What Does a Brisk Market Look Like?

By Ian Tapp

What does a brisk market look like?—probably something like the 2013 Keeneland September sale. The charts below plot prices of sold yearlings (up to $1 million) by hip number for the 2009-13 Keeneland September sales. Just a quick visual comparison of 2009 vs. the first half of 2013 suggests that the yearling market has rebounded significantly in the past four years.

The 2013 sale's extended Book 1 format spread out the top horses across the early sessions, so it will be interesting to monitor how sharply the median (currently $120K) tapers off during the second half of the sale. (See updated chart)