LEXINGTON, Ky. – Lady Eli, the popular Eclipse Award champion who captivated the racing world with her fiery spirit and triumph over laminitis, drew one last public round of applause on Monday as she lit up the bid board at $4.2 million at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale. Lady Eli, who sold to Hill 'n' Dale Farm, and My Miss Sophia, purchased for $4 million by bloodstock agent Steve Young, highlighted robust trade during Monday's single-session Book 1 portion at Keeneland November. A total of 120 horses sold for gross receipts of $56,429,000. The average price finished at $470,242, while the median was $350,000. Keeneland tweaked the format of its November mixed sale this year, becoming more selective with the marquee Book 1 offerings by cutting this portion of the sale from two days down to the single session. As such, session-to-session figures at this point are not comparable. The two sessions comprising Book 1 last year closed with 201 horses sold for revenues of $83,996,000. The average price finished at $417,891, and the median was $300,000, meaning 2018's single session showed gains in those figures for this portion of the market. Monday's buyback rate closed at 26 percent, compared with a cumulative 24 percent for Book 1 last year. "Each of those key indicators [showed] really strong trade up and down," Bob Elliston, Keeneland's vice president of racing and sales, said. "We're very pleased with how the sale is getting started, and I think it's as we forecast, there's continued strength in the domestic market in the U.S." :: Get breeding & sales news, Beyer info, and more delivered right to your email! A total of eight horses changed hands for seven figures on the day, led by Lady Eli who will return to the farm she shipped to the sale grounds from. Hill 'n' Dale has been boarding Lady Eli for the last year, since her retirement from the racetrack following the 2017 Breeders' Cup, and consigned her on behalf of the Sheep Pond Partners of Jay Hanley and Sol Kumin. Hill 'n' Dale's John Sikura ultimately decided to add the Divine Park mare to his broodmare band. She is carrying her first foal, which is believed to be a colt, to the cover of successful international sire War Front. "We're thrilled to add her to our broodmare band," Sikura said. "We try to keep adding elite-quality mares and keep upping the competition and looking to the future, and she's a mare who really is everything that one could ask for. Courage, heart, class, ability, physicality, in foal to a great horse, carrying a colt. It's a lot of money for a horse, but it's extremely good value, and we're thrilled to own her." Lady Eli won the first six starts of her career, including the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and 2015 Belmont Oaks. But heading back to the barn after the latter race, she sustained a hoof injury that developed into laminitis. Lady Eli successfully beat back that dreaded disease and returned to the races 14 months later, winning the Grade 1 Flower Bowl Invitational and finishing a narrow second in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf in a brief 2016 campaign. Lady Eli had been cataloged for the 2016 Keeneland November sale, as Kumin and Hanley do not have breeding operations, but the partners withdrew her in favor of racing one more season. She rewarded them richly with wins in the Grade 1 Gamely and Grade 1 Diana stakes. However, in the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf – which was scheduled to be her final start, as she was again cataloged at Keeneland November – she endured a rough break from the starting gate and was stepped on, losing a shoe and eventually finishing seventh, the only unplaced effort of her career. Lacerations to her hind legs led to her again being scratched from the sale in order to recover. Ultimately, she finished her career with a record of 10-3-0 from 14 starts, earnings of more than $2.9 million, and the 2017 divisional Eclipse Award. “I can’t say enough about this horse,” said Chad Brown, who trained Lady Eli throughout her career. “She is the best turf horse I have ever trained. She has the heart of a champion. She is equine perfection. She is the personification of world-class talent, courage, precocity, soundness, and, above all, the will to win. Lady Eli always brought her best game. She didn’t need a racetrack, a condition, a position in the race, or a distance, and she certainly never needed an excuse. It’s unlikely I will ever have another one like her.” Brown and Hanley – who said he had "butterflies" – were in the Keeneland pavilion as Lady Eli entered the ring, with several cameras and cell phones held aloft to capture the moment. The bidding opened at $1 million, swiftly climbed to $2 million, and, with the mare showing her high spirits by dancing about in the ring, worked its way upward from there. In the end, the cameras converged on Sikura, who was seated toward the back of the pavilion. "Her courage is beyond reproach," Sikura said of the mare. "Every time she ran, she ran her eyeballs out. "She's indomitable. She has a no-nonsense approach. She tolerates people, but she knows she's special, and she commands your respect." Lady Eli is out of the winning Saint Ballado mare Sacre Coeur, making her a half-sister to multiple Grade 3 winner Bizzy Caroline. Later in the day, Young, bidding on behalf of an undisclosed client, went to $4 million for My Miss Sophia, who was consigned as agent by Lane's End. The Unbridled's Song mare was consigned carrying her second foal, also to the cover of War Front. Young said his familiarity with My Miss Sophia, as well as her Grade 1-winning half-brother Materiality, helped encourage him to pull the trigger on this high-ticket purchase. "I was around her through most of her career," Young said. "She ran second in the Kentucky Oaks, and two weeks later I bought Materiality in Maryland [at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale of 2-year-olds in training]. I didn't buy him because of her, but she emboldened us to buy him." My Miss Sophia won the Grade 2 Gazelle Stakes in the spring of her 3-year-old year, and finished second to champion Untapable in the Kentucky Oaks several weeks later. Later in her career, she moved to the turf, and was multiple graded stakes-placed, including a third in the Grade 1 First Lady Stakes behind champion Tepin. My Miss Sophia is out of the Grade 2-placed stakes winner Wildwood Flower, making her a half-sister to Materiality, winner of the Florida Derby. Wildwood Flower is a half-sister to several stakes horses, including Expanse, the dam of Grade 1 winners Afleet Express and Embellish the Lace. The day's two most expensive weanlings were fillies by Tapit. Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm and Three Chimneys Farm partnered on an $800,000 filly out of champion female sprinter La Verdad. The New York-bred filly was consigned by Eaton Sales, as agent. A Tapit filly who is a half-sister to champion and leading moneywinner Arrogate lit up the bid board at $750,000. The filly was consigned by Hill 'n' Dale, which co-owns her dam, Bubbler, with Clearsky Farm, which bred Arrogate. Clearsky bought out its original partners in this filly via the auction ring, along with Rac 04 Racing. Keeneland November's Book 2 section takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the sale continues with daily sessions through Nov. 16. "There's some tremendous quality in there with exceptional updates," Elliston said of Book 2. For hip-by-hip results, click here.