Is anyone else watching?
I must say, I don’t think I have ever seen a more beautiful thoroughbred yearling than Hip #122, the Medaglia D’Oro colt out of the Irish mare Anne of Kiev. Absolutely, stunningly, gorgeous.
In a sale comprised of well bred yearlings with very good conformation there have been many very beautiful animals. He really stood out (to me).
Hip # 129 ,the Animal Kingdom colt, was another one that took my fancy.
The War Front/Maryinsky filly was RNA at $1,000,000.00
Truly some beautiful horses went through the ring. Lots of happy sellers with median and average way up. Only a few sold for under $100K.
I was happy to see my horse’s younger 1/2 sister sell for $210,000 to a good racing home. She looked good in the ring. Hopefully she has a bright future.
Haven’t had a chance to watch due to work. Will have to return to the FT site to see if there are replays of their sale to check our your picks, Skydy. 
In the meantime, next week in the NY Sale, Lisa’s Booby Trap has a colt(I think?) by Big Brown. Wonder if he’s a nice yearling.
ETA: Here’s the link! http://www.fasigtipton.com/fasig-tiptontv/StreamingVideo.php
I’ll need to win the lottery to buy one of those horses. I get the Bloodhorse alerts, and some are $850000 plus. A little pricey for my bank account.
Half-sister to one of our mares sold to John Oxley for 410K. I hope she does great for him.
What fun JJ’sLuckyTrain and LaurieB!
My picks did not attract the highest bids of the sale (they never do) but they did well. The Medaglia D’Oro colt sold for 575K and the Animal Kingdom for 750K.
Sounds like I need to try some “virtual” buying. Might be fun to pick before the auction and see where they end up and it wouldn’t cost me a dime 
I always like reading about the pedigrees of the top sales horses and sometimes wonder why a specific horse went so high or, in some cases, not as high as I would have expected.
Thorostride posts some videos in advance as do some of the consignors and sales agencies. I enjoy watching those as well as looking through the catalog. I pick my favorites make notes and see how “mine” do. Of course not all the horses have videos available. The two I liked best at Saratoga I had an eye on because of their pedigrees, there was no video, and oh boy, they were both lovely.
Taylor Made had their whole consignment for Saratoga up on video on their web site.
One had a video I didn’t like at all and it sold very well.
There are two up on Thorostride for the NY sale so far https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tv7S…FwTDNcSR818XBc
Often those that do post videos don’t post them until a day or two before the sale.
Thans skydy. Yeah, having the video would be nice in lieu of actually being on-site but sounds like my strategy is about like yours… pedigree to start with (which is where I’d start if I did have the $$ 
) and then go on first appearances.
I suspect part of my video evaluation would be more based on sport horse goals than race track however
I have been trying to follow him at KatieRich Farm, but they haven’t been too forthcoming with photos.
I see KatieRich listed as owners. Did they buy Lisa?
I found a photo of the Animal Kingdom colt https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/222991/animal-kingdom-colt-sells-to-best-for-750-000?utm_source=NewsAlert&utm_medium=email
Another interesting thing is to do a check on top selling horses a few years down the road. I did that for a Keeneland Sept. sale and it was interesting how many VERY expensive babies were duds at the track. This is really a game for folks who can afford to throw money away.
This very much so.
Race at Del Mar last weekend (the 6th on 8/5, the Sorrento Stakes GII). Baffert trained filly Diamondandpearls finished 4th out of 7 after finishing 1st in her first outing. Bought for $1.7M at the Ocala Breeders Sale in March after being bound at Keenland September for $250K (someone made a nice profit ).
The filly that won the Sorrento was Spectator who is currently breeder owned.
Diamondandpearls could put up a better performance in her next race, but the 4th place run I wasn’t overly impressed with.
Definitely truth to the adage of breed the best to the best and hope for the best.
I agree. It is fascinating to look back and see how (relatively) inexpensively some of the best racehorses were purchased at auction.
I can understand the price paid for some fillies,they will be valuable as breeding stock no matter their race record.
Have you ever noticed some of the advertisements for off the track TBs ? I am amused by the “sold for 450k as a yearling”. It doesn’t seem to mean much, except that at the time of sale they most likely had fashionable breeding and had no obvious conformation abnormalities.
Some this this “hype” may be to help attract the, shall we say, less race track knowledgable that don’t realize a yearling or two year old in training auction price is still in the wishful thinking you have the next TC winner
I bought my mare from someone who got her through a CA TB auction… she was BC nominated (never even saw a track as best as I can tell as racing would have been far too much work for her ). And no, didn’t buy her because of that and didn’t pay for a price either.
Looking at the cost of breeding a TB foal and getting it to the track–or a sale–the BC nom is a drop in the bucket ($400 if paid by 10/15 of the year the foal is born). And for a young TB who is intended to go to one of the major sales, lack of that nomination can be a psychological deterrent to buyers. The majority of foals are nominated “just in case”.
LaurieB, I know that’s why she was nominated… just in case
In her case, coulda saved the $$ (I think her nomination fee was maybe $100 as it would have been 1989). I would agree that in most cases, the just in case is cheaper than having to shell out a later nomination fee.
I was lucky enough one year to accompany a consultant to the Sept Keeneland sale. Think we were there for the 2nd and 3rd days of sales endlessly walking and taking notes. (And I loved every minute!)
I did exactly what you suggested, JJ. Had my own little list.
And did pick out one fella who did ok for himself - placed in one or two graded stakes - but stopped keeping track, and have forgotten his name now. Most of them, however, never to be seen again. But the owner friend was there for as a consultant has done very well, concentrating in breeding now.
I have never found this to be true. Well, not never in the first 10 years or so of the BC being nominated may have carried some weight. But in the end IME being nominated or not isn’t doesn’t add anything to the final purchase price. Nor sway a buyer to pass if not nominated.
I have not nominated in almost 10 years. Pretty much since the BC stopped offering additional purse money to BC nominated horses in numerous “small” stake races. The kind of races that the vast majority of horses have a shot of running in. The BC also pulled BC money from the end of the year Steeplechase Championship race. Total BS and another insult to the “stepbrothers” of flat racing. ALL American Steeplechase horses have to be TBs. The total given was only a few hundred thousand.
The BC sent one of their representatives to our farm to discuss why we had stopped nominating. I told them the above. The guy tried to tell me my horses won’t bring as much at auction. I chuckled and said I’ve been doing this a long time. As a breeder (small one) and a buyer for my own small account and for people as agent who buy at the highest levels. If we liked the horse they bought it nominated or not. Could care less, it never had a bearing on what we valued the horse at. Hardly ever came up in conversation.
The chances of owning or breeding a horse that will be good enough to run in the BC let alone win, place or show is a heck of a long shot. It the horse should be good enough he/she would have won more than enough money to pay the additional supplement fee. Didn’t work out too well for the folks that paid $200.000 to supplement Fast and Accurate in the Derby. He finished 17th. And hasn’t come close to winning a race since.
The BC breeder award is only $10,000. Or the cost of 20 foals. A friend of mine managed a very prominent Breeder’s mares for over 20 years and bred 1 BC winner. They had a very large broodmare band of “blue bloods” by and large. He figured his boss paid hundreds of 1000s in nomination fees over the years. Felt it was a total waste of money.
IMO and I am not alone the BC money would be far better spent and do far more for breeders and owners if it were spread around instead of “blowing” the whole wad on 1 day of racing on horses that hardly need it.
To each their own on this.
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