By Sarah Mace
By the conclusion of Book 2 trading at Keeneland’s 2023 September Yearling sale, a group of youngsters from Chester and Mary Broman’s award-winning breeding program at Chestertown Farm enjoyed the greatest success of the New York-bred contingent.
Five of the Bromans’ Book 2 yearlings, all of whom were consigned on the couple’s behalf by Sequel New York, successfully changed hands in Thursday’s Session 4. At the head of the class was an Into Mischief half-brother to multiple stakes winner and millionaire Mr. Buff, who brought a cool half-million dollars. The New York-bred filly topper was a McKinzie yearling out of a relatively new addition to the Broman’s broodmare band, who drew a winning bid of $400,000.
The $500,000 Into Mischief colt, a bay foaled on April 2, 2022 and offered as Hip 1071, was purchased by L&N Racing. His dam is Ontario-bred Speightful Affair, who was purchased by the Bromans for the relatively modest price of $80,000 at the 2013 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Winter Mixed sale.
Speightful Affair is a graded stakes performer by Speightstown, all of whose five foals to start are winners. Her first foal for the Bromans, however, has been most successful of them all to date: Mr. Buff. A proverbial win machine and fan favorite, Mr. Buff won 11 stakes races from 48 lifetime starts, including successful title defenses in the Jazil Stakes (2019-21), Empire Classic Handicap (2019-2020) and Alex M. Robb (2018-2019). His earnings bankroll when he retired in 2021 amounted to $1,403,536.
Of Speightful Affair’s other progeny, her Scat Daddy gelding Daddy Knows has banked $436,455 from 38 starts to date, and her colt by Accelerate, Quick to Accuse, is a stakes performer. The sale colt is Speightful Affair’s seventh foal. Barren in 2023, she was bred this year to Early Voting.
The top New York-bred filly of Book 2 was Hip 994, a bay from the first crop of McKinzie out of Naughty Joker. The winning bidder, Talla Racing / Kim Lloyd, Agent, signed the ticket for $400,000 for the March 28, 2022 filly.
The McKinzie filly is the first foal out of Naughty Joker, a daughter of Into Mischief who was bred in Kentucky by Ken and Sarah Ramsey. A stakes winner and half-sister to two stakes performers, she was purchased from Ramsey Farm by the Bromans for $430,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Mixed sale. Barren in 2023, she has been bred to Essential Quality. The filly’s third dam, Fly Borboleta, is a graded stakes performer and stakes producer.
Through two books (and four sessions) of trading at Keeneland September, spanning Monday to Thursday, September 11-14, ten New York-breds have changed hands from 16 to go through the ring, for total sales of $2,780,000 and a fairly high 37.5 RNA percentage, which should moderate in later books. The New York-bred average price was $278,000 and the median came in at $252,000. A $525,000 Candy Ride colt who sold in the second session of Book 1 on Tuesday still holds the spot as New York-bred topper to date.
After a dark day on Friday, September 15, the sale will continue without interruption through Saturday, September 23.
