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Keeneland November Kicks Off: ‘The Quality Is As Strong As We’ve Seen’

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Following a bullish yearling sales season at Keeneland, the company’s November Breeding Stock Sale gets underway in Lexington on Tuesday. The sale, which continues through Nov. 11, has just over 3,400 horses catalogued.

This year’s sale comes on the heels of the Breeders’ Cup, held at the Lexington oval last weekend.

Does hosting the World Championships at Keeneland, holding the event for the fourth time in 2026, offer Keeneland’s auction some added excitement?

“I think this sort of amplifies everything that we were a part of–we’re both racing and sales. It’s the same team that operates both sides of the coin,” said Keeneland’s VP of Sales Tony Lacy. “And coming off what was not only a wonderful race meet, but also an exceptional Breeders’ Cup, I would call it an incredible way to celebrate American and Europe, global racing at its highest level. It was competition that I think everybody, even the most hardened professional, was extremely impressed by. I think everybody was in awe of the quality of the racing, the horsemanship.”

Receiving timely boosts following last weekend’s Breeders’ Cup World Championships, Fate of Ophelia (Curlin), a half-sister to GI Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Bacio (Maclean’s Music), will be offered by Taylor Made Sales as Hip 75. She is believed to be in foal to Sierra Leone.

Also offered by Taylor Made Sales, GI Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare runner-up Foie Gras (Volatile) is featured in Book 1. Catalogued as Hip 80, the 4-year-old is offered as a racing or broodmare prospect.

Supplemented to Tuesday’s session, Hip 271, Persuasive (Omaha Beach), is represented in the Gainesway consignment. Offered as a broodmare prospect, the 4-year-old is a half-sister to GI Darley Alcibiades heroine Emphatic (Nyquist), who remained undefeated with a victory in last Friday’s GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Egyptian Bride (Pioneerof the Nile), a half-sister to T O Elvis (Volatile), victorious in last Saturday’s GI Breeders’ Cup Sprint, is catalogued as Hip 827. Consigned by Hill ‘n’ Dale at Xalapa, she sells in foal to Chancer McPatrick.

“I think this is what makes this so exciting because you’re getting horses coming out of the Breeders’ Cup,” said Lacy. “Obviously, there were high hopes for the relations in the Breeder’s Cup and watching them perform like that gives them a great update. Nothing is more effective than recent great stakes results like these. That allows everybody to feel the effects of quality performances and, hopefully, they benefit from it and it creates a little more focus on them as they come into the sales ring as far as just their potential in the next careers.”

Other Grade I winners/producers on offer at Keeneland November in 2026 include:

• Kilwin (Twirling Candy), winner of last year’s GI Test at Saratoga, is consigned by Royal Oak Farm, agent for BBN Racing and Rick Howard.
• Animal Appeal (Leroidesanimaux (Brz) (Hip 5), dam of GISW Usha in foal to Tiz the Law. Greenfield Farms, agent, is the consignor
• Expensive Queen (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) (Hip 243), dead-heat winner of the GI Jenny Wiley. Taylor Made Sales Agency, agent, is the consignor.
• Ma’am (Colonel John) (Hip 131), dam of Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan in foal to Into Mischief. She is consigned by Gainesway, agent.
• Sheza Smoke Show (Wilko) (Hip 185), dam of GISW ‘TDN Rising Star’ presented by Hagyard Princess Noor in foal to Goal Oriented. She is consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency, agent.
• Thought Process (Collected) (Hip 229), winner of the GI Gamely. Airdrie Stud, agent, consigns.
• Usha (Tiz the Law) (Hip 248), winner of the 2025 La Brea. She is consigned by Hill ‘n’ Dale at Xalapa, agent.

Additionally, a group of over 100 select weanlings are catalogued to Book 1. A colt out of Bacio’s dam Katie’s Kiss (Kantharos), offered as Hip 112, will be up for grabs. Consigned by agent Scott Mallory, the Mar. 8 foal is by Arabian Knight.

This year’s Hidden Brook consignment features Hip 66, a weanling colt by Practical Joke. Out of Even of War (Declaration of War), the Mar. 1 foal is a half-brother to The Puma (Essential Quality), runner-up in last weekend’s GI Breeders’ Cup Classic.

“I think it’s the strongest catalog we’ve had in the last number of years,” said Lacy. “I think it’s really healthy. There’s a very strong weanling group in there. We’ve cataloged, [approx] 1600 weanlings overall.”

Weanlings who are graduates of the November Sale who went on to become graded stakes winners in 2026: Englishman (GI Woody Stephens S. and GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial), Fully Subscribed (GI Personal Ensign and GII Shuvee), Magnitude (G1 Dubai World Cup, GI Stephen Foster S. and GIII Razorback; Miss Monica (GI Del Mar Debutante), Nysos (GI Hill ‘N’ Dale Metropolitan) and So Happy (GI Santa Anita Derby and GII San Vicente).

Also flying the flag for the November Sale in 2026, Nola Soul (Justify), campaigned by Glen Hill Farm’s Craig Bernick, won his first two starts, including the Listed Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot last spring. He was purchased for $220,000 at Keeneland in 2024.

“The quality of weanlings offered at Keeneland November has made this sale a destination for buyers from around the world,” Keeneland Senior Director of Sales Operations Cormac Breathnach said. “Buyers have consistently found horses here who develop into top-class yearlings and, ultimately, elite racehorses. To see Nola Soul, purchased by Glen Hill Farm as a weanling at Keeneland November, go on to succeed at Royal Ascot in England this year is a tremendous example of what can begin in this sales ring. We are excited to offer the star-studded group of weanlings that will be found throughout this year’s catalog.”

The November Sale catalogue also features several dispersals, including the Complete Dispersal of Aaron and Marie Jones LLC: broodmares in foal to Candy Ride (Arg), Goal Oriented, Into Mischief and Tapit and four weanlings by Into Mischief, Nyquist and Tapit will be on offer and Taylor Made Sales Agency will handle the consignment.

“It’s a bittersweet, obviously it’s exciting for buyers to have access to a breeding stock that might not have been sold in the past to this extent,” Lacy explained. “Aaron and Marie Jones’ program has been extremely successful over the last 20 plus years. The fact that both of them are now deceased, the stock is being sold, and for the Taylor family, [the Joneses] were almost second parents to some of them like Frank and Katie [Taylor]. So it’s not easy for them seeing these horses getting sold as a part of [the Dispersal], but it’s a great opportunity for somebody who wants to access into those bloodlines because they’ve been incredibly fruitful over the last number of years.”

Taylor Made also oversee 40 in-foal broodmares, racing or broodmare prospects and weanlings in the Dispersal of Laurence Leavy’s Starship Stables.

In a variation over one year ago, this year’s sale will feature an extra day of selling. The 2025 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale was conducted over eight days.

“We’ve added a day this year comparative to last year, which is great. It’s encouraging that we’ve added a day with 300-plus entries this year over last year,” said Lacy. “And I think, as I say, the quality is as strong as we’ve seen in recent memories, especially with the weanlings. I think there’s a very strong group of great potential, whether it’s pinhooking or end users.”

Tuesday’s Book 1 session begins at 1 p.m.

The post Keeneland November Kicks Off: ‘The Quality Is As Strong As We’ve Seen’ appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Jeff Ruby Steaks Highlights Record Turfway Winter/Spring Stakes Schedule

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Turfway Park in Florence, Kentucky, will offer a 28-strong stakes schedule worth a record $5.477 million during the 2026 Holiday Meet and 2027 Winter/Spring Meet, with the $777,000 GIII Jeff Ruby Steaks the focal point of the season on Mar. 20, 2027.

The holiday meet begins Wednesday, Dec. 2 and runs through Dec. 30, racing Wednesdays through Sundays. The Winter/Spring Meet kicks off Friday, Jan. 1 and runs through Mar. 27, with racing four days a week from Wednesday through Saturday.

The Holiday Meet includes eight added-money events, highlighted by the third annual Synthetic Championships on Saturday, Dec. 12, with four stakes each worth $250,000–the Holiday Cheer Stakes and Holiday Inaugural Stakes over six furlongs, and the one-mile My Charmer Stakes and Prairie Bayou Stakes.

Three Kentucky Derby and two Kentucky Oaks preps feature after the turn of the calendar. The Winter/Spring meet’s 20 stakes races worth $3.977 million include a new addition to the Road to the Kentucky Derby–the one-mile $125,000 Leonnatus Stakes on Jan. 16, awarding Kentucky Derby points on a 10-5-3-2-1 scale.

The Leonatus is one of three Derby qualifiers at Turfway, with the Feb. 20 John Battaglia Memorial Stakes the final local lead-up to the Jeff Ruby Steaks, worth 100 points and a guaranteed spot in the Derby to the winner. One night earlier, fillies contest the Cincinnati Trophy. Both the Battaglia and Cincinnati Trophy award points on a 20-10-6-4-2 scale.

The Jeff Ruby is one of a half-dozen stakes on Mar. 20. The co-features are the GIII TwinSpires Kentucky Cup Classic and the $300,000 Bourbonette Oaks, which offers points on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks on a 50-25-15-10 scale.

Click here for the Holiday Meet condition book.

The post Jeff Ruby Steaks Highlights Record Turfway Winter/Spring Stakes Schedule appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Keeneland November Kicks Off: ‘The Quality Is As Strong As We’ve Seen’

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Following a bullish yearling sales season at Keeneland, the company’s November Breeding Stock Sale gets underway in Lexington on Tuesday. The sale, which continues through Nov. 11, has just over 3,400 horses catalogued.

This year’s sale comes on the heels of the Breeders’ Cup, held at the Lexington oval last weekend.

Does hosting the World Championships at Keeneland, holding the event for the fourth time in 2026, offer Keeneland’s auction some added excitement?

“I think this sort of amplifies everything that we were a part of–we’re both racing and sales. It’s the same team that operates both sides of the coin,” said Keeneland’s VP of Sales Tony Lacy. “And coming off what was not only a wonderful race meet, but also an exceptional Breeders’ Cup, I would call it an incredible way to celebrate American and Europe, global racing at its highest level. It was competition that I think everybody, even the most hardened professional, was extremely impressed by. I think everybody was in awe of the quality of the racing, the horsemanship.”

Receiving timely boosts following last weekend’s Breeders’ Cup World Championships, Fate of Ophelia (Curlin), a half-sister to GI Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Bacio (Maclean’s Music), will be offered by Taylor Made Sales as Hip 75. She is believed to be in foal to Sierra Leone.

Also offered by Taylor Made Sales, GI Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare runner-up Foie Gras (Volatile) is featured in Book 1. Catalogued as Hip 80, the 4-year-old is offered as a racing or broodmare prospect.

Supplemented to Tuesday’s session, Hip 271, Persuasive (Omaha Beach), is represented in the Gainesway consignment. Offered as a broodmare prospect, the 4-year-old is a half-sister to GI Darley Alcibiades heroine Emphatic (Nyquist), who remained undefeated with a victory in last Friday’s GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Egyptian Bride (Pioneerof the Nile), a half-sister to T O Elvis (Volatile), victorious in last Saturday’s GI Breeders’ Cup Sprint, is catalogued as Hip 827. Consigned by Hill ‘n’ Dale at Xalapa, she sells in foal to Chancer McPatrick.

“I think this is what makes this so exciting because you’re getting horses coming out of the Breeders’ Cup,” said Lacy. “Obviously, there were high hopes for the relations in the Breeder’s Cup and watching them perform like that gives them a great update. Nothing is more effective than recent great stakes results like these. That allows everybody to feel the effects of quality performances and, hopefully, they benefit from it and it creates a little more focus on them as they come into the sales ring as far as just their potential in the next careers.”

Other Grade I winners/producers on offer at Keeneland November in 2026 include:

• Kilwin (Twirling Candy), winner of last year’s GI Test at Saratoga, is consigned by Royal Oak Farm, agent for BBN Racing and Rick Howard.
• Animal Appeal (Leroidesanimaux (Brz) (Hip 5), dam of GISW Usha in foal to Tiz the Law. Greenfield Farms, agent, is the consignor
• Expensive Queen (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) (Hip 243), dead-heat winner of the GI Jenny Wiley. Taylor Made Sales Agency, agent, is the consignor.
• Ma’am (Colonel John) (Hip 131), dam of Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan in foal to Into Mischief. She is consigned by Gainesway, agent.
• Sheza Smoke Show (Wilko) (Hip 185), dam of GISW ‘TDN Rising Star’ presented by Hagyard Princess Noor in foal to Goal Oriented. She is consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency, agent.
• Thought Process (Collected) (Hip 229), winner of the GI Gamely. Airdrie Stud, agent, consigns.
• Usha (Tiz the Law) (Hip 248), winner of the 2025 La Brea. She is consigned by Hill ‘n’ Dale at Xalapa, agent.

Additionally, a group of over 100 select weanlings are catalogued to Book 1. A colt out of Bacio’s dam Katie’s Kiss (Kantharos), offered as Hip 112, will be up for grabs. Consigned by agent Scott Mallory, the Mar. 8 foal is by Arabian Knight.

This year’s Hidden Brook consignment features Hip 66, a weanling colt by Practical Joke. Out of Even of War (Declaration of War), the Mar. 1 foal is a half-brother to The Puma (Essential Quality), runner-up in last weekend’s GI Breeders’ Cup Classic.

“I think it’s the strongest catalog we’ve had in the last number of years,” said Lacy. “I think it’s really healthy. There’s a very strong weanling group in there. We’ve cataloged, [approx] 1600 weanlings overall.”

Weanlings who are graduates of the November Sale who went on to become graded stakes winners in 2026: Englishman (GI Woody Stephens S. and GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial), Fully Subscribed (GI Personal Ensign and GII Shuvee), Magnitude (G1 Dubai World Cup, GI Stephen Foster S. and GIII Razorback; Miss Monica (GI Del Mar Debutante), Nysos (GI Hill ‘N’ Dale Metropolitan) and So Happy (GI Santa Anita Derby and GII San Vicente).

Also flying the flag for the November Sale in 2026, Nola Soul (Justify), campaigned by Glen Hill Farm’s Craig Bernick, won his first two starts, including the Listed Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot last spring. He was purchased for $220,000 at Keeneland in 2024.

“The quality of weanlings offered at Keeneland November has made this sale a destination for buyers from around the world,” Keeneland Senior Director of Sales Operations Cormac Breathnach said. “Buyers have consistently found horses here who develop into top-class yearlings and, ultimately, elite racehorses. To see Nola Soul, purchased by Glen Hill Farm as a weanling at Keeneland November, go on to succeed at Royal Ascot in England this year is a tremendous example of what can begin in this sales ring. We are excited to offer the star-studded group of weanlings that will be found throughout this year’s catalog.”

The November Sale catalogue also features several dispersals, including the Complete Dispersal of Aaron and Marie Jones LLC: broodmares in foal to Candy Ride (Arg), Goal Oriented, Into Mischief and Tapit and four weanlings by Into Mischief, Nyquist and Tapit will be on offer and Taylor Made Sales Agency will handle the consignment.

“It’s a bittersweet, obviously it’s exciting for buyers to have access to a breeding stock that might not have been sold in the past to this extent,” Lacy explained. “Aaron and Marie Jones’ program has been extremely successful over the last 20 plus years. The fact that both of them are now deceased, the stock is being sold, and for the Taylor family, [the Joneses] were almost second parents to some of them like Frank and Katie [Taylor]. So it’s not easy for them seeing these horses getting sold as a part of [the Dispersal], but it’s a great opportunity for somebody who wants to access into those bloodlines because they’ve been incredibly fruitful over the last number of years.”

Taylor Made also oversee 40 in-foal broodmares, racing or broodmare prospects and weanlings in the Dispersal of Laurence Leavy’s Starship Stables.

In a variation over one year ago, this year’s sale will feature an extra day of selling. The 2025 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale was conducted over eight days.

“We’ve added a day this year comparative to last year, which is great. It’s encouraging that we’ve added a day with 300-plus entries this year over last year,” said Lacy. “And I think, as I say, the quality is as strong as we’ve seen in recent memories, especially with the weanlings. I think there’s a very strong group of great potential, whether it’s pinhooking or end users.”

Tuesday’s Book 1 session begins at 1 p.m.

The post Keeneland November Kicks Off: ‘The Quality Is As Strong As We’ve Seen’ appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Jeff Ruby Steaks Highlights Record Turfway Winter/Spring Stakes Schedule

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Turfway Park in Florence, Kentucky, will offer a 28-strong stakes schedule worth a record $5.477 million during the 2026 Holiday Meet and 2027 Winter/Spring Meet, with the $777,000 GIII Jeff Ruby Steaks the focal point of the season on Mar. 20, 2027.

The holiday meet begins Wednesday, Dec. 2 and runs through Dec. 30, racing Wednesdays through Sundays. The Winter/Spring Meet kicks off Friday, Jan. 1 and runs through Mar. 27, with racing four days a week from Wednesday through Saturday.

The Holiday Meet includes eight added-money events, highlighted by the third annual Synthetic Championships on Saturday, Dec. 12, with four stakes each worth $250,000–the Holiday Cheer Stakes and Holiday Inaugural Stakes over six furlongs, and the one-mile My Charmer Stakes and Prairie Bayou Stakes.

Three Kentucky Derby and two Kentucky Oaks preps feature after the turn of the calendar. The Winter/Spring meet’s 20 stakes races worth $3.977 million include a new addition to the Road to the Kentucky Derby–the one-mile $125,000 Leonnatus Stakes on Jan. 16, awarding Kentucky Derby points on a 10-5-3-2-1 scale.

The Leonatus is one of three Derby qualifiers at Turfway, with the Feb. 20 John Battaglia Memorial Stakes the final local lead-up to the Jeff Ruby Steaks, worth 100 points and a guaranteed spot in the Derby to the winner. One night earlier, fillies contest the Cincinnati Trophy. Both the Battaglia and Cincinnati Trophy award points on a 20-10-6-4-2 scale.

The Jeff Ruby is one of a half-dozen stakes on Mar. 20. The co-features are the GIII TwinSpires Kentucky Cup Classic and the $300,000 Bourbonette Oaks, which offers points on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks on a 50-25-15-10 scale.

Click here for the Holiday Meet condition book.

The post Jeff Ruby Steaks Highlights Record Turfway Winter/Spring Stakes Schedule appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.