They are bid spotters.
If you picture the sales room as the lower half of a clock (the top half being the ring and auctioneers) EC stands where the “4” is, Ralph is around “5:30” and Roger is at “7”. I usually sit right next to Roger (or Mike when he’s on that shift). 
The Keeneland auctioneers–especially Chris Caldwell–occasionally interact with the bidders, but they never call them by name.
This filly was sure a looker. Happy to see her go to Pope
Filly, a half to Beholder, Mendelssohn, Into Mischief by AP 8.2 million.
Nice looking filly by CC. Think she is one of the ones that y’all were talking about earlier in this post.
https://www.facebook.com/taylormadea…type=3&sfns=mo
From the BH article it was both Coolmore and Godolphin that were the underbidders that finally caved to Mandy
and
“She has a lot more pedigree than some of (my broodmares), but she doesn’t have the race record yet,” said Pope, who recently opened her own training center at her Florida farm. "We have a lot of racing to do. I have my own training center now, so she’ll go and we’ll break her. We will have a track to get her ready to go. It’s a whole new addition to the farm.
Got it on ‘testing the water’.
I wasn’t thinking so much putting a horse where it probably didn’t belong (or ask to) but if you had 2 nice horses and wanted to keep one, how would you decide which one to place before the other (or request to), since, as you’ve said and yes, a bit of a cr*p shoot, if the first one sells, you’re keeping the second one but if the first one doesn’t sell, that’s your keeper. In a case like this, do you still have a “private” preference for which one you’d like to keep?
Great for Mandy. I cant imagine paying that sum for a yearling but nice to see an American with $$$ step up and win the war on something they really wanted. She will have a great, loved life with Mandy.
I really liked the (I think it was 1.4 million) American Pharoah colt that Magnier bought. Looked exactly like a carbon copy of his sire. Hes going to Bob Baffert to train and apparently Bob liked the ones he has in training so much, he bought a few others at the sale as well. AP sure does put the Balance and correctness in the ones we have seen thus far.
You don’t exactly get to pick which one goes first-- yes, you (through consignor) can request which book to place your horse. But from there, it’s alphabetical by dam name. And it doesn’t always start with “A”; sales companies usually like to have a “fireworks” horse near the end (like Leslie’s Lady) to keep butts in seats around to see/buy the other horses. Breeders can recommend their horse be placed in Book 3, but have no control what time of day the horse will sell.
FWIW, the big consignors carry a lot of weight in placing their horses, and can wiggle a “low” horse in where a little farm might be shoved out. As Laurie said, there is a lot of strategy involved to place a horse where it stands out in that book, yet also when the appropriate wallets are available to purchase. If you over hype and put a $40,000 Book 6 colt in Book 3, you aren’t doing him any favors; he’ll look really out of place among $100k horses and those buyers will pass him over. Whereas in Book 6, he may stand out and more “desperate” buyers might get in a little bidding war to drive the price up to $50k. A good bloodstock agent is like a savvy stockbroker, not just a keen eye for conformation and pedigree knowledge.
I can’t image some of the stress and games as it were that must go on with the larger consigners/bloodstock agents in the earlier books where, as you said, maybe alphabetical but not always starting with ‘A’ within a book (using your Leslie’s Lady example). I also get how important it is to get the horse in the “correct” book when sometimes it may be a bit of a cr*p shoot. I can see it being obvious about a Book 1 vs Book 6 but many less obvious Book 5 or 7 vs Book 6 (or so it would seem to me.
Speaking of Leslie’s Lady. Was listening to a short clip on TVG about the sale of the AP-LL filly and TVG noted that Leslie’s Lady ia not only a lovely blue hen mare (Beholder, Into Mischief, Mendelssohn) but she’s 22 years old. Granted that Beholder and Into Mischief aren’t 2-3YOs any longer but still to be having continuing nice horses at an age were often mares will tail off in quality.
Question for Laurie B and others who are at Keeneland - how is the new endoscopic video technology working out so far? Seems like a great idea to save the wear and tear on really popular horses tho I’m sure there will be some bugs to work out.
Out of curiosity, books 1-4 as of a few minutes ago, I looked at the top 10 sales prices. $8.2M down to $1.3M.
Of those 10 horses, Medaglia d’Oro 2, Tapit 2, American Pharoah 2, Curlin 1, War Front 1, Pioneerof the Nile 1, Empire Maker 1 with no repeats in the top 5.
8 colts, 2 fillies (the other besides the current sales topper was the Empire Maker-Lady Pewitt hip 485 filly)
For me, both no surprise stallions in the top 10 but interesting to see 2 APs when his get hasn’t really set foot on the track yet. Also was interesting that Curlin had only 1…
Fun to download the sales results into CSV and play with sorting in a spreadsheet (without having to fuss with the website 
).
One of the neat things behind the sale topping AP filly is her maternal line. that is what drove the price right up there. Beholder, Mendelsohn, and Into Mischief are her maternal siblings. And shes by a Triple Crown winning sire whos first offspring are doing well… Mandy is putting her into training but I will be surprised if she steps foot in a starting gate on race day. Merely purchases for the broodmare value there.
Its very interesting to see the wide array of prices paid for Tapit’s. One was listed as hammering down at $25k and marked sold. Probably something glaring on the vetting but someone took a bath on that stud fee. The most are in demand and commanding solid prices. APs earliest offspring’s success are helping his demand and the prices paid. Magnier likes them so much he’s often the one taking them home.
But high prices helps when you have 3 moneybags in the stands with more money than they know what to do with. The bidding wars don’t necessarily equate to the horse’s realistic value; its an ego thing and the history with Godolphin and Coolmore at sales has proven that.
I liked the outwork filly (what I could see of her). I wouldn’t let her go for what was bid. I wonder if she’ll be RNA.
@WheresMyWhite I think you mean sessions, not books. Book 1 had three sessions.The current lot is Book 2 which has two sessions.
A horse is worth what someone will pay for it.
Both Godolphin and Coolmore breed and race horses. They buy the best horses for their programs.
It’s a business thing, not an ego thing. When they both really want the same horse the bidding can get higher than most people think is reasonable, but it doesn’t happen that often.
I am still interested in why you think the C.C. get that you saw will be good turf horses.
After the Green Monkey fiasco, Coolmore and Godolphin have tempered their egos a bit. I don’t think the “competitive revenge” factor is what it used to be. They spend a lot of money, yes; but they are in the market for future stallions, and $3M for a yearling colt is a lot cheaper than what they paid for American Pharoah or Justify. If they spend $10M on 10 colts, one of them might make up for the other losses if he hits as a stallion.
Nyquist’s get are looking good. :yes:
Yes, they are no longer boycotting each others stallions. A victory for common sense.
The C.C. filly is a late out.
Nice Frosted ridgling. Frosted seems to be doing well. Curious if his tend to be good movers.
From what I can tell, the sellers/consignors have really embraced the idea. Some of the buyers are using it, others are still reserving judgement. I’m definitely seeing fewer vets running around the barns with scoping equipment.
It may take a year or two for everyone to get used to the idea but it’s definitely the way of the future. The consignor we use is putting video scopes in the repository for his entire consignment (books 1-5) and many others are as well. Best thing about it is that if vets have the right app on their phones or ipads they can call up the scope from anywhere (don’t need to physically go to the repository.)
In 2 years, I bet it will just be assumed that everyone is doing it that way.
I hadn’t seen many NYquists yet in this sale but I did see several at FTJuly.They were very much of the Uncle Mo make and mold, so it’s not surprising that they’ve been popular.
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