A CONDENSED renewal of the Keeneland January Sale produced two millionaire broodmares and turnover of $53,580,300 – the highest yielded by the sale since 2008.
The 700 horses sold over two days marked a minor drop from 12 months ago, when the sale was spread over three days, yet the aggregate increased by 34%. The average price and median price each grew by 36% to $76,625 and $30,000 respectively.
Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm topped the buyers’ table with a single purchase, the sales-topper Tiffany Case, costing $ 3.2million – 10 times the figure paid by D.J. Stable for the Uncle Mo mare in 2019. The previous January, Nicole Jamgotchian secured her for $30,000, and in the interim, her half-sister won a Grade 3 and chased home Monomoy Girl in the Grade 1 Acorn Stakes.
Fast forward to the present day and Tiffany Case’s two foals of racing age are both graded stakes performers, with Nitrogen gaining a Grade 1 victory and going close another twice at the highest level last season. The daughter of Medaglia d’Oro also placed in two Grade 1s as a juvenile, including behind Lake Victoria in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.
Her dam, now a 13-year-old, was consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency in foal to sire-of-the-moment Not This Time, whose fee rises to $250,000 this season. Following her sale, Frank Taylor revealed that D.J. Stable intend to race her Gun Runner yearling filly, hoping she can emulate homebred star Nitrogen.
“That’s one of the reasons they decided to sell her,” Taylor explained. “Every time [Tiffany Case] has a foal, it’s an ‘A’ individual, so that was good money for her. Not This Time had 17 yearlings bring over a million (dollars) in 2025, and none of them were bred as good as this foal’s going to be bred. Hopefully they have luck with it.”
Home run for Hogan
Irish-born, Toronto-based agent Richard Hogan was the man responsible for consigning the sale’s other seven-figure mare, First Lady Stakes heroine Simply In Front, who brought $ 2million from Greg Tramontin’s Greenwell Thoroughbreds.
Hogan had purchased the daughter of Summer Front at Keeneland September for $115,000 on behalf of Colebrook Farms, for whom she earned $ 2.9million, won a total of four stakes and placed in three more.
Following the sale, Hogan reflected: “It all happened fast for sure. We were hoping [the price would be] around there. John (Brnjas of Colebrook Farms) is a racing guy, and he has had a wonderful run with her. She’s been great.”
Simply In Front’s new owner, Greg Tramontin, bought Siena Farm in 2024 and hopes his latest purchase will put the now renamed Greenwell Farm on the map. “We’re excited about getting this one,” he said. “We think she is going to be a foundation mare for the farm. We bought Hip 91, from the same family — we got both of the horses we were after.”
Tramontin added that Simply In Front will visit Not This Time for her maiden cover. She is a half-sister to three stakes performers, including Natalma Stakes winner And One More Time.
Gun Runner gold
Marc Gunderson’s MWG signed for the highest-priced weanling of the sale, a Gun Runner colt out of Grade 2 winner and Grade 1 third Deceptive Vision. Consigned by Hill ‘n’ Dale at Xalapa, agent, the chesnut is a half-brother to the three times graded-placed Ancient Peace.
Gunderson commented: “I’ve got like four Gun Runners in training in Ocala right now prepping for the future. The ones I like all look the same. They’re athletic and guess what? He looked the same, and I couldn’t turn it down.”
Hill ‘n’ Dale Director of Bloodstock, Jes Sikura, added: “We had a lot of excitement (about him) coming into the sale. We’re thrilled with the result. There’s a lot of things happening in that family.”
Gunderson later gave $750,000 for the multiple graded-placed Not This Time mare Way To Be Marie. At the close of business, MWG had signed for 15 lots totaling $3,136,000. Gunderson, like Tramontin, invested in a farm in 2024, a 100-acre property in Paris, Kentucky.