LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Keeneland November horses of racing age sale has cultivated vibrant trade, so much so that the growing marketplace became a stand-alone event last year, rather than being folded into its prior home, the second week of the Keeneland November breeding stock sale. Along with a catalog full of young horses, and some older graded stakes winners, this year’s sale has an added dose of intrigue thanks to the late addition of Rich Strike, upset winner of the 2022 Kentucky Derby. The Keeneland November horses of racing age sale begins at noon Friday. An initial catalog of 277 horses was unveiled in October, but Keeneland will continue to review supplemental entrants until the day of the sale, allowing connections to remain flexible with their plans, or allowing owners to strike while the iron is hot with recent winners. With Rich Strike, who will go through the ring near the start of the session, among the supplements, the catalog had grown to 329 entrants as of Wednesday morning. Rich Strike, a 4-year-old son of Keen Ice owned by Rick Dawson’s RED TR-Racing, has not raced since finishing fifth in the Grade 2 Alysheba Stakes on May 5 at Churchill Downs, his first start in more than five months. The following week, Eric Reed resigned as the colt’s trainer, due to differences with Dawson over media deals to document their story and image rights. :: Bet with the Best! Get FREE All-Access PPs and Weekly Cashback when you wager on DRF Bets. Rich Strike had been in light training this summer and fall at Margaux Farm in Midway, Ky., with Dawson scheduling the colt for regular vet checks after a spring exam showed what the owner termed at the time as “some issues often present in racehorses in training and/or actively racing.” As recently as the first week of November, Dawson said the colt would imminently join new trainer Bill Mott at his winter base in Florida. However, he has now been retired. “Over the past few months, Rich Strike was given the opportunity to rehab and return to his top racing form,” Dawson said in a press release. “However, nagging injuries have prevented that from happening. I’m hopeful now that Rich Strike finds a new home and begins a second career as a stallion.” Rich Strike has not won since the 2022 Derby, in which he rallied from 15th at the quarter pole with an inside move for a shocking upset by three-quarters of a length. His winning payout of $163.60 made him the second-longest shot to ever win the Derby, behind only Donerail in 1913. The colt, who additionally has three stakes placings, retires with earnings of more than $2.5 million. Keeneland vice president of sales Tony Lacy called Rich Strike, who he expects to appeal to international buyers, a “rare offering.” History backs up that assertion. In the past four decades, only two male Kentucky Derby winners have been offered at public auction following their classic wins. Both came in a vastly different marketplace in the 1990s, and at different points of their careers due to changes in their ownership circumstances. About a year after winning the Derby, Strike the Gold brought $2.9 million in a sale Fasig-Tipton conducted at Belmont Park in May 1992. Two of his three feuding owners, Bill Condren and Joe Cornacchia, bought out a third, B. Giles Brophy, to dissolve a partnership. At that point, Strike the Gold had lost 12 straight races – although he had placed in six stakes – following his Derby win. He went on to win two more graded stakes before eventually retiring following a 1993 campaign. :: DRF BREEDING LIVE: Real-time coverage of breeding and sales Sea Hero, winner of the 1993 Kentucky Derby and two additional Grade 1 events, retired to stud at Lane’s End in Kentucky in 1995. His owner and breeder, the esteemed Paul Mellon, died at age 91 in February 1999. Later that year, Sea Hero was offered at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale as part of a dispersal of Mellon’s holdings. He was purchased for $700,000 and spent the rest of his stud career in Turkey. As evidenced by Sea Hero, international entities often shop Kentucky’s mixed sales for stallion prospects who have yet to be snapped up by a major U.S. farm. Higher-end stallion prospects are typically not offered at public auction, with the norm being private terms being reached between farms and owners. Often, entry in a sale serves as informal advertising that a retired or actively racing horse is available as a stallion prospect. A private deal may then be reached prior to the scheduled date of sale, with the horse then scratched. As of Wednesday morning, Rich Strike was still scheduled to go through the ring, along with graded stakes winners First Captain, King Fury, and We the People, multiple stakes winner Eye Witness, and multiple Grade 1-placed Reinvestment Risk. All but Rich Strike are cataloged as racing or stallion prospects. Rich Strike will be consigned by Candy Meadows Farm, as agent for Dawson. Rich Strike was expected to arrive at Keeneland for pre-sale showing on Wednesday. At last year’s debut Keeneland November horses of racing age sale, 161 horses sold through the ring – illustrating the flexible nature of plans for these entrants, there were 155 outs – for gross receipts of $11,029,500. The average price was $68,506, while the median was $35,000. The buyback rate was 25 percent. :: Get Daily Racing Form Past Performances – the exclusive home of Beyer Speed Figures “This is a perfect time of year for a racehorse sale as it allows people to add racehorses to their barns in preparation for the winter season,” Keeneland director of sales operations Cormac Breathnach said. The sale was topped by the $1 million Extortion, purchased by Gandaharvi Racing, as a partnership dissolution between that owner and China Horse Club gave the sale a big initial boost. The top three prices, as well as five of the top eight, were purchased by one of those two entities as a buyout. Now 3, Extortion was unplaced in a pair of maiden special weights earlier this year in California. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.