I contacted a farm that had some horses that went through a sale last fall and did not sell with a reserve of 0, and the horses were no longer for sale. What would a farm do with such horses? Do they eventually sell, or could they have found a sadder ending?
The (0) is not the reserve.
The number in parentheses is the highest bid. Zero means no one bid on the horse. The actual reserve is not published.
If a horseâs reserve is not attained, it is still the property of the owners and goes home with whoever brought the horse to the sale. Sometimes deals are done behind the scenes in the barn area in a case like this, although the major consignors consider those deals part of the auction and youâre supposed to report those figures.
The horse is not at risk of a sad ending any more than any other horse.
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These horses had no reserve. Iâm glad to hear that they likely were sold after the sale, rather than being put down, for example, because the seller was willing to take any offer and yet still couldnât sell them.
Itâs a matter of market. In my case, nobody wanted to pay $1000 for an open mare by a noncommercial sire, in FL in January. At the major sales companies, 1k is opening bid. I didnât want to pay 1k for an unbred mare eitherâŠI got her for less.
A No Bid is a sign that the horse you sent in the ring is not what that group of buyers is looking for. Could be wrong pedigree, unsound, crooked, not suitable for the needs of those buyers (breeder, pinhooker, end use racing, whatever). A horse could get a no bid at keeneland, and sell in another auction somewhere else with a different pool of buyers.
As Texarkana said, all unsold RNA horses go back home where they came from. The no bids could be kept for whatever purpose (bred, broke for 2yo sale, sold later, etc), or sold privately, or even given away. Putting them down would be the last thing Iâd expect; as I said, it isnât free to send a horse through the sale, even with no bid. If owners can afford to send a horse to Keeneland, OBS, Fasig, etc they can probably afford to care for the horse until it finds another use.
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This makes a lot of sense. If a seller were the type to send a horse to a slaughter auction, they likely would have sent the horse to a slaughter auction in the first place.
To be clear, if the horses had no reserve, the sale result would be reported as âno bid.â
If the phrase, âRNA(0)â was published, it was no bid with a reserve.
You probably already realize this, but for the sake of clarity: a reserve is optional. If a seller choses to set a reserve, they pay the commission on the reserve regardless of whether it is attained or not.
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Thanks for the clarification, Texarkana. Iâm actually quite new to this, so did not realize what all the terminology meant.
Not exactly (not that it matters really.)
While you will hear an auctioneer say âno bidâ or âmark it no bidâ when a horse has no reserve and brings no bids, Keeneland doesnât report the results as âno bidâ. They write RNA (0). Fasig Tipton in the same circumstance reports the no sale as Not Sold (1) despite the fact that there were no bids.
It would be unusual for a horse with a reserve to bring no bids (not even from the auctioneer.) The only way it could happen would be if the reserve was 1k, or if it was a âlive money onlyâ reserve at a very low number.
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One of my partners bought a no bid mare at Keeneland several years ago in an after the fact private sale for $1K. She was an older mare by Deputy Minister. He bred her to Lookin at Lucky, and she produced a multiple graded stakes placed filly that ended up as an AE in the Kentucky Oaks her three year old year! Howâs that for a great story? He still has the mare, and I am sure he will until her last day. Sheâs produced a few others since, including a very good allowance horse that earned over $180K and won at Keeneland, and two that we hope they are as good as their sister and brother!
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Itâs great when it works out like that. 
John Gaines made a lot of money picking up older mares inexpensively and breeding them well.
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Thank you! I really donât know what the heck I have been thinking all these years! :lol:
Although go somewhere like FT MidAtlantic (or the end of a big Keeneland sale) and those no bids start racking upâŠ
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While this is true. It comes down to oneâs definition of inexpensive. His play in late 80âs early 90s was to buy mares with huge pedigrees, generally huge produce records with an average age of around 15. Iâm guessing from memory average price $100-!50,000±. All of these mareâs best runners were early in their producing years. Statistics have shown mares on average producer their best horse before the age of 12. After that the odds of throwing a stakes horse drops off exponentially.
Mr. Gaines was not âplayingâ with his money only. Gains Thoroughbreds was an investment partnership that had a number of very wealthy individuals involved. Mr Gaines had a large portfolio of top stallion shares. In those days unlike now just about all stallions were syndicated. Share holders, fraction interest holders, the legal term used to get around SEC rules and regs. Usually received 2 seasons a year depending on how the Syndicate agreement was written. Every other year as a rule. He wasnât paying market, street prices to breed these mares. So the risk to return was much smaller than the average mare owner has to take.
Most stallion arenât syndicated these days. Bought, held by small partnerships. Breeding rights can be had. But a Breeding right have a faction of the value that a âShareâ has. The dynamics of the business has changed a lot in the last 15+ years. Much more closely held by a few. The money is not being spread around like it used to be IMO and experience.
I didnât work for Gains Thoroughbreds but I did a fair amount of business with them back in those days.
The Gains familyâs money came from Gains Pet Food that his father started in the 40s? Mr Gainsâ father was big into Standard Breeds. John Gains saw there was much more money to be made with TBs. When he was given control of the horse operation he moved into TBs in the early 60s.
I have purchased or been given âno bidâ yearlings. The Ky sales put a minimum bid at a price which will not allow the meet buyers to make a profit. it used to be $1000.
But, once the horse goes back to its stall, all bets are off. The one I got at FT cost me $600. He did not sell because he was back at the knees. Well, one manâs trash is another manâs treasure. BATK horses are usually incredible daisy cutters.
Fast forward several years and this boy was âcrownedâ World Champion non q/h Undersaddle at Congress. He won a horse trailer and everything.
Another No Bid was a mousie plain bay with little to recommend her. I had a friend who had always wanted her own horse, so I said I would take her for free,The agent called the seller and said he had a good home for her and the seller was happy that her baby went to a good home. I started her and she was a great little horse, I traded her to a high end lesson barn in exchange for a fancy young horse. 2 years later the lesson barn sold her to a polo player. Damned if that little horse didnât turn into an incredibly valuable polo pony! The Argentines bought her for over $50k and, after that, she had no price on her because she was going into their breeding program.
2 very happy stories of no Bid horses. Sadly, others do not end well.
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