to Mission Brief. We talk about it all the time and we really can’t make light of it, the breeders who are having success with sales now are reinvesting into the game and the residual value has been holding up really well over the last number of years.”
Hip #94 Turtle Dove, a Walner filly out of When Dovescry, sold for $900,000 to Jeffrey Snyder and S R F Stables out of the Hunterton consignment.
“That was too stressful, emotional,” Snyder said. “It was higher than I was thinking. We thought $800,000 and then it went up to $900,000. Myself and S R F Stables are partners on it.”
Snyder said it is the same connections as this year’s Mohawk Million winner Apex, meaning Marcus Melander will also train Turtle Dove.
“She is a very nice filly, first foal out of When Dovescry, so the paper was in order,” Melander said. “It’s a hefty price tag, but the filly has some value if she doesn’t make it. We all hope she will. Fantastic individual.
“Those fillies are selling – one went for a million and then $900,000 and there are others at $500,000, $600,000. Those with a strong family side are selling very strong, like they always do.”
Hunterton also sold Hip #4 Tyndall, a Gimpanzee filly out of Southwind Serena for $800,000 to Ernie Martinez, agent. Tyndall is a half-sister to both Mission Brief ($1.6 million) and Tactical Landing ($812,300). Hunterton’s Steve Stewart said he and his partners debated whether to sell Tyndall or keep her.
“‘Would it be stupid to sell her? Should we sell her?’ I told the guys, ‘Look, it makes more sense, let’s put her in the ring and see what happens,’” Stewart said. “We’re sellers and that’s what we do. So, it’s all good. It’s great.”
Stewart said he wasn’t expecting her to bring $800,000.
“She’s not a great big filly,” he said. “I think she’s probably two months away from being all she can be, so to speak. You see a lot of the characteristics of the family in her, like Mission Brief, so there were a lot of reasons to like her, there’s no question about it.”
Hunterton was the leading consignor with gross sales of $6,537,000 for 29 sold, followed by Crawford Farms ($3,020,000 for 13), Kentuckiana Farms ($2,863,000 for 17), Cameo Hills ($2,540,000 for 12), and Preferred Equine ($1,922,000 for nine yearlings).
By average, Crawford Farms led with $232,308, followed by Hunterton ($225,414), Preferred ($213,556), and Cameo Hills ($211,667).
“I thought the crowd was great,” Reid said. “I thought the energy was great. I thought they did a great job keeping a good pace. It’s always challenging, they are here to do their job and go at as fast a pace as possible while accommodating everybody. I thought the energy was good, it was pretty smooth. I’m happy to have it in the books and walking around I think everybody was generally happy.”
Andrew Harris, agent for Bill Pollock, was the leading buyer spending $1,950,000 to purchase six yearlings.
“The first was Hip #1 [Fascination, $190,000], a Tactical Landing filly that I liked,” Harris said. “Because of Yo Tillie we’re chasing the Tactical Landing fillies a little bit, so she was one of the ones I liked. I don’t usually start off that fast that early, but there just wasn’t a lot of Tactical Landing fillies that I liked. This one was more of Yo Tillie’s framework than the other ones that I saw.
“Next was Hip #19 [Umbria, $475,000], another Tactical Landing colt. Gorgeous animal, out of Anoka Hanover, who is obviously a beast. I really liked him. In his video, he had a strong presence and I thought he was probably one of the nicer Tactical Landings in the whole sale.
“Then we went for Hip #44 [Seaside Ubeaut, $500,000], which is obviously Ubrute’s sister. Ubrute has been battling Brandon Blvd and he’s been on our radar. Obviously, the Downbytheseaside thing is now in our purview because of Brandon Blvd. I thought she was the best pacing filly in the sale, but I knew she’d be an expensive one because you have to battle Burke, who is involved. I didn’t want to pay that much, but obviously you’ve got to if you want them. She’s got future broodmare value down the road, so I felt pretty safe about that.
“Hip #53 [Zenyara Bloom, $190,000] is Brandon Blvd’s sister. She had an issue behind, but we were looking at her more for if she does not make it, she’d be a future broodmare for us because of Brandon. That one was pretty much a sentimental one.
“Hip #66 [Vainqueur, $375,000], I thought that was really sharp… big fan of Bulldog [Hanover] as a horse, so I wanted to get one. I was a big fan of Fire Start Hanover, too. I thought she was impressive and he was just an awesome colt. I thought he was fantastic. He was probably one of my favorite pacers in the sale. I’m very happy to get him.
“Hip #114 [Seven Dons A Deo, $220,000], he’s a Chapter Seven colt and you can’t go wrong with Chapter Seven. He was a dark black one and looked phenomenal to me. He had a great presence. Really and truthfully, I thought he went a little bit cheaper than I thought he was going to go for. I actually thought he’d go for a little bit more. I thought the page wasn’t a super, super standout page, but the individual was gorgeous.”
M & L of Delaware / Armitage Farm spent $1,550,000 to buy four yearlings, followed by Ake Svanstedt, who spent $1,025,000, total, on seven yearlings.
Leading sires were:
• Walner — $7,048,000 for 37
• Chapter Seven — $3,220,000 for 21
• Muscle Hill — $2,296,000 for 12
• Captaintreacherous — $1,875,000 for 14
Today’s (Sept. 30) session begins at 1 p.m. and is proceeded by the Breeders Crown Charity Auction cocktail reception at noon and the charity breeding auction.
“I’m looking forward to a good day [Tuesday],” Reid said. “We start it off with the charity breedings, which is a great cause. There’s a Captain Corey going to be supplemented right after that, so there’s a good line-up of five or six and the money goes to charities around Breeders Crown so that’s always great. Hopefully that will get us off to a good start and we’ll have a good day tomorrow.”
“We have an exceptionally deep set this year of horses and it should carry throughout the rest of the week,” Brinkerhoff said. “So, we anticipate continued strength in the market. I think it will be a great week.”
