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Pre-Recession Prices Paid For Keeneland Yearlings Long Gone

Keeneland

A solid crop of one year olds, a mild summer, and a new format contributed to a break out September Yearling Sale at Keeneland. The just completed 12 day sale saw a 27% increase in gross sales over last year. Keeneland Director of Sales Geoffrey Russell called it ‘phenomenal,’ but adds prices have not yet recovered from the recession.

“We’ll never get back to pre recession times because once the financial crisis happened in 2008, it cut off a lot of credit to people to buy horses so those prices were highly inflated," said Russell. "So, now we’re down to and back to a very true and fair market that is discretionary income driven.”

Russell said their new sales format worked well. It brought in a large number of yearlings that sold for a variety of prices. Plus, buyers had more time to inspect the yearlings before the bidding began.

Stu Johnson is a reporter/producer at WEKU in Lexington, Kentucky.
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