Except in this case, Flay has already made out as he was the breeder (B. Flay Thoroughbreds) so he’s made his $$ 
Talking here specifically about Hip 174, the $1.5M Curlin colt out of Bobby’s nice broodmare America.
My mistake. Was just trying to make the point that this level of the business might be beyond a simplistic “pretty horse” viewpoint. To the point of Flay as a breeder, as well as Repole, in the past these guys would have been looking to invest in their own farms but have chosen not to. In NY storm clouds are forming with another of the old guard, Chester Broman, winding down with no new money ready to step in at that level and volume.
I don’t know if I would say that storm clouds are gathering. Chester Broman is 84, it’s not surprising that he’s decreasing his involvement in TB breeding as a means of estate planning. Regardless, the NY breeding program remains the healthiest in the country behind only Kentucky.
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Understand completely that he has to plan his estate, but no younger money is making a similar commitment. A lot of the older farm owners have scaled back with less drama, but also soon to be missed is the leadership these people provided which helped NY breeding get to where it is. Those such as Broman, Al Fried, Jr., Vivian Malloy, and Barry Schwartz helped bring a better horse into the NY bred program and as they age, none of the younger set seem to have the commitment to a major operation.
That statement leads me to believe that you have absolutely no experience with thoroughbred breeding.
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Why? because I really liked an American Pharoah colt out of a nice mare from the Gio Ponti family>? The sale was filled with class horses but this was my pick. HIs dam won over $518k on the track in graded stakes. Youre to Blame out of the same mare has similar winnings. Its a great female family and by a very promising triple crown sire. Whats not to like.
Similar to my handicapping skills. I was at Saratoga over the weekend and bet on Bon Jovi Girls’ You’re To Blame (by Distorted Humor) based on my having a chuckle over the name. I had to play the song for Mr. Beach, who apparently was not a Bon Jovi fan in his youth, and our whole section had a little sing-a-long.
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To be fair, Bon Jovi Girl is a nice mare. Bought by Denali Stud in January 2010 for $950,000. I like her more because she’s a Malibu Moon daughter more than because she’s Gio Ponti’s half sister.
Coolmore liked Bon Jovi Girl’s AP son enough to go $950,000 for him at this sale.
I personally think that the price of some of the AP offspring are still riding the young stallion wave where AP’s offspring are still limited in numbers in track experience.
Maybe an AP-Bon Jovi Girl yearling isn’t everyone’s cup of tea (I’d probably be looking at others over this colt) but still not, IMO, a bad choice.
There are a lot of people who are not understanding the sudden demand for the Curlin’s who were high sellers. Yea, they were beautiful. Probably vetted clean as well (I hope they did for that money). Curlin has been around for awhile. He’s been the leading sire for lifetime earnings by index. He’s had over 50 stakes winners. He is a good sire and he sires good horses. But his yearling average price is between $250k - 300k. He is #5 top sire for 2019 and not in any previous, recent sales/years has Curlin offspring demanded such high prices to be sale toppers. Left some people scratching their head why all of a sudden he had two young yearlings sell for 1.5 million.
I wasn’t criticizing the choice of that particular horse. My comment was in response to the poster saying that there was only one horse that they really liked in the second session.
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Who is not understanding this? 
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You aren’t making yourself clear. I don’t think you really understand what you are talking about. No one here is surprised that people were willing to bid for those colts.
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Do you really think that people would spend that amount of $$ (ie, mid-high 6 figures) on horses that didn’t vet “clean”?
I also suspect that ‘beauty’ didn’t figure much into the choice as much as conformation, behavior, pedigree, movement (in no particular order). They aren’t buying horses to be pretty in the shed or on the track… they’re buying horses that hopefully will perform on the track and/or in the shed.
I might buy one that is ‘pretty’ but then again, I don’t have that amount of $$ to blow either :lol:
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Yes, somehow I would guess that breeding was one factor. :lol: Those colts didn’t spring fully formed from Curlin’s head. I don’t think snaffle is thinking things through.
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