The star power of first-crop yearling sire Flightline , the undefeated 2022 Horse of the Year, carried through the first four days of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale but others in his sire class attracted remarkably strong results as well.
Flightline, a 7-year-old son of multiple leading North American sire Tapit , exited Keeneland's Book 1-2 sessions with a $762,973 average that ranked him second on the overall sire standings behind Three Chimneys Farm's marquee stallion Gun Runner ($932,917). Gun Runner, a 12-year-old son of Candy Ride and 2017 Horse of the Year, was represented by 12 yearlings sold for $1 million or more, while Flightline was represented by eight seven-figure sales.
Likely driven by the record-setting results during the September sale's first week, six first-crop yearling sires enjoyed early averages above $300,000 compared with two first-crop sires from the 2024 September sale.
Ashford Stud's Corniche has the smallest representation by number offered during Books 1-2 among the first-crop sires but the 2021 champion 2-year-old male has the second-highest average of his sire class at $526,667 and the second-highest median of $562,500. Additionally, Corniche owns his sire class's highest ratio of yearling average to stud fee at 17.56. The 6-year-old son of Quality Road entered stud in 2023 at $30,000.
Six yearlings sold out of six offered represented Corniche during Books 1-2. A colt named Canice, out of the Uncle Mo daughter Kiss Mo, became the sire's top seller when Speedway Stables bought him for $725,000 out of Havens Bloodstock Agency's consignment. Speedway Stables' owners Peter and Ann Fluor and K.C. Weiner have an affinity for Corniche, having celebrated in the winner's circle with the champion after the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) and American Pharoah Stakes (G1) in 2021.
Bloodstock agent Marette Farrell, who buys for Speedway, said Canice looks fast.
"He is a stunning physical with great balance and athleticism," she said. "Plus he is out of a Carl Pollard family that is class all the way through."
Pollard raced the sale colt's second and third dam, who are stakes winners Kiss Mine and Kiss the Devil, respectively. Kiss Mine (Mineshaft ) won six black-type stakes and placed in three graded stakes, while Kiss the Devil (Kris S.) won the 2003 Mint Julep Handicap (G3T) and placed in two other graded stakes. As a broodmare, Kiss the Devil produced three stakes winners and two additional stakes-producing daughters for Pollard's Hermitage Farm.
Farrell said she has high hopes for Corniche's success as a sire, noting that his September Book 1-2 average exceeded that of Quality Road ($498,235).
"The Corniches in general are all very smooth movers just like him and many of them have that Quality Road look to their profiles, which I believe is good," she said. "If Corniche can impart his own brilliance, along with his sire's, then the sky is the limit with them."
Carrie and Craig Brogden's Machmer Hall also found early success with Corniche. They bred and sold three yearlings for a total of $1,275,000 so far this year that include a $525,000 colt out of Laid Back Lady during the September sale. Cary Bloodstock bought the colt for Jerry Bach's Selective ownership group.
Carrie Brogden said they have been impressed with the quality of all their Corniche progeny.
"We have another one here that's really nice, too. They all move like cats, just like him," she said.
Corniche has been represented by four September sale yearlings sold for more than $500,000, which gives him a median to date of $562,500, again second to Flightline's $600,000 median.
The other first-crop yearling sires with averages above $300,000 include WinStar Farm's Life Is Good (34 sold, $392,647), Taylor Made Stallions' Early Voting (seven, $369,286), Spendthrift Farm's Jackie's Warrior (21, $347,143), and Ashford's Epicenter (20, $303,750).
Life Is Good and Jackie's Warrior have each been represented by a seven-figure yearling at Keeneland. Hinkle Farms bred and sold a Life Is Good colt out of Indian Bay (Indian Charlie) for $1.25 million to Flying Dutchmen, and Woods Edge Farm sold a Dixiana Farms-bred Jackie's Warrior colt out of Taking Aim (Trappe Shot) for $1.3 million to West Bloodstock, buying on behalf of Robert and Lawana Low.
