LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) \u2014 In a year or two, many of these horses will be galloping down the homestretch at Keeneland, Churchill Downs, or any of America\u2019s premier racing venues.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026This is the next generation, where the next possible Derby runners are coming from, or Oaks, or Breeders’ Cup,\u201d said Keeneland Vice President of Sales, Tony Lacy.<\/p>\n
Friday is a Dark Day inside the sales pavilion, but the first four days generated record-setting sales. More than 307 million dollars were spent on these one-year-old thoroughbreds, with 53 of them fetching at least one million dollars each.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sport is in a really good spot right now, and that’s why you’ve got a lot of people who want to come in,\u201d Lacy said.<\/p>\n
With Jason Werth (MLB), Alex Bregman (MLB), and other celebrities, too, Marshawn Lynch (NFL) is getting into the game. It\u2019s just starting to get cool again after some negative press over obvious stuff, but the sport has become a lot safer over the years,\u201d Lacy said.<\/p>\n
Lacy said horse racing offers the retired professional athlete a similar competitive outlet to the one they had when they played.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey understand the competitive nature. It\u2019s an adrenaline rush they miss that they get in racing,\u201d Lacy explained.<\/p>\n
Sales resume Saturday at 10 a.m., and Mr. Lacy said there will be some great value available. During Friday\u2019s Dark Day, potential buyers were out back by the barns getting a look at the inventory.<\/p>\n
\u201cFuriously looking, first looks, second looks, trying to narrow down their choices. It\u2019s recruiting. It’s a massive recruiting process,\u201d Lacy said.<\/p>\n
The financial impact of the sales period is significant in Lexington and around the state, too. Hotels, restaurants, and rental cars are all part of the economic equation during the September sales month. So are the taxes that\u2019ll be paid.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s sales tax involved in Yearlings, there is a 6% sales tax for horses that remain in the state and are trained here, and quite a few of them do,\u201d Lacy said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) \u2014 In a year or two, many of these horses will be galloping down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-419541","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115193681239231955","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}