The Back Ring: Xalapa Farm’s History Of Champions On The Track And Silver Screen

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The latest issue of the Back Ring is now online, ahead of the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale.

The Back Ring is the Paulick Report's bloodstock newsletter, released ahead of, and during, every major North American Thoroughbred auction. Seeking to expand beyond the usual pdf presentation, the Back Ring offers a dynamic experience for bloodstock content, heavy on visual elements and statistics to appeal to readers on all platforms, especially mobile devices.

Here is what's inside this issue…

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ISSUE OF THE BACK RING

  • Lead Feature, Presented By Gainesway: Myra Lewyn dives into the history of the picturesque Xalapa Farm near Paris, Ky., that was used as a shooting location for “Seabiscuit,” and was recently acquired by Hill 'n' Dale Farms.
  • Stallion Spotlight, Presented By New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc.: A discussion on the veteran New York sire Bustin Stones, who was deemed “the most underrated stallion in the country” by Richard Migliore.
  • Ask Your Veterinarian, Presented By Kentucky Performance Products: Dr. Peter Sheerin of Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital explains the difference between putting broodmares under overhead lights or a mask light, and how the light process effects a mare's cycle.
  • Pennsylvania Leaderboard, Presented By Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association: For a third straight year, Blackstone Farm was Pennsylvania's leader by state breeder awards. Stakes winner Dance Code was one of the many on-track successes that got them there.
  • Indiana Yearling Spotlight, Presented By Indiana Thoroughbred Alliance: An analysis of Hip 400, an Indiana-bred yearling by Spendthrift Farm's Goldencents, who will be offered at this year's Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale.
  • Best Of The Breeders, Presented By Muirfield Insurance: Thanks to a pair of top-level victories by the hot 3-year-old Newgrange, the partnership of Jack Mandato and Black Rock Stable ended January with a razor-thin lead among breeders of graded stakes winners.
  • First-Crop Sire Watch: Stallions whose first crops of yearlings are represented in the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale, including the number of horses cataloged and the farm where the stallion is currently advertised.

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ISSUE OF THE BACK RING

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Predicting The Future Of The Bloodstock Market: The Back Ring, Keeneland January

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ISSUE OF THE BACK RING

The latest issue of the Back Ring is now online, ahead of the Keeneland January Sale.

The Back Ring is the Paulick Report's bloodstock newsletter, released ahead of, and during, every major North American Thoroughbred auction. Seeking to expand beyond the usual pdf presentation, the Back Ring offers a dynamic experience for bloodstock content, heavy on visual elements and statistics to appeal to readers on all platforms, especially mobile devices.

Here is what's inside this issue…

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ISSUE OF THE BACK RING

  • Lead Feature, presented by Gainesway: Bloodstock editor Joe Nevills makes five fearless predictions for the bloodstock market in 2022 in his “Making Claims” column.
  • Stallion Spotlight, presented by New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc.: The New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc. Stallion Season Auction is a crucial fundraiser for the breed organization each year, but the 2022 renewal reaches even further to help those recovering from the December tornadoes in Kentucky.
  • Ask Your Veterinarian, presented by Kentucky Performance Products: Dr. Craig Lesser of Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital explains what horse owners should take into consideration to protect hooves during the winter months.
  • Pennsylvania Leaderboard, presented by Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association: How Li'lbito'charm, a daughter of Smarty Jones, brought in six figures worth of Pennsylvania incentive earnings for her connections in 2021 without entering a single stakes race.
  • First-Crop Sire Watch: Stallions whose first crops of yearlings are represented in the Keeneland January Sale, including the number of horses cataloged and the farm where the stallion is currently advertised.

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ISSUE OF THE BACK RING

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Buying From The Back Ring: High-Stakes Snap Judgments At Thoroughbred Auctions

A Book 1 purchase at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale can entail months of careful shopping, from farm visits ahead of the auction to countless inspections, phone calls, and veterinary visits when the horses are on the sales grounds. When Book 5 comes around, and buyers are laying eyes on prospects for the first time in the back walking ring, that process is condensed down to about 20 minutes.

With so many horses going through the ring, and limited time and travel budgets to roam the barns inspecting horses at each consignment, many horsemen in the later books of the marathon sale will elect to find a spot in the back walking ring and inspect the horses as they come through, often standing shoulder-to-shoulder with several others doing the same thing. If they find one that meets their criteria, they'll follow the horse up to the ring to place a bid. Then, once the paperwork is complete, they'll often go back to the same spot and start the process over again.

It's a pressure cooker for buyers and sellers alike, as they weave between nervous horses and each other in a crowded, enclosed area, trying to get the best sightline for a yearling on the walk or hunting down the consignor to glance at the vet report.

The horses purchased in these books are crucial to filling the ranks for pinhookers and trainers around the country, and while the prices might not turn heads the way a seven-figure star might earlier in the sale, the buyers still shoulder a significant risk relative to their initial capital. To succeed in the long-term, their quick-twitch judgement with back ring horses has to be right more often than not.

So, what do keen judges lean on during the bloodstock realm's version of speed dating? For most, it comes down to the walk, the mind, and the budget.

“You can pick apart the book by pedigree at this point as much as you want, but honestly, we just look at individuals, and if we see something that catches our eye, we kind of go from there,” said Delaware Park-based trainer Chelsey Moysey. “You see the horse, see the page, and go on to vet reports and all of that. At this stage in the game, it moves fast, and that's what works for us.

“The biggest thing for me is the walk,” Moysey continued. “I want a good walker, a good shoulder, and a good hip. I can work with anything from the knees down, give or take, but I want to see a horse with a good shoulder and a good hip.”

In addition to how the young horses move, buyers often judged prospects on how they handled their surroundings. A yearling that could handle the sensory overload of the auction process was more likely to warrant a longer look than one hanging on to its composure by a thread.

“They've got to be smart-looking to me,” said Eric Foster, a trainer based in Kentucky and Indiana. “I haven't had a lot of luck with horses that weren't smart. I want to hang around with smart people and smart horses. And never back in the knee. A lot of my rules I make, I wind up having to break them a little bit, so it's hard for me to say, 'I'll never do this,' because then I'll be right there doing it.”

Foster said he comes to the sale with a number in his head in terms of setting a budget, but he allows some wiggle room if he feels he'd be getting adequate value at a higher price.

Moysey also said the horse will dictate the price in her eyes, but her goal was to come back with as many prospects within her overall budget as she could.

“We're still on the lower end of racing, so for us to spend $50,000 on an individual is a lot, but for us to spend $50,000 on two is great,” she said We try to look between the $20,000 to $30,000 range, and if we get something cheaper, great. That isn't happening right now, but we're trying.”

The intent of the buyer can also swing the type of horse they're looking for in the back ring. As buyers looking to race, Foster and Moysey said they were able to forgive certain conditions found on a vet report. Pinhook buyers, on the other hand, will need their horses to stand up to veterinary scrutiny when they're offered again in the spring, and it's hard to have a clean vet report as a 2-year-old if they didn't start with one as a yearling.

Crystal Ryan of South Carolina-based pinhook operation Mason Springs said she prefers to do her homework back at the barns, but the volume of horses in the catalog sometimes makes back ring buying a necessity. When it does, due diligence has to be done quickly, and juggling prospects can be a challenge.

“It all happens so fast, and it's so easy to lose track of one, when you get on one and you have to check on all those things,” she said. “It can be really hard, because one you like might not pass the vet, and then you look and the next horse you like is already going to the ring, and there's not enough time to call it in to the vet.”

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Whereas Moysey was willing to forgive anything below the legs on a horse, Ryan's checklist was the exact opposite.

“First off, I try to look from the legs up, because if I look from the side, I will tend to like something that I probably shouldn't, so I really try to watch that walk, and see how correct they are,” she said. “Of course, there's no perfect horse, so they'll have a little deviation and you have to be a little forgiving.”

Buying to pinhook also means Ryan was not necessarily shopping for the horses she'd like, but the ones she expects potential buyers will like during the 2-year-old sales, both from a physical and pedigree standpoint. She admitted this has taken some fine-tuning of her critical eye.

“It does knock a lot of horses out that I would otherwise really like,” Ryan said. “I have an affinity for a turf horse and that doesn't really fit the bill, so I have to be really careful about that.”

What a back ring buyer does when they fall on a potential purchase can differ wildly, as well. Querying the consignor for the vet report is standard procedure, but how much conversation they have with the agent about the horse and the economics around it depends on the buyer.

“I really kind of keep myself to myself and just do my own thing,” said Midwest trainer John Ennis. “I just paddle my own canoe, really.

“It's a big investment that you're buying, so you want to make sure you're buying something with no soundness issues,” he continued. “Starting out on the right foot is the main thing.”

Book 5 of this year's Keeneland September sale has been unusually robust, and that has given the traditional back ring buyers more competition than they might have expected. Because buyers in the higher books have gotten pushed down into the later sessions, prices have been driven up, and buyers on a tighter budget have had to be even more shrewd than before about picking their spots.

Just because it's later in the sale and the average price has gone down, that doesn't mean it's gotten any easier to buy a horse than it was on the auction's opening day.

“It's hard to have a stone plan for it,” Foster said. “You need to be a little bit lucky.”

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Herbener Employee Dies at Keeneland January Sale

Ricardo Ramirez, who was working at the Keeneland January sale for consignor James Herbener Jr., passed away Tuesday, dying of an apparent heart attack. He was 66.

Herbener said that Ramirez was about to short bring a yearling into the sales ring when the incident occurred.

“Yesterday, he was walking a yearling going up to the ring,” Herbener explained. “He was in the back walking ring and he just collapsed. We think it was a heart attack. The coroner called me after that and asked some questions. He had apparently had COVID in November, so there’s a possibility there were underlying conditions with his heart that nobody knew about. The coroner said that he had no trauma.”

Herbener expressed his frustration that Ramirez was not dealt with more quickly after collapsing.

“It’s kind of a shame,” he said. “The response was kind of slow, getting to him. We told them he had just collapsed, that he wasn’t kicked. But they didn’t want to be pushing on his chest. I don’t know if he could have been saved. After the four or five seconds it took for me to get there, it looked like he was leaving us. But if he could have been saved, way too much time went by.”

Herbener said that Ramirez only worked for him at the sales and drove a cab in Lexington during the rest of the year. He added that Ramirez had worked in the horse industry in Central Kentucky for more than 30 years and had previously worked at Ashford Stud.

“He had a house in Versailles and came from a really nice family,” Herbener said. “I know that he had a daughter and had been married to his wife for quite some time. He’s someone who had done real well for himself since he came to this country from Mexico. Here’s someone who left for work in the morning and never made it home. You never know when you’re time is going to come. It’s pretty sad.”

Keeneland issued a statement regarding Ramirez’s death on Tuesday.

“Keeneland is deeply saddened by the death of Mr. Ramirez, and we send our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and co-workers,” Keeneland President and CEO Shannon Arvin said. “The safety and welfare of everyone on Keeneland’s grounds is paramount. It is for this reason that Keeneland’s first response team completes regular training in the management of emergency situations. As with every incident, we are conducting a thorough after-action review and continuously strive to ensure the safest environment possible for our participants.”

The post Herbener Employee Dies at Keeneland January Sale appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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