It was not business as usual at Keeneland Tuesday. The sales company postponed day two of the September yearling sale after attacks earlier on New York City and Washington, D. C.

"Due to the unprecedented events of the day we feel it was best to wait until tomorrow," said Keeneland Director of Communications Jim Williams. "We plan to resume tomorrow (Wednesday) at 10 a.m."

After learning of the attacks on the World Trade Center, Keeneland at first delayed the start of the sale Tuesday until 11 a.m. Sales officials made the decision to postpone the day entirely around 10:30.

"In the interim we consulted with our major consignors and our major buyers and quickly reached a decision to not try to continue today," Williams said, "I think our customers appreciated that given what has happened."

By noon, there were still several buyers visiting the barn areas for another look at a yearling. Consignors were on their cell phones with clients. But the walking ring and the sales pavilion were empty. Everyone was talking about the tragedy of the day.

"This was the best decision especially with our important foreign buyers here," said one consignor, "Who'd ever thought they'd attack the Pentagon?"

On Monday Keeneland's sales pavilion was filled with buyers, including Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum of Dubai and Saudi Prince Ahmed bin Salman, as well as several of Europe's top owners and breeders.

The security of Keeneland though was not the reason for postponement according to Williams. "We do have an international clientele but that wasn't why we chose to wait until tomorrow. We naturally did take precautions and heighten our security internally, but again given what's happened today, we feel everyone would rather wait another day."

On Monday, Sheik Mohammed paid the top price of $5.5 million for a Storm Cat colt. 156 horses sold for $60,331,000 on day one of the twelve -day sale.