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Originally Posted by Cannon Shell
I get guys calling me all the time to "invest" with them. Or invest in oil wells. Or other things. Who polices them? I never said that the sales were perfect and there are people with whom i wont do business with. But there have been reforms made so to say that there havent is wrong. How do you propose that the sales are cleaned up. I'm serious, i would like to hear your views.
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If you read my responses, I never said that changes haven't been made. Part of the problem is that you've been in the business for years, and you know who not to deal with. I've been involved far less (5+ years now), and I have some ideas about certain consignors with whom I won't do business. But what about the new guy who doesn't have such insight? How many of them have been ripped off and are now out of the business?
As for problem items: The drugs are one item, unregulated as they are at the 2YO sales, but we don't need to belabor that point.
My concerns go more to the shenanigans that often go on at the sales. Some examples are phony sales/numbers to drive up stallion averages (which presents a whole different set of problems for breeders); undisclosed ownership of horses in the sales; phantom bidding when there's really no "live" money in the ring; and dual agency (or racing's euphemism for conflict of interest).
I'll give you an example of a situation that drove me nuts last year at Saratoga. We were looking at a horse in the NY-bred Preferred Sale and had him vetted out. Before doing so, the consignor told us that the reserve on the horse was going to be about $45,000. In the interest of shortening the story, we got off the horse (interested in others) and never bid on the horse in question. The horse RNA'd for $60,000, with who knows how much live money on him. The next morning, the consignor shows up at my trainer's barn and tells me: "You almost got him" and then intimated that he wanted to see if a private sale was possible. I told him that we never bid on the horse (you should have seen the look on his face when I told him that) and that we weren't interested. Had we been interested, who knows how much money his phony bidding would have fleeced us for?