Darley's Nyquist had a remarkable day during the opening session of Book 2 of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale Sept. 16, leading all sires by gross with 13 horses bringing $9.01 million.
Breeders Fred Hertrich III and John Fielding struck gold selling their Nyquist colt (Hip 642) for $2.25 million out of a Bernardini mare Hertrich purchased seven years ago for $40,000. The bay, consigned as Hip 642 by Taylor Made Sales Agency, was the highest-priced horse of the third session.
Via agents John Kimmel and Nick Sallusto, Alex and JoAnn Lieblong purchased the colt who is out of the placed Bernardini mare Hot Cha.
Alex Lieblong accompanied the agents at the sale and expressed his excitement with the colt.
"He just stood out," he said. "He's in a different class. Obviously the price showed that—someone else agreed with that! So if we can just get the check to clear, we'll be in good shape."
Lieblong believes this is the most he's ever paid for a horse for his successful stable, but he didn't balk at outlasting other potential buyers in the bidding.
"Well, at (age) 75, you don't hesitate as much as you used to," he quipped.
The colt will go next to Florida to the equine training facility Thorostock, founded by Sallusto.
"Then we'll figure out where he fits," Lieblong said. "But he's gorgeous. So pretty!"
Duncan Taylor, senior Thoroughbred consultant for Taylor Made Sales, praised the sales prep performed by Watercress Farm on Hip 642 before he joined their consignment. He said Taylor Made regarded him as a million-dollar horse but that his $2.25 million sales price was unexpected.
"Alex Lieblong, we've done business with him; he got the horse and John Kimmel's been a longtime friend of the Taylor family," he said. "So it's just awesome that they got the horse, and I hope he performs like he looks like he (can). He's just very smart, great-looking, couldn't fault him, and just was really a nice horse."
Hot Cha is a half sibling to four stakes winners, two of them graded, including Hot and Sultry, who the Lieblongs campaigned to win the 2023 Chilukki Stakes (G3) with trainer Norm Casse.
Hot Cha has produced six foals, four of racing age. Two have started with Swelter (Tiznow) being her lone winner. He is 4-for-32 lifetime with earnings of $79,412.
Nyquist is the fourth-leading stallion in North America. He stood the 2026 season for an advertised fee of $175,000 at Darley near Lexington.
Earlier in the day, Hip 415, another colt by Nyquist, commanded $1.75 million from RTM Racing. Hip 415 is out of the Bernardini mare Sibaaq, who is a full sister to Takaful. He was bred and consigned by Claiborne Farm.
READ: RTM Racing Goes to $1.75M for Nyquist Colt at Keeneland
Nyquist's highest-priced filly of the day was Hip 537, who brought $1 million from Douglas Scharbauer, who was the session's leading buyer with five purchases totaling $3.85 million. He has purchased 10 horses so far in the sale for a total of $9.5 million.
Scharbauer, who bought Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner Always a Runner at this sale two years ago, looks to be on the hunt for his next filly superstar, as eight of his 10 purchases have been fillies.
The filly received a timely update under the second dam when Starship Warpspeed's son Leading Change won the Travers Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course. Starship Warpspeed is also the dam of 2020 Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner Shedaresthedevil.
Hip 537 was bred in Kentucky by Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm and consigned by Gainesway, who was the leading consignor, selling 29 from its draft for a total of $10.89 million.
"We have Shedaresthedevil, and Mandy bought this mare before a lot of this was going on to be a part of it," said Todd Quast, general manager and racing manager of Whisper Hill Farm. "We had a little hard luck with her, with a few foals that didn't work out, but this filly was just beautiful, and Mandy loved her.
"I thought she was a very athletic filly. We got a chance to see her move at the farm. I was hoping we'd actually keep her and train her because I think she not only has the pedigree, but I'm more on the physical training standpoint, and she was all about that. I think other people saw that as well, and that's why we were rewarded."
The highest-priced filly of the third session was Hip 516, a daughter of Gun Runner out of the stakes-winning and graded stakes-placed mare Another Broad, who brought $1.55 million from Mayberry Farm, acting as agent for Lee and Susan Searing's C R K Stable.
Hip 516 was consigned by Farfellow Farms, who bred the filly with GRS. She is the most expensive horse sold by the young consignment.
READ: Farfellow Farms-Bred Gun Runner Filly Commands $1.5M
Day 3 Statistics
At the end of the third session, 227 horses had changed hands for gross receipts of $91,997,500, including private sales. That number was up slightly from last year's gross on the corresponding session, when 246 horses brought $89,897,000. The average price was up 10.9% to $405,275, and the median stayed the same at $300,000. Eighty-one horses failed to meet their reserve, resulting in an RNA rate of 26.3%.
"When you're in the middle of the sale, you're seeing the real trade," said Tony Lacy, Keeneland's vice president of sales. "The good horses were bringing incredible prices. I think everybody was getting rewarded for the horses that people gravitated toward. As we compare with last year—last year we set the bar in the stratosphere. Now that we're trending above, that means we're still riding at a very high level in the market.
"You could see a little bit of frustration from buyers that wanted the ones they wanted," Lacy added. "They were having to really reach for them and that's good. The breeders got well rewarded."
Lacy explained how important these successes are to keep smaller breeders going.
"This is really meaningful to them," he said. "It changes a lot of their year. It's wonderful to see these stories where that means so much. That replaces fence, it replaces equipment. It allows them to be able to move forward next year, pay stud fees.
"It's all great on the board, but you know what that means in real life, and watching them take a deep sigh of relief in many cases, as production costs go up, they're able to keep turning the wheel. They're really good at what they do."
Fourteen horses brought $1 million or more during the third session, bringing the total for the sale at this point to 55. The high-water mark for seven-figure yearlings for the entire sale is 56, set at last year's record sale.
Cormac Breathnach, Keeneland's senior director of sales operations, noted that the higher RNA rate is indicative that not everybody is getting exactly what they want out of the market.
"Most people are, so we're just going to do our best to keep it going through tomorrow, reassess on the dark day on Friday, and then we get into the rapids and go into books 3 through 5B," he said.
The second and final day of Book 2 starts at 11 a.m. ET Sept. 17, with hips 758-1136 set to head to the ring. As of Wednesday evening, Keeneland had reported 43 outs.
