The breeder, Inman family bred the colt. They bred Sassy Paints and her half sisters. Been around for a while. Good chance they wanted the horse in the sale and Reilly McDonald (ex Fasig Tipton exec) owner of Eaton Sales showed them the courtesy as did Keeneland. It’s a good pedigree on face value, but the mare is 18. Her best foal was born in 2010. The colt probably had the “physical” when entered. But things didn’t go as hoped. Vet issues I assume. Most sellers just scratch. If it was totally up to Reilly I am sure it would have been scratched. This time the seller got lucky and the horse got sold on the first bid. The auctioneers didn’t try to get a second one, lol.
I think I will put this in my “follow list” See if the buyer gets lucky. Things can a do change, turn around. It might not be that “bad”.
But buyers at these sessions aren’t looking for diamonds in the rough. Any issues and they won’t even be consider for their short lists. If they look at them at all. I’ve worked the sales for consignors and sold some of mine myself. I knew the horses and pretty much all the “important” buyers. Any horses on their list to see that I think/know are not going to be what they are looking for I tell them. Why waste their time or mine. They always appreciated. I feel the same when I was on the buying end. Most buyers that know the consignors well will ask, “Is there a horse that I haven’t look at that you think I should?” Good consignors will never “hustle” a moderate horse on these types of buyers. Taylor Made threw everything and the kitchen at sink at me when I had them on my barn list. Drove me crazy. Really disliked having to work their consignments at times.
A new business opportunity? I would pay for that! You could do like a bidder 101 over dinner and drinks the night before then go through the horses one by one the day of. Maybe even do some inspections the days leading up to the sale. It would be like a course walk at Rolex.
As an aside, has anyone seen any Tonalists babies in person? Just wondering if he is passing on that roach back.
“The colt by Malibu Moon sold for $15,000. The buyer opened at $15,000 and it was hammered down a split second later. As I explained on comments I made with the auction process. The auctioneers have notes on each horse going in the ring of the selected sessions. Note on this colts page probably said, “sell to the first sucker, rather bidder” The consignor is a good friend of mine he’s a total pro. He’s sold a few of the yearlings out of the mare for the breeder. They’ve all sold for peanuts. The breeder is a trooper he has been throwing good money after bad at this mare for years. He bred the mare also.”
The answer is probably obvious but I’m not getting it. Apologies. Why would a consignor or auctioneer want the horse in the ring to sell quick? Thanks.
The consignor/seller had no interest in keeping the horse just hoped it found a new home at any price. . For what ever the reason. Consignors can tell/give some brief notes to the auctioneers to tag on the selling page. Besides the reserve. Most horses always have some sort of reserve. Esp horses selling at this sale/session. The auctioneers know a “good” pedigree when they see one. So if a well bred horses comes into the ring with little to no reserve and no other “notes” on the page. They know there must be issues with the horse. I’m guessing with this horse and they way it was hammered quickly on the first bid. As I said in my earlier comment. Good chance notes on the page said, sell to the first bidder. Esp in this session. Where the average horse is selling for a couple of hundred thousand $$.
At the high end sales. The bids you hear in the beginning, $25,000-$35,000 ect are rarely live bids. As it moves up the scale live bids come in and are countered by the auctioneer until it get up to the reserve or close to it. If the live bids are active enough. And the reserves is set as “all the way”, not live money.
All the way means, the auctioneer will take the horse up to just under the reserve with or without live money in the ring at that point. Live Money means the auctioneers will keep the action going until the live money, real bidders stop. Regardless of how much higher the reserve is. Saves the seller from having to pay more commission to the sales company.
The regardless of what the horse will sell for in the end. The auctioneers may open with “who will give me $15,000” With expensive horses, reserved horses, the auctioneers may or may not get an opening bid of $15,000. So they just take a bid out of the air to get things going. If someone bids $15gs on a horse with say a $100,000 reserve they auctioneers usually come right back with $25g “bid” real or not. They know there will be other bidders and or they know the reserve.
With this horse, as I said there most likely was a note that said sell. Someone opened with $15,000. I am sure they looked around quickly and knew there was no other interest and hammered the horse.
In high end, select sales that usually always have high averages. The sales company would rather a “cheap horse” not sell, be an RNA. A “cheap” horse, a $15,000 horse like this drags down the average. 3 most important stats for a sale is, average, clearance and gross. In that order. The first to are the most important to the sellers, and the third is the most important to the sales company. But average and clearance, (low RNA, not solds) are a very important advertisement for a sale when it comes to recruiting for the sale the following year.
There are people who will roll the dice on a horse that has issues just to get the pedigree. I broke an ugly little colt back in the 90s that was by Seattle Slew that the owner bought at a sale for $40,000 simply because the colt was by Seattle Slew. He was sold at a 2yo in training sale to someone else who bought him simply because he was by Seattle Slew.
There was a Bernardini that sold for $5k in Session 2. Not sure who the buyer was and/or if they plan to race. Depending on how bad the issues are, might be a good place for a person with not a lot of money to spend, perhaps take the horse home and let him grow up a bit, start him a little later, and see if his issues kind of fix themselves…or buy yourself a nice sport horse prospect where the issues probably wouldn’t affect the career much
Question on the Keeneland sales. Can anyone go and scope out horses and sit in the sales pavilion and watch? I don’t really have any plans to currently bid and buy into something, I’ll save that for later in life when I hit the lotto, but would really like to go to the sales and just watch.
And drool-provoking, and really tempting for anyone who loves TB pedigrees or has an eye for a horse. Trouble, trouble, trouble, and I can’t wait to go again.
I never can tell what each one will bring. I know that my favorites often don’t bring the super high dollars. I’m watching online though, so unless there is a video, I can’t see them walk, see their vetting, or get a sense of their temperaments. Of course I’m not in the business and am watching for fun, because I love beautiful thoroughbreds.
That Tapit half to California Chrome looked like a handful with a temper.
In the early 90s when everything seemed to be clicking for me as an agent. Good clients, getting some good press more so by word of mouth. I was’t one of the few of the Blood Horse’s “golden boys/gals”. The Thoroughbred Record/Times was always good to me as was a few of the writers for the Racing Form. This is pre-internet, before “daily news” was the norm. Print only, once a week. So if you got “good press” it really meant something. Compared to today’s daily news cycle that needs “copy” everyday. Everyone will “publish” just about anybody’s press release, free advertising.
I had money to spend. In Lexington when word gets out you have money, your’s or other people’s money. Everyone is your friend.
A good buddy of mine from my non horse years, my rock n roll years would visit me from time to time. Over they years I taught him about the value of the phrase “when in Rome”. The first time he visited during the sales I took him around with me showed him the drill. As a rule he picked on things pretty quickly. He was into the scene, lol.
When he visited in the early 90s his hair was stylishly long and still had the rock n roll look about him. He had played in a number of good bands since his teens. He was a heavy set guy, first to admit he was a fat guy. A good looking fat guy with a great fun personality. There were a number of rock stars and or behind the scene rock people into race horses. A friend of mine worked for David Gilmore (Pink Floyd), another friend worked and still does for Andrew Lloyd Webber, Watership Down Stud. Jerry Moss (Zenyatta) owns A&M records.
Mark (Fat Mark to his friends) liked having a good time. Esp when other people were paying his freight. So to get him off my payroll I introduced him around the sales as a new client who is a “name” in the music business. He looked the part and he ran with it. This was pre-internet so no one could go on line and check him out. He knew enough about the racehorse game from hanging with me over the years So he wasn’t a complete amateur. An excellent “poser”. I was a couple of consignor’s “buyback agent”. Like Zayatt used when he “sold” American Pharoah. So with permission on the odd high priced “buyback” I would let Mark sign the ticket and get his name on the result sheet.
I’d be working the sales barns and Mark would go off on his own. I’d see him from time to time at the top consignor’s barns being treated like royalty, lol. Usually with a cocktail in hand. Most consignors in those day had a bar set up at barns. He’d get invited to lunch in one of the high end reserved tables dinning rooms. Everybody would be buying him drinks in the Keeneland bar. Get invited out to dinner. He had a helluva good time that sales week!
Lost Fat Mark around 20 years ago. Hardly a day goes by I don’t think about him we had a lot of great times. One of my dearest friends and the first to have died on me. People asked about him off and on years after that sale. Some still do. A few I know well enough and knew they had a good sense of humor. I told them the real story. They laughed and said he was worth the price of admission. Some others I told he went through a nasty divorce after getting caught in bed with someone other than his wife. Lost the majority of money and lost his job in the music business. The same story many people hear when someone “disappears” from the horse business, lol.
I wonder what they had as her reserve?
