Fwiw, I can’t think of a single buyer or syndicate–even at the very top of the sport–that is spending 50 million a year buying horses. Even the people who have that much money aren’t taking those kinds of risks.
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Godolphin, Coolmore etc… certainly don’t spend that much per year at auction from what I have seen.
Perhaps people get that impression because they see the odd $10M dollar mare go through the November sale and think that is a consistent year round practice.
Godolphin especially (as everyone knows) does approach owners of very promising and often already successful stallions, privately, and offer them enough to keep the farm going for several generations,but those are private sales and not a yearly occurrence by any means.
Yes, they are. Easily.
Think globally and outside the auction ring. They buy the top broodmare prospects, they buy stallion rights to the top stallion prospects, they buy weanlings, they buy yearlings, they buy horses of racing age, and they do it world wide. They also don’t hesitate to sell what doesn’t pan out for them.
Fifty million per year buying prospects?
Nobody I know does that. Not Godolphin, Coolmore, Phoenix, China Horse Club, or Shadwell–who pretty much comprise the biggest TB buyers I’m aware of.
Is it you?
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My favorite was the War Front filly that was a half sister to Nyquist, I need to win the lottery!!
This figure was apparently newsworthy enough to write an article.
https://www.facebook.com/78801292566/posts/10156569265482567/
Hmm Laurie, you don’t know what you don’t know, right? And who are you quoting, or are you making this up? Who said that anyone spends $50 million buying yearling prospects? Some how you concluded that $50 million a year buying horses means $50 million a year buying yearlings. Maybe you should read for content instead of concentrating on snark.
Right back at you Palm Beach. This is your post from upthread that I was referencing.
Where did I mention yearlings? I said prospects–which is what you were talking about above: horses that might or might not pan out.
Maybe you should read for content.
And rather than throwing out your kabillion ideas, how about some actual facts? Some real names and numbers would do nicely.
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Like Coolmore spending $7 million at Keeneland, buying the stallion rights to Justify, spending $8 million on Tepin, already we are well over $50 million and that does not address other US auctions, Europe, private sales, and whatever happens in Australia. Wow, that took 20 whole seconds.
And they do that every year?
I wasn’t aware we had a Triple Crown winner every year…but whatever.
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Just watch. When TB prices go this way, an economic bust is not far off. It’s happened over and over again in the past.
I’m astonished at some of the prices paid by yearling-to-2yo pinhookers. Randy Hartley and Dean DeRenzo shelled out some crazy money for a few Book 1 horses; to my knowledge, anyway, Hartley/DeRenzo is a pinhooking operation only. They don’t race that I know of.
I was considering breeders and those who race.
Pinhookers are quite a different animal and even the big-time ones don’t do the 50M yearly spending mentioned up thread.
I get what you mean though. Pinhooking at the high end certainly seems like high stakes gambling. Feast or famine.
Make a killing sometimes and lose big time at others.
I am not a gambler by nature but I understand that many people enjoy the gambling experience, and also that very few are actually quite good at it. :yes: I am guessing that pinhooking TBs takes more talent than black jack , but I am not qualified to judge.
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They have 45 stallions and are the world’s largest tb breeding operation and stallions come and go, and none of their best stallions won the TC…but whatever.
I’m not the foremost authority on Coolmore but I have bred to Ashford stallions more than once and I never bought a season from Magnier or Ashford or Coolmore. I bought a season from the syndicate that owned the stallion, which depending on the stallion may or may not be primarily owned by the Ashford principals. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that Coolmore didn’t buy Justify as you are implying but they bought a piece of Justify which included the right to manage and stand the stallion. The way that syndicates are structured these days, the farm gets out in 4 years. A success is sheer gravy while a flop goes to stand in Korea. In the meantime, the farm gets its money back. Very, very different from the calculations involved in purchasing a racing prospect from a yearling sale which after all was what this thread was about given that the subject matter was the Keeneland September sale.
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It’s tough to specialize in something as risky as yearlings, so most successful operations diversify and own a broader range of ages and types of ownership, such as owning breeding rights.
So far, there have been some stunning yearlings at the sale, including yours LaurieB.
Well done you.:yes:
People who complain about the modern TB really must not be paying attention to what careful breeders are producing.
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did you not read the bloodhorse article after the colt RNA’d. It was a publicity stunt.
I assume this is the article you’re referring to? https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/229515/justifys-half-brother-fails-to-sell-at-1-75-million
It says that the horse was offered for sale, they wanted to find out where the market valued him, and that they were open to taking partners. That describes many, if not most, of the top tier offerings at the sale. (And by the way, that’s what every consignor says to save face when they fail to sell a “Big One”.)
The horse was there. He was offered for sale. There was no “stunt” involved.
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