Nearing the end of the day at Keeneland's January Horses of All Ages Sale Jan. 13, graded stakes winners Delahaye (Hip 447) and Pretty Birdie (Hip 453) revived the sales pavilion, each bringing $700,000.
Delahaye was offered by Four Star Sales, agent, and sold to Three Chimneys Farm, which bred the 6-year-old Medaglia d'Oro mare and campaigned her in partnership with William H. Lawrence and Gonçalo Borges Torrealba, the chairman of Three Chimneys.
Trained by Chad Brown, she retired with a record of 4-1-3 from nine starts and $490,815 in earnings. Her most memorable win came in the Old Forester Mint Julep Stakes (G3T) at Churchill Downs.
She is the third foal of the War Front mare Bella Carina, making her dam a half sister to grade 1 winner Malibu Prayer and grade 1-placed Valid.
"Great price for a grade 3 horse," said Kerry Cauthen of Four Star Sales. "She is beautiful, and it has consistently happened year-round, year after year, if they are as pretty as that and show performance, there are plenty of people who want to buy her.
"The price is a little better than I thought she would bring. I thought she was a $500,000 to $600,000, but I felt like she could have gone on a little bit. It is just a matter of finding two people who want the same thing."
Pretty Birdie, a 6-year-old mare by Bird Song, was reoffered in foal to Candy Ride by Gainesway, agent for the Estate of John Hendrickson, after she was found cribbing following her $1.1 million sale at Keeneland's November Breeding Stock Sale.
Adrian Wallace of Coolmore America signed the ticket for the gray or roan mare on behalf of Avenue Bloodstock. They had bid on her in the November Sale, and were elated to secure the filly from one of racing's most coveted families.
Pretty Birdie was bred and owned by the late Marylou Whitney and trained by Norm Casse. She is out of the Street Sense mare Bird Sense and hails from the family of Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Birdstone. She won the Schuylerville Stakes (G3) at 2, was second in the Eight Belles Stakes (G2) at 3, and retired with four wins and $521,488 in earnings.
"She was a lovely mare, we loved her the first time we saw her," said Wallace. "She was a very precocious race mare herself. We're privileged to buy into one of (John Hendrickson's) great families and that of Marylou Whitney as well. She's young and she's been bought for David Nagle of Barronstown Stud."
Wallace said the mare will stay in America, where she will likely be sent to Triple Crown winner Justify .
Book 1 Statistics
Keeneland concluded Book 1 with a dramatic growth in the median, up 100% from 2024 to $60,000. Gross sales totaled $19,088,000, including private sales for the 215 horses who changed hands; the average was $88,781. The RNA rate was 27.1%, representing the 80 horses who failed to meet their reserve.
Last year's first session saw 237 head sell for a total of $19,271,500, with an average of $81,314 and a median of $30,000. Eighty-five horses failed to meet their reserve, resulting in an RNA rate of 26.4%.
The January Sale saw a decrease in sessions, down from four to three in 2025. Book 1 horses were pushed into one session, instead of dividing it over two days as in years past.
"This first day is probably a little enriched," said Cormac Breathnach, Keeneland's director of sales, commenting on comparing this year's first session to 2024. "That doesn't change the fact that it (the median) more than doubled, which we never could have anticipated, either.
"It's a pretty spectacular increase, it shows real activity. For a long time, the January Sale has been sort of a little brother to the November Sale, but this is a really strong median and huge growth from last year, where we had seven-figure offerings in this first session.
"We were really encouraged by the amount of traffic in the barns," said Keeneland's vice president of sales, Tony Lacy. "We go back to the diversity in the marketplace, the top 15 prized horses were supported by 15 different entities. The top 15 were sold by 11 different consignors. Again, great diversity through all of that, and it just gives sort of a sense of the health of that diversification, and that nobody's really dominating it."
The top-priced short yearling was Hip 293, a colt by Tapit who brought $400,000, selling to JPM Bloodstock from Gainesway's consignment. He was bred in Kentucky by Dr. Oscar Benavides, AEMC and Tapit Syndicate. He is out of the stakes-winning mare Maybe Wicked, who is a full sister to graded stakes winner Money'soncharlotte.
The highest-priced short yearling filly was Hip 197, a daughter of leading turf sire Twirling Candy who sold for $170,000 to Dixiana Farm from the Lane's End consignment. She is out of the graded-stakes producer Freud's Irish Miss and was bred in Kentucky by C.W. Swann and Anne Marie Swann.
"Short yearlings were really difficult," added Lacy. "The nice ones are really difficult to buy because there was so much competition for them.
"There are weaknesses in different places, but it's very consistent through all the breeding stock sales. It's a good solid, healthy market, and you can justify every piece of it. With the median being up, it just shows you that quality is at the top of everybody's list."
The leading buyers of the session were Avenue Bloodstock and Three Chimneys Farm, each at $700,000. Lane's End led the consignors with 19 head selling for a total of $2,376,000.
Keeneland's second session begins Jan. 14 at 10 a.m. ET, with Hips 461-886 set to go through the ring. As of Monday evening, Keeneland has reported 83 outs.
"There is a lot of quality, particularly tomorrow," said Breathnach. "Some of the big consignors are selling everything tomorrow. Claiborne, Warrendale, to mention a couple, have their entire drafts selling tomorrow. So, it's not really a Book 1 or Book 2 situation."
