An internationally appealing catalog produced record sales of more than $340 million and a world-record $10.5 million broodmare at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, which ended Monday.
 
Gross receipts for the 15-day sale, held November 5-19, were a November Sale record, totaling $340,877,200. Keeneland surpassed the previous record gross of $317,666,000, established in November 1999, on the ninth day of selling. This year’s total sales marked an 8.6 percent increase from last year’s 14-day gross of $313,843,800.

The average price of $100,821, the second-highest in sale history, was up from $99,728 in 2006. The RNA rate was 22 percent, down 3.5 percent from last year.
 
“This sale was strong from beginning to end,” said Geoffrey Russell, Keeneland’s director of sales. “The figures indicate that we are selling more horses to a wide range of people.”
 
Contributing to the increase was the sale of 39 horses for $1 million or more, equaling the record total sold during the 2000 November Sale. Last year, 27 horses topped the $1 million mark. Keeneland established a world-record price of $10.5 million for a broodmare on opening day when John Ferguson, on behalf of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, purchased 5-year-old G1 stakes winner Playful Act (Ire), by Sadler’s Wells. Ferguson led the buyer’s list, acquiring six horses for $19,450,000.
 
While foreign buyers maintained a presence at the top end of the market, American buyers accounted for more than half of the sale’s $1 million-dollar purchases, and two-thirds of total sales.
 
“Keeneland is unique in that we attract the broadest ‘buying bench’ of any auction house in the world,” noted Russell. “When you couple a very strong domestic market with this extraordinary influx of international buyers, it creates a ‘roiling boil’ that builds upon itself and produces great momentum even into the final days of the sale.”