Well, with the Point Given filly, it could be one of two things. Point Given's often look very immature, under-developed and gawky as yearlings. They really need time to develop. If you look at his entire past sales history, you will see his results have been surprisingly low in the yearling markets because of this. The other reason can be some conformational deficiencies we dont know about. A yearling can look fantastic but if it doesnt fly through the vet check, buyers are going to look else where.

With the Smart Strike filly, I was really expecting her to go for around 300k. My guess, conformational issues. Smart Strike doesnt throw the prettiest of babies and Seattle Slew can get some plain looking horses, especially as a broodmare sire, so maybe its a combination of that and unwanted issues with conformation. Either way, its a family thats been waking up but still under-appreciated. Cant go wrong with a filly tail-female to La Troienne.

RNA-- Means Reserve Not Acquired/Achieved. Reserves, or a minimum price set by the consignor or owner of the yearling (any horse) in an auction is common place. When they feel like the horse in question is worth no less than a certain amount they will set the reserve at that. The reserve is kept private and confidential and the buyers are not aware of it (im sure there are times they are though but thats a whole other sales ethics discussion). There's a lot of private sales during and after the sales with the horses who get RNA'd. So, many of them do switch hands of ownership, while others are retained by their original owners. I should also mention that you have to pay a percentage of the reserve if you're the original owner and your horse doesnt attain it. Its called a "buy back". I dont know what the percentage is. Im sure Sumitas does though.

The Mineshaft should be interesting. The iconic Lane's End (at least I consider it a Lane's End family of late) family of Lassie Dear has yearlings mostly by Came Home. They obviously supported that young stallion with mares from their best family which is great from him. But this is the only attempt i've seen of them inbreeding to Lassie Dear with Mineshaft. So this filly has the RF to Lassie Dear and I personally am a big fan of it. His weanlings didnt sell for as high as I thought they would but I heard they were a little under-developed which would make sense. He was a much better older horse and a lot of the mares he's seeing are Classic types also. I would be shocked if Mineshaft doesnt make an excellent stallion. Indy is starting to prove himself a sire of sires and Mineshaft hails from one of the best branches of La Troienne, through The Garden Club. Although, on a related note, that direct family has yet o produce a stallion of much importance.