Alicia Wincze Hughes on horse racing

Amidst the surge of action in the Keeneland sales pavilion on Thursday, the commercial marketplace saw the end of a spectacular era come to fruition.

This week saw some of the last yearlings from the final crop of leading sire A.P. Indy go through the ring during the first four days of the September yearling sale. Though 15 of his offspring were cataloged, nine ended up selling for a total of $4,195,000 and an average of $466,111.

Hip No. 1015 will go into the books as the last A.P. Indy yearling to sell, going to trainer Mark Casse for $200,000. The highest priced offering of the bunch was the filly A.P Sonata, who was purchased for $1.1 million by Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm.

A.P. Indy, who was the highest priced yearling of 1990 when he brought $2.9 million at the now defunct Keeneland July yearling sale, has been pensioned from stud duty at Lane’s End since last April. The 1992 Horse of the Year and commercial marketplace dynamo has led all sires by average at the Keeneland September sale three times including the last two years.

“We’ll still have his daughters and sons to sell but we very much consider A.P. Indy Keeneland’s horse,” said Geoffrey Russell, Keeneland’s director of sales. “He was our July sale topper. We were very proud of him then, we’re very proud of his race record and his career and his stud career. His legacy will last forever through his sons and daughters. But it is a sad occassion when the last one sells.

“I thought there would be more of a premium on them, especially the daughters because he is such a phenomenal broodmare sire. But that is the marketplace.”