Keeneland's September Yearling Sale wrapped up Saturday having done something it also did a year ago: post the biggest gross in the history of Thoroughbred auctions. Over twelve sessions from September 14 to 26, buyers paid a combined $536,737,900 for 2,856 yearlings, topping the $510,517,900 the sale generated in 2025 and extending a streak of consecutive record years.
The average price per horse climbed 6.87% to $187,933, a record for the sixth straight year, while the median price rose to $85,000, a third consecutive record high. A record 70 yearlings each sold for $1 million or more, up from 56 the year before. The sale's top price, $3.7 million, went for an Into Mischief colt purchased by M.V. Magnier and Peter Brant's White Birch Farm from consignor Glennwood Farm, according to sale results reported by WKYT.
It's incredible to think that we set a worldwide record for a Thoroughbred auction just one year ago, and now we've surpassed it.
Shannon Arvin, Keeneland President and CEO
Why buyers keep paying more
The September sale is the sport's largest single marketplace for future racehorses, drawing buyers from Ireland, Japan, the Middle East and across North America to bid on yearlings sired by the industry's top stallions. Rising average and median prices in back-to-back record years point to deep-pocketed international demand outpacing the modestly larger catalog Keeneland offered this year, which totaled 4,635 cataloged horses across the twelve-session run.
Taylor Made Sales Agency topped the consignor rankings for the 27th consecutive year, selling 338 horses for $68.6 million. With racing purses climbing and breeding rights to a champion racehorse worth many multiples of a yearling's sale price, buyers have kept bidding up even the auction's middle tier, pushing both the average and the median to new highs rather than relying solely on a handful of seven-figure sales to inflate the total.
For a sale built around unproven, unraced horses, some barely a year old and sold purely on pedigree, physical inspection and a few timed workouts, the back-to-back records suggest confidence in the broader Thoroughbred market is still climbing rather than leveling off.