Leading sire Pioneerof the Nile had the session topper Saturday at the Keeneland September Yearling sale when a colt by the WinStar stallion brought a winning bid of $525,000.
Steven Young, agent, was the winning bidder for hip No. 1547, which was consigned by Gainesway Farm, agent on behalf of breeder Three Chimneys Farm.
“Everyone in the pavilion bid on him once, but he is a really good horse,” Young said after a lengthy bidding duel. “I thought he was a Book 1 horse that was in Book 3.”
The colt was the only individual to bring at least a half-million dollars during the day’s proceedings.
“We had high expectations for him based on what we thought of him ourselves and the amount of interest in him once we got him here on the grounds,” said Three Chimneys’ Chris Baker. “But that [final price] exceeded our expectations by quite a bit. You never really know how much they are going to like them or, when you have multiple parties like that, how competitive it’s going to be. That was beyond our expectations, but not shocking based on the kind of colt he is.”
The bay yearling is the first foal out of Bella Fafa (Brz), who was Group 1-placed in Brazil and is a half to Argentinian Group 1 winner Reraise.
