Half to Jean Gros Tops Fasig April Digital Sale

Broodmare Wrong Color (Gemologist) topped the Fasig-Tipton April Digital Select Sale, which closed Tuesday. Consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency, Agent II as hip 4, the stakes-placed earner of $122,838 was picked up by Anglo Saxon Bloodstock for $400,000. Having produced a War Front colt this term who was not part of the offering, the 6-year-old was sold on a Mar. 22 Caravaggio cover.

The mare's stock has risen of late as her 3-year-old half-brother Jean Gros (More Than Ready) capped a three-race win streak in the Apr. 9 G2 New Zealand Trophy in Japan. He is expected to next contest the G1 NHK Mile Cup. Bred and campaigned by Blackstone Farm, Wrong Color is also a half to MGSW millionaire Tom's Ready (More Than Ready).

The second-priciest lot of the digital auction was 3-year-old racing/broodmare prospect Power Surge (Straight Fire), who was last seen belying 76-1 odds to take the Evening Jewel S. for Cal-breds Apr. 9 at Santa Anita. Consigned by her trainer Blaine Wright as hip 22, Power Surge fetched $370,000 from Samantha Siegel's Jay Em Ess Stable.

“Timing is everything. We had the right horse to sell–a filly by a hot sire, just won a stake, good looking and with clean vetting. All too often this update is lost waiting for a sale,” said Jason Litt, who was one of the partners in Power Surge. “The Fasig-Tipton Digital auction platform gave us exposure to the top buyers from around the world and our filly didn't miss any training and got to sleep in her own stall. I would encourage anyone with the right horse to sell on the platform.”

Siegel said, “The digital format was seamless and easy to use, and the bidding process was exciting!”

“We were very pleased with the April Digital Sale,” said Leif Aaron, Fasig-Tipton Director of Digital Sales. “We are continuing to grow and seeing new clientele. It was great to see the spirited bidding in California and we are happy for both Samantha Siegel and the partners in Power Surge.”

Would-be topper Philanthropic (Malibu Moon) was a $590,000 RNA. Offered with her Not This Time filly foal at her side, the stakes-placed 6-year-old from the immediate family of Curlin was offered back in foal to another in-demand young stallion in Constitution. Philanthropic was consigned by Bedouin Bloodstock as hip 12.

In total, 15 horses changed hands for gross receipts of $1,664,000 at an average of $110,933.

The next Fasig-Tipton digital sale, a dispersal of the late Glen Todd's Thoroughbred holdings, will open Wednesday, Apr. 27 and conclude May 3.

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Flash Sale a ‘Sweet’ Success for Fox Hill

Sweet Tea (Into Mischief–Ava Pie, by Distorted Humor), the sole offering from Fasig-Tipton Digital's Fox Hill Flash Sale, was purchased for $320,000 by Vicente Perez. The 4-year-old filly, a maiden winner in four starts for Fox Hill and Larry Jones, was consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency, agent for the late Rick Porter's operation.

Sweet Tea, a $300,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase in 2019, is a full-sister to two-time stakes winner and multiple graded-placed Sound Machine and is also a half-sister to SW & GSP Forever Liesl (Mineshaft). The filly's dual Grade III-winning second dam Lakenheath (Colonial Affair) is responsible for SW/MGSP The Truth or Else (Yes It's True), GSW Decorated Soldier (Proud Citizen) and the SP Fighter Wing (Empire Maker), whose daughter Glass Ceiling (Constitution) won this year's GIII Barbara Fritchie S. and is entered for Saturday's GIII Distaff S. at Aqueduct.

Sweet Tea is bred on the exact same cross as Into Mischief's Grade I winners Life Is Good and Practical Joke and on the cross over Forty Niner-line dams that is responsible for the likes of MGISW Goldencents.

“The Fox Hill Flash Sale was a tremendous success, demonstrating the strength and versatility of Fasig-Tipton Digital,” said Leif Aaron, Fasig-Tipton Director of Digital Sales. “It was a win for all parties, as the purchaser–who actually bred the filly–is thrilled to have Sweet Tea back in his broodmare band.  We are very appreciative of longtime Fasig-Tipton supporter Fox Hill Farm entrusting the sale of such a quality filly with our new digital platform.”

Ten unique bidders battled for the popular broodmare prospect, with more than 150 bids placed during the 50-hour bidding window.

The next Fasig-Tipton Digital Sale is slated for Apr. 21-26. Nominations for that auction are open through Apr. 14.

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Duncan Taylor: With Him, You’ve Been Family

He always says that had he been born in Detroit, he would have gone into the automobile trade. In other words, whatever kind of horseman he might allow us to credit him, first and foremost he came into the world a businessman. Now that Duncan Taylor is stepping down from the helm of one of its most remarkable family concerns, then, the Bluegrass can count itself fortunate that fate instead applied his flair to a more literal type of horsepower.

True, the old school can't have been enamored by his every flourish. There was the famous occasion at the Keeneland November Sale, for instance, when a mare had been prematurely scratched by the veterinarians. Taylor, thinking fast as always, got onto the airfield across the street to see if anyone could trail a banner announcing that she had been reinstated in the sale. But he had tried a similar stunt a few years previously, at the Woodbine Breeders' Cup, when he was repatriating A. P Jet from Japan.

“That horse didn't run well on the grass but he ran, like, 1:08 for six furlongs on dirt,” Taylor recalls. “So I hired this plane to fly a banner saying 'A. P Jet 1:08-and-change' over the crowd. Well, the guy flew so high you could hardly see it. I paid him his money, but I'd learned my lesson. So this time I sat down with this pilot and said: 'Now I don't want you flying up there where nobody can read it, you need people to be able to see what the hell all this is about.' Well, I don't know what kind of plane he had, but it sounded like a 1955 tractor. It was popping and spewing and sputtering, and he was swooping over the barns, back and forth, and everybody's horses were going crazy. And Mike Cline from Lane's End ran over and said: 'Duncan take that damned plane down! I'll buy your damned horse from you before you kill all mine!'”

Nor was that the only time Taylor reached for the stars in his publicity. With an important dispersal going through his barn, another November, he rented a plane to get the big spenders back from the Breeders' Cup at Gulfstream, dressing up in a pilot's uniform to record a video wishing everyone a comfortable flight.

Mark, Ben, Frank and Duncan Taylor | Jon Siegel photo

It's not as though such literal flights of fancy directly account for the giddy evolution of Taylor Made, from its unobtrusive foundation in 1976 when Taylor was still only 19, into so dominant a force that its consignment has ranked No 1 in a staggering 26 years of the past 28, while processing $2.7 billion of bloodstock. But his receptivity to innovation and experiment–undiminished even as he hands over to his brother Mark, as CEO, and embraces a new role as Senior Thoroughbred Consultant–has pioneered many of the services nowadays taken for granted on the sales ground.

“You know, one of the things I've found in business–and in life–is that if you don't start on the course of trying to do something better, then you never get the benefit of other opportunities that emerge along the way,” he reflects. “Opportunities that are often better than the things you originally set out trying to do. And that's about the force of human passion. When people start driving towards something, good things start to happen.”

As is often true of Taylor's perspectives, this one dovetails with his Catholic faith. “Because it's about hope,” he says. “When I was young I understood faith, and I understood charity. But hope? Where did that fit in? It was only as I got older that I understood how hope is really the greatest of the three. Because it's a real blessing if you can get up every morning and think, I need to get this done, that done, because you're always chasing that brighter future.”

Taylor Made has met two extremely delicate challenges during its perennial expansion. One was to maintain due intimacy with customers, even as the scale became ever more industrial, so that their slogan can still credibly remain: “With us, you're family.” The other was to maintain a vital equilibrium between fraternal affection, among Taylor and his brothers Mark, Frank, Ben, and their partner Pat Payne, and the hard-headed administration of what has become such a huge business.

Taylor and Pat Payne | Keeneland photo

Taylor stresses that he has “the best hard-working brothers and a tremendous business partner in Pat Payne.” But to have somehow always made it all work tells you much about their upbringing. Their mother Mary was a woman of iron faith; and “Daddy” Joe commanded respect across the Bluegrass not just for the horsemanship that sustained 40 years as farm manager at Gainesway—on which vocation he literally wrote the book—but also for the probity he demanded of his children. “Don't ever do anything you wouldn't want to read about in the Herald-Leader,” he reproved them.

“He would always try and help the underdog,” Taylor says. “In his early life he experienced the Depression. A lot of those people in that generation, they had really tasted poverty, and they were geared to make work central to their lives. Mom let my dad work as long hours as he needed, and always had a hot meal for him when he came home. And from the time we were just young boys, he was taking us with him and teaching us.

“Like any young kid, we weren't a lot of help at first. But by the time we were 10 years old most of us could drive a tractor; and by the time I was 14 or 15, I was about half a veterinarian for the cattle, I knew how to plow, if the tractor got dirt in the lines I knew how to bleed the lines. I thought, 'Man, I have to work all the time while my buddies are playing ball.' But that was just the way that my father operated.”

Taylor was already the fourth of what became eight children in what he humorously likes to describe as “the Catholic business plan.” But he would lose two of his brothers, in 1968 and 1981.

“And I think that also had something to do with how you can stick together, as a family, even when you have all the pressures of being in business together,” Taylor muses. “Yes, you can still fall out over little piddling stuff, that might not seem piddling at the time when everybody's emotions get high. But if you did get mad, you'd be over it the next day, didn't harbor any grudge.

Joe Taylor at Gainesway | courtesy Taylor Made

“I was 12 years old when my older brother got killed in a car crash. My mother's faith kept her strong, but my dad was just all torn to pieces. I remember going out there with him, where the wreck had been, seeing him walk around saying: 'Oh man, why? Why did it have to happen?' And finally, he realised that he couldn't get it off his mind, so he went out to some old country roads in Jessamine County and bought 170 acres at $600 an acre. From then onwards, my sisters Emily or Mary Joe would haul us out there to work. They helped us greatly, by being the younger boys' transportation. If they didn't take us, then whatever time Daddy Joe clocked off at Gainesway, he came through and picked us up.”

They were set to work on the tangled wire fences, the fallen trees, the dilapidated barn. And that site eventually became the cornerstone of the little operation started by Taylor with his buddy Mike Shannon, a Texas schoolteacher working at Gainesway who had resolved to start a boarding farm.

“At that time of my life, I was just a kid with long hair. I was a hard worker, but if you saw me you'd think me a hippie,” Taylor recalls. “I was in U.K. and majoring in trying to get out. I had nine hours left and I quit. I'd saved up some money. When you worked for other farmers, you got paid! Cutting tobacco and baling hay, stuff like that. Mike and I both had a pick-up truck, and we put in our $10,000 apiece, and we started the farm.”

With Gainesway servicing its world-class stallion roster, Daddy Joe was sending mares to maybe a dozen different farms. The new venture received a couple mares and, between the oversight of the old man and the good work of the kids, gradually more followed. Mike also had a group of southwestern contacts sending us horses that helped us greatly in our early years.

Taylor Made at sunset | Taylor Gilkey photo

“Mike taught me a lot,” stresses Taylor. “I was a shy kid, I'd never talked on the phone to an owner, but he just got me in there to finally get used to that. And he was a risk-taker, too: we bought some mares from John Nerud, spent about $125,000 when we didn't have any money. Breaking up that group and selling them gave us a bit more of a nest egg. And meanwhile we basically built up the farm one customer at a time. You know, I don't want to knock any other farm. But being broke and hungry, when I boarded a horse, that customer meant a lot more to me than if Leslie Combs boarded a horse. I didn't have Caro!”

Having initially rented a number of different tracts, they expanded a core for what has become a 1,600-acre footprint around the new land in Jessamine: if Taylor Made had to lease stalls, then they might as well pay their own family. The game-changer, however, was a game-changer for the whole industry.

Tomorrow: Part II: Ideas, and more ideas

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Something For Everyone As Keeneland November Wraps

The seasonal foliage was about the only thing falling at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, which concluded a wildly successful run in Lexington Friday afternoon. Over the course of 10 days of trade, sales officials reported gross receipts of $203,585,500 for 2470 horses sold, good for an average of $82,423. Further demonstrating the strength of middle market, the median price of $37,000 established a new November record, eclipsing the previous mark of $35,000 set on five previous occasions, but most recently in 2014. The buyback rate closed at a very manageable 17.4%.

The November sale was topped by the supplemented GI Coaching Club American Oaks winner Paris Lights (Curlin) (hip 224D), who was consigned by Brad Weisbord and Liz Crow's EliTE, as agent for WinStar Farm/WinStar Stablemates. Despite the passing of its founder B. Wayne Hughes this past August, Spendthrift Farm continued an aggressive buying spree dating back to last year's breeding stock sales, going to $3.1 million for the daughter of Paris Bikini (Bernardini). Paris Lights was one of seven mares that eclipsed the seven-figure mark at Keeneland, each of which was secured by a different buyer, while the 41 horses that sold for a pricetag in excess of $500,000 were acquired by some 30 unique entities.

The 2021 November Sale also warmly welcomed the return of a broad international buying bench, as the United States conditionally opened its borders on the eve of the auction Nov. 8. Bidding was spirited at every level of the sale, across each of the five books that was capped by Friday's equally vibrant Horses of Racing Age Section (see related story). So lively was the bidding that by the time the dust had settled on the Book 3 finale Nov. 14, the sale had already soared past the gross for the entire COVID-impacted event in 2020.

The weanling section of the sale also featured competitive bidding, with end-users and resellers alike making their presence felt. Four Star Sales sold the highest-priced foal of the sale (hip 144), an $800,000 Frankel (GB) half-sister to MGSW Nay Lady Nay (Ire) (No Nay Never) and GSW/MG1SP Arizona (Ire) (No Nay Never) to Midlantic-based trainer Phil Schoenthal, agent for Matt Dorman's D. Hatman Thoroughbreds.

The level of engagement augurs well for horse racing and breeding, Keeneland President and CEO Shannon Arvin said.

“Excitement for racing and confidence in the future of our sport globally are positive trends for the entire horse industry,” she commented. “The November Sale continued the optimism we saw in September with great energy on the sales grounds, smiling faces all around and people having fun doing what they love. As in September, Keeneland worked to elevate the sales atmosphere with many little touches that we hope consignors and buyers really enjoyed, and that helped create a terrific environment to showcase the quality individuals that breeders and sellers brought to market. We are delighted with the enthusiastic response of buyers.”

Opening of Borders Comes In The Nick of Time…

Following an 18-month interruption owing to the coronavirus, the United States officially re-opened its borders to fully vaccinated international travelers Monday, Nov. 8, one day prior to the Fasig-Tipton November Sale and two days before the start of Keeneland November. The sales sheets bear out that the international buying bench contributed mightily to the overall sales performance at all price points.

On the heels of two landmark victories at the Breeders' Cup at Del Mar, Japanese interests were active at the top and middle levels of the market–as is their custom–with Masahiro Miki signing for three lots for $3,675,000, topped by the $2.3 million Pink Sands (Tapit) (hip 183). Katsumi Yoshida added New Jersey-bred Horologist (Gemologist) (hip 200) to his formidable broodmare band at Northern Farm, paying $800,000 for the MGSW and MGISP mare.

Keeneland November grad Gypsy Robin (Daaher, $750,000, 2013) became the dam of G1 A. J. Moir S. hero Wild Ruler (Aus) (Snitzel {Aus}) at Melbourne's Moonee Valley Racecourse late last month, the latest major success of American-sourced bloodstock Down Under. Looking for lightning to strike again–and hopefully again and again–that 4-year-old colt's part-owner Newgate Farm (Henry Field) teamed with SF Bloodstock on no fewer than five purchases, led by MGSW Tonalist's Shape (Tonalist) (hip 46). Australian horsemen Julian Blaxland, Will Johnson, Bruce Slade and Craig Rounsefell were prominent players, as were trainers Richard and Michael Freedman.

 

The sale's back books drew buyers from Central America, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Turkey, a function of Keeneland's aggressive strategy to recruit buyers from these 'emerging' racing jurisdictions.

As with any sporting event, it's great to watch on TV and all, but nothing beats being there in person, said Keeneland Vice President of Sales Tony Lacy.

“The opening of the U.S. borders just two days before the sale really created an atmosphere and brought back a feeling of probably 10-15 years ago, when you had a really vibrant international market,” said Lacy. “The presence of the Australians was really welcomed, because American broodmares have been doing exceptionally well in their gene pool. It was great to see the Europeans coming back here and spending money again. The attraction of American pedigrees is starting to gain traction again. I think going forward there is real momentum and I think we've got a real good base to work off in the future.”

Added Keeneland Director of Sales Cormac Breathnach, “American bloodlines are so valuable around the world and are huge contributors to studbooks in various jurisdictions. We are privileged and fortunate to be able to present that market to the world here at Keeneland and with the support of all the breeders and consignors that send us such quality stock. The market has been very strong, the international participation is consistent and very valuable to us and it's exciting for us to be on this end of it.”

'Cool' Marketplace Fosters Confidence, Stability…

Another positive in Lacy's eyes is the re-emergence of buyers at the November Sale who had availed themselves of a break of as many as 15 years from the sales.

“I think what is really encouraging is that you're seeing some people that might have been inactive for a number of years [buying horses],” he offered. “I'll use Bill Casner as an example. Bill has been active, but at a slightly lower level. This year he came back and bought at a significant level. If you look at the results through Books 1 and 2, you see people who have purchased farms that were active and really doubling down, stocking up for their farms.”

And that helps to maintain a relatively even keel, according to Lacy.

“I think even if we have a correction in the market over the next few years, you won't have the same panic in the market because of the fact that this is real money that's being invested,” he said. “There's confidence. Prize money being up has really helped and the fact that we have partnerships that are buying racehorses has invigorated the yearling market. When you have a vibrant yearling market, the reaction is that people think 'alright, it's valuable to breed these horses' and to have a market to sustain it. That's extremely encouraging. I don't think the market is overheating in any way. If you look at the results from 2018-2019–eliminate the results from 2020–but look at 2021, you actually see a straight line. There's a very consistent line of growth. 2020 was a bit of anomaly, but last year was actually better than what we thought it might be. There was a demand for young stock and it's carried over here.”

Breathnach concurred.

“There's a lot of help in the industry, from the sporting end with high purses and handle has been very good and there is a lot of energy around the sport again,” he explained. “People made money in September and now they're reinvesting now with confidence, because like Tony said, it feels like a very fair, sound market and something that is sustainable, because there is a balance between supply and demand and there is a real appetite to buy and to fill orders and they're not getting them filled in many cases. They're getting pushed back in the books and now they're going to be back in January to try to fill their orders there.”

Following Through On A Vision…

In a TDN interview with Katie Petrunyak after being named to his new role earlier this year, Lacy said he was committed to enhancing the buying experience for the auction house's clientele, making it fun and exciting. With Keeneland's two biggest sales now in the rearview, it is clear Lacy very much intends on seeing that task through.

“We've been really focused on creating a little more energy, a little more excitement and a little more of an atmosphere around the grounds,” he said. “In September, we had to duct tape a lot of things together to make this work, starting in early summer. It's been well received. A lot of international and out-of-town customers have really enjoyed themselves and I think that's something we want to try to build on.

“It's a transactional business, but we also realize that there is a lot enjoyment in trying to source and buy quality stock,” he continued. “That's something we'll be focusing on more and more. We want make sure that people realize that when you invest here, it increases prize money, it allows us to do more development. We're also really excited about having the Breeders' Cup here next year. Next November is going to be a really exciting time and we're already planning for what we can do then.”

An ELiTE November Topper…

One might think that selling a horse for $3.1 million wouldn't necessarily elicit a significant reaction from ELiTE Sales' Brad Weisbord within the context of having consigned the likes of champions Monomoy Girl ($9.5 million) and Midnight Bisou ($5 million) and Uni (GB) ($4.1 million) on a single night a little more than a year ago. But Weisbord, who said has seen his baby daughter a grand total of 'one day in the last five weeks,' was still basking in the afterglow of the sale of Paris Lights nine days after she went through the ring at Keeneland November.

“It's been a great November,” said Weisbord. “It was a pleasant surprise to hear from Elliott Walden two weeks before the sale, saying that he was giving us Paris Lights to sell. We put our heads together and seeing all those headliners at Fasig-Tipton, we thought it was best to bring Paris Lights to Keeneland because she would have a chance to shine there. This was a case of being the last big fish in the sales ring and everybody lined up on her. To sell a $3-million mare, even in a healthy market, is a giant deal and we were very appreciative of the opportunity.”

Like so many others, Weisbord has been taken by the performance of the market over the last week and a half.

“This, for me, is the best market we've ever participated in,” he said. “I thought the same thing last year and this year is even better. The health of the worldwide economy is continuing to strengthen. We have probably never seen this strong a market at the upper end. We had five millionaires and there was very active bidding well above our reserves for all five of them.”

 

Taylor Made Tops Among Consignors…

There are a few constants in life: death, taxes and Taylor Made Sales topping the consignors' table at Keeneland November.

And so it was in 2021, as the agency sold 246 head for $23,873,200 to reign as king of that particular hill for the 25th time since 1990.

“We've got a great base of customers, many of whom have been with us for decades and continually give us good horses,” Taylor Made's Mark Taylor commented. “We've got a hell of a team. A lot of the people that work for us could run their own consignments, they know what they're doing. Us Taylors are just the conduits between the employees and the customer. We're very lucky. Thanksgiving is coming up, so we're very grateful.”

Given the strength of the year's previous auctions, Taylor said the overall results of the November sale were not totally unexpected, yet simultaneously a bit surprising.

“What was encouraging was that it was strong from start to finish and there was demand for horses at all levels. It was really good,” he said. “It exceeded my expectations in this way. I thought that our high six-figure and seven-figure horses, that we would be selling into a very healthy market. The middle market commercial breeders–what we have been seeing is signs of them shrinking down. Wherever they are in the market, they want to sell off and have higher quality. The cost of keeping them and raising them keeps going up and then also the veterinary scrutiny continues to get more intense.

“It's totally out of their control,” he added. “You're raising this animal that you're bringing to the market and there's so much intense vet scrutiny that a lot of the commercial breeders just can't stomach it. It's so hard to hit a home run, and even when you have a horse that's capable of it, sometimes it takes just one or two opinions and instead of hitting a home run, you're striking out. It's a hard business model because there is so much unpredictability in that way. I was pleasantly surprised that there was so much demand for those mares. I thought it was going to get really thin and really weak once we hit Book 3, but that was not the case. It's a testament to how much people love this game. That they're willing to reinvest and plow money back in.”

Ingordo: Buying Horses 'Was Not Easy'…

Noted bloodstock agent David Ingordo was one of many buyers who found the sledding to be pretty tough at the November sale. That being said, he wasn't complaining and also sees a bright future for the sport.

“On the heels of as good a September sale as I've ever seen and a yearling sales season that was phenomenal, quite frankly, it was expected that November would be a good market,” he said. “I'm usually a foal buyer, but I was not able to get anything bought in my price range and at my comfort level for what my needs were. We got outbid quite a bit, I thought the foal market was quite strong, and deservedly so. Pinhookers had a good year, end-users are buying more weanlings now than they ever have and there is just a lot of competition for good foals.

He continued, “On the mare side, again it goes back to good yearling sales. A lot of people are reinvesting in mares, making key acquisitions for broodmare bands, and that was difficult to do as well. On the value side of the broodmare market, there were a lot of people supporting their various sires and we saw a lot of mare competition and it was tough. We were able to buy horses that we wanted, but it was not an easy process.”

Ingordo signed 19 tickets to support new Lane's End stallion Code of Honor (Noble Mission {GB}) and another half-dozen in the name of Gage Hill II in partnership with Lane's End.

“Code of Honor is a very attractive horse and stands over a lot of ground,” he explained. “Physically we're thinking to add some strength and some body to the mares we breed to him. He won what is historically one of the best 2-year-old races at Saratoga and got beat a lip in the Champagne, so he has 2-year-old form. We're looking to try to make him a commercial horse and try to get some runners out there early. We bought some speedy types of physicals from sire lines we felt would bring additional precocity that he himself had. He's a wide-open horse to breed to pedigree-wise, so we were able to find a wide variety of mares that fit him. As is becoming our model, we are committed to supporting these horses with mares, we're going to buy yearlings and weanlings by him, we're going to buy 2-year-olds. And people that breed to him, we're going to support those that breed to the horse by buying horses off them as well.”

The sales are a means to an end and Ingordo is encouraged not only by the results of the past week-plus, but also by the state of the horse racing business.

“That winning post about a quarter-mile up from the pavilion and the winner's circle is what drives this,” he said, referring to the Keeneland finish line. “Racing is healthier than is sometimes reported, we seem to always focus on the negatives. I personally race horses and we make our racing stable work based on the prize money we can win. It covers the bills and hopefully we create a product that we can sell as a stallion or a broodmare or whatever. Purses are good and there is a demand I haven't seen for some time. It is quite refreshing to see just how many people want to race horses at whatever level they're able to do it. Even if you have a claiming horse, you can still make it make sense. That is something we need to focus on as a big positive and realize that is what is driving all this demand. Someone has to produce those horses, so the breeders are being rewarded for producing a nice horse, and whatever region they're in, people want to race.”

What They're Saying At The Sales…

“I think I'm like everyone else…OMG is the explanation for it. The strength of the market is mind-boggling, the strength of the stock market is mind-boggling. There's just so much money in the world right now and you combine that with the accelerated depreciation we're getting, purse money is up and overall gambling on racing continues to move forward. We've got as close to a perfect storm in the horse business probably since all that crazy money in the early 80s. It's as good as it's been since the turn of the century.

“The increase in the $10,000 to $60,000 horse, which was sometimes unsellable, there now seems to be a fervent market for those horses. I don't know where the money is coming from, but it's great for the industry.”

–Bradley Thoroughbreds' Peter Bradley

 

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