I would assume the "big boys" have agents who do all that stuff for them---and looking over the results of the three OBS 2yo sales from this year....I would say preview time is certainly not being over emphasized.
At OBS FEB- the sales topper, a Smoke Glacken colt, worked a 1/4 mile in 22 1/5th..only 1/5th faster than what Storm in May turned in last year...and it was far from the fastest time of the sale.
At OBS March- the 2nd highest price, albeit rather well bred, turned in a comically slow 23 1/5th workout...one of the slowest works of the entire sale.
At OBS April- the sales topper, of a 1,400 page catalog, worked a quarter mile in just 22 flat.
If you look at what happened at Barretts yesterday---in the history of Barretts sale (coming into '07), there have been five horses to work a sub-21 quarter mile. One was unraced---and the other four are Officer (Grade 1 winning 2yo), Arabian Light, (Grade 1 winning 2yo) Brother Derek (Grade 1 winning 2yo), and What A Song (undefeated Grade 2 winning 2yo, beat champion Stevie Wonderboy twice)
Because of that record---I think the track was made as fast as humanly possible to make the quickest of these cheap horses, fall in the company with the other stars who had their fast 1/4 mile previews over tracks that hadn't been tweaked to yield comically fast times.
Speeding up the track sure seemed to get that sale some attention anyway, and Barretts May needs all the attention they can muster.
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