In a bloodstock landscape built on generations-old businesses and relationships, who you know on the sale grounds can almost be as important as the horse you're selling.
So how does a new consignment stand out without that deeply-rooted brand recognition?
Erin O'Keefe pondered this question on social media ahead of Tuesday's Fasig-Tipton July Selected Yearling Sale, where she and her partners will offer their first horse under the BTE Stables shingle.
She had just attended the Consignors and Commercial Breeders Association's panel discussion on auction radiographs, and one of the major themes O'Keefe took away from the discussion was the importance of the established relationship between the buyer and seller when it comes to risk assessment.
“One of the big themes that kept coming up was when you can trust the people that are selling the horse to tell you if something on the radiograph is improving, or if the horse has always been sound…If you have a relationship where you can trust the answers, that goes a long way,” O'Keefe said.
If you've been around the barns at a major North American Thoroughbred auction, you've likely seen O'Keefe working for consignments including Darby Dan Farm and Taylor Made Sales. As a partner in Paris, Ky.-based BTE Stables, she has previously offered horses through consignor Buckland Sales, but scheduling conflicts led the operation to make its maiden voyage as a consignment at the July sale.
“We have never had our own consignment, and we haven't been selling our own horses for very long,” she continued. “I've worked for other people and have been around the sales, but nobody's come to a BTE Stables consignment before.”
Knowing the road to buyer trust is not an express lane, O'Keefe said the process starts with Hip 139, a Classic Empire colt they bought last fall as a weanling. Whether it's just one horse or a barn full of them, the formula remains the same: Be transparent, stand up for your horses, and don't play games.
“The slow way is over time: People buy the horses, and we've represented them well,” she said. “We fully stand behind any horse we bring out here. We're not trying to trick anyone, and in this circumstance, with this sale and this horse, I've posted on Facebook that if there's questions, if there's any way I can quantify that answer, I will.”
Part of that openness to the seller is being straight with them about how the horses were brought up. The BTE yearlings are raised in group turnout, and Hip 139 has a few bite marks from his rambunctious pasturemates to show for it.
A poster under the consignment's placard outside Fasig-Tipton's Barn 7 explained the physical and mental benefits of bringing up young horses in a more social setting, even if it creates a few scratches along the way. If trust is a long-term game, the superficial aspects of a yearling are very much in the short-term. It's what inside that counts.
“Please excuse any minor blemishes,” the sign read. “Colts will be colts.”
On the other side of Barn 7, Martin Keogh is the face of another consignment making its debut at the Fasig-Tipton July sale: Robert Slack's Stoneriggs Farm.
Keogh is a veteran of the consignment game, operating for years under his own banner as MJK Bloodstock. Though the Stoneriggs branding might be new to shoppers, Keogh said the association the farm has with his own personal brand of horsemanship gives the new operation a leg-up over someone that buyers might not know as well.
Ultimately, though, he said the brand is all about the horse at the end of the shank.
“I've been around here a little while and done this,” Keogh said. “I think people know me and know how I like to present horses at the sales, but I really do think it's about the horses, and then when they see the people associated with the farm, that it's not such a new thing. They know what they're dealing with, so to speak, and what to expect from their horses.”
Stoneriggs Farm brought a pair of first-crop offerings to the July sale for its debut consignment: Hip 4, a colt by Audible, and Hip 53, a filly by Vino Rosso.
The primary colors for the Stoneriggs consignment are red and white, which was a stark contrast to the blue and white he flew as MJK Bloodstock.
Colors are so important to a consignment's presence on the sale grounds. The hues of the industry's most established sellers serve as guideposts around the barns, and tell people what to expect when they walk up to fill out a card.
With that in mind, was it weird for Keogh to suddenly be donning a new team jersey for this sale?
“Not really,” he said. “That's only such a small part of it. Everyone tells me the red looks good on me.”
The post New In Town: Introducing A Debut Consignment In A Tradition-Rich Marketplace appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
