How is this a good thing? Educate me, please.
I’m sad, but I’m not very knowledgeable about racehorse owning.
Her owner races and isn’t interested in breeding horses. She’ll have a very nice home as a broodmare. Someone will pay a very large sum for her and will take good care of her. Don’t worry.
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Why would it be a bad thing?
She’s being sold as a broodmare prospect (though a new owner could decide to race, but unlikely).
Royal Delta brought $8.5m at auction a week after running in the BC Distaff.
Happens quite a bit.
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This has been discussed before–she is not going to the killers. She is going to be a broodmare.
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I didn’t assume she was going to killers. And I wasn’t in on that previous discussion, so how would I have known? It just seemed sad that people who took so much care and trouble to cure her of laminitis and bring her back would turn around and sell her at auction. A private sale I could see, but an auction when they have no control over who she might go to just seemed sad. But, as I said, I don’t know much about owning a racehorse.
skydy, thank you for explaining it for me. The little bit I saw didn’t mention her going to be a broodmare. I’m glad to know now that that’s probably the plan for her. And I do understand a racing owner not beeding as well.
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Her owners obviously care very much for her. The chances of her being sold to a bad home are pretty much nil. It is highly unlikely that anyone will pay as much as she will bring and not do right by the mare.
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Won’t breeding her up her chances of a recurrence of laminitis?
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[QUOTE=Rackonteur;n9917253]
It just seemed sad that people who took so much care and trouble to cure her of laminitis and bring her back would turn around and sell her at auction. A private sale I could see, but an auction when they have no control over who she might go to just seemed sad. But, as I said, I don’t know much about owning a racehorse./QUOTE]
She will go to a big owner or breeding operation who will care very very much about what happens to their multi million dollar purchase. She will be hanging with the girls all day and getting the best of everything. There will be multiple parties interested in her, and is the owner supposed to conduct a private little auction him or herself? Can you imagine sellling a horse when you get multiple offers as soon as you list the horse, and you have to go back to each and every one of them every time one party ups the ante?
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No, the auction can’t control who buys her but I doubt anybody bidding on anything in the Keeneland Fall Breeding Stock Sale is there looking for a bargain to breed to a cheap stud in their backyard or pay a hefty 6 figure price to throw her out on the south forty with a moldy round bale.
And take it easy on the owners, they race, they don’t breed and it’s a business where return on investment after many, many thousands keeping her in training and racing at elite level tracks is expected. Like, by any other partners in ownership of the racing stable and IRS. And, regardless of her BC race yesterday, she deserves the opportunity to meet a famous stallion and see what she can produce,
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In conjunction with this, NBC kept mentioning that Lady Eli, as well as others like Stellar Wind, would be going to auction after the BC. Never said what ‘auction’ in that it is one of the most prestigious thoroughbred auctions in this country for breeding and racing stock… Keeneland November. I cringed every time I heard it as I thought of the thousands of views who aren’t as knowledgeable about the TB industry thinking “auction” the way many of us think of New Holland.
Rackonteur, Keeneland auctions are very well regarded in the industry. They have a few during the year featuring breeding/racing stock as well as yearlings. Quality horses easily sell in excess of $1M going through these auctions.
For the owner, don’t need to fuss with multiple offers. For the buyer, one stop shopping if they are looking for breeding stock (there may be stallions for sale as well this coming week.)
Whoever buys the likes of Lady Eli and Stellar Wind and the others heading toward Keeneland, and yes, a different life than what they are current used to but they’ll all be treated like princesses with lovely pastures and quality feed and care.
Unfortunately not every TB is as lucky in a second career as these ladies 
but they’ll be well treated. Lady Eli’s owners, I am sure they care about her given the effort to save her life. They know whoever buys her will give her the best of care.
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In the Thoroughbred industry, the majority of high-end transactions take place at auction. It’s the way business is conducted. In the case of these top race mares, their owners point them to either the Fasig-Tipton or Keeneland November sales, much as they would point them to an upcoming race. In fact, there is a plane chartered for the specific purpose of bringing equine BC participants back to Lexington in time to take part in the sales.
The proceeds from the recent Keeneland September (yearling) sale topped $300,000,000. The gross for the 138 horses sold on day 2 of last year’s Keeneland November sale (when Lady Eli will be offered) was more than $52,000,000. There is simply no possibility that she won’t end up in great hands.
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I guess this is what happens when people who don’t know much about horses (NBC announcers) tell people who don’t know much about racing (viewers like me) that a racehorse is going to auction.
I’ve read things here on COTH about OTTBs ending up at auctions so it’s not surprising that I assumed this mare was going to get dumped at one (since her career was interrupted by laminitis and she was brought back just to lose at the Breeders’ Cup). So yeah, it sounded sad to me.
I’m glad it won’t be for her.
And yeah, Wild Warmbloods, I wonder too about the effect of carrying a foal on her feet.
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She’s pulled from auction. You think we could dribble amounts and buy her? (yeah I know we cannot come up with half a mil or more.) Wishful thinking.
I remember reading the auction results in racing magazine, now defunct, before the internet, where old ottb broodmares were being sold for $500 to buyers. And don’t think that the big winners do so much better. Remember Ferdinand?
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As a result of the cuts she sustained in yesterday’s race, she is being pulled from the sale. They want to do right by her and let her heal rather than put her through the stress of a sale.
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There is this misconception these days that auction = evil.
Most sales or auctions are not the kiss of death many believe. A lot of nice horses are sold to nice people at horses. Some nasty horses are also sold to some nasty people at horse sales.
I’m not that familiar with TB sales, but I could find at least a dozen good STBD or driving horse/pony sales pretty quickly.
A lot of people are fine without a 100% guarantee of an outcome in life. When selling horses, a private sale is not a guarantee that what the seller envisions will happen. The seller’s version of Utopia might not really be that great a situation anyway.
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They’ve pulled Lady Eli from the sale.
In fairness you’d want to be really out to lunch to confuse Keeneland Sales to a killer auction.
It’s like comparing a Sothebys to a garage sale.
Not sure what Laffit, Randy and Jerry can do to make that clear, or why they would need to.
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IMO, Laffit, Randy and Jerry did nothing to make it clear that the “auction” these high class horses were going to was the, as you put it, the Sotheby’s of auctions and not a garage sale.
All they kept saying was the horses, variously throughout the 2 day broadcast, were going to auction. Not one word that I heard about what kind of “auction” or who was holding it or how prestigious the Keeneland November Breeding Stock sale is…
For the uninitiated, they’d have no clue (and that would be the majority of NBCSN viewers) what the “auction” was… wasn’t like it was TVG covering the BC races. And for the uninitiated, auction = bad.
After reading the article on BH, I think right that Lady Eli was pulled from the sale. Sounds like she got pretty banged up and as noted, to her credit that she raced as well as she did. Once again, her connections are doing, IMO, right by her to put her in stall rest until she’s healed and not put her through the stress of getting to the sale to make a buck.
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They wouldn’t need to say that. Why would they? The mare is worth millions.
If you’re watching the World Series the commentators aren’t explaining that three strikes means the batter is out and that three batters out means the inning is over.
If you’re watching the Superbowl the commentators aren’t explaining the that if the kicker kicks the ball through the posts after a touchdown that that’s worth an extra point.
If you’re watching the World Cup the commentators aren’t explaining that the if an outfield player handles the ball the other team gets a free kick.
Why would anyone think the finest turf mare in the US would be sold for peanuts to someone who would abuse her. For goddsakes she is worth millions.
Why are we even having this conversation?
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To anyone with a little knowledge of the racing industry, it should be obvious that a good, well known horse publicly going to “auction” isn’t headed to New Holland.
However, sports like baseball and football are much better known and more accepted by the general public. There are enough people out there (and not just general public — seemingly people within the horse world as well) that think that every racehorse owner and trainer just can’t wait to send horses to the Alpo plant when they’re done racing, that it might be a good idea to mention that Keeneland is a prestigious sale, so that nobody gets the idea that the horses are being “dumped.”
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