Half Bro to Smarty entered on 1/1/07

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by saucon17

Richi,

I was wondering if you knew who bred this colt and in what state?

Thanks Mike

Bred in Florida by Clover Leaf Farms.

He must not be a very attractive horse in terms of conformation. If he was, it is very unlikely that he would have ended up in a 2 year old sale. If he was attractive, he would have sold for a lot of money in a yearling sale.

Many people don't realize that you will rarely see a horse with both great breeding and great conformation at a 2 year old sale. A horse may have one of those qualities or the other but not both. If you have a horse with both great breeding and great conformation, you would have to be crazy to put the horse in a 2 year old sale. Here is the reason: If the horse has great breeding and great conformation, he will sell for a fortune at a yearling sale. For example, let's say you have such a horse and he is by AP Indy out of a graded stakes winning mare. If he is great looking, you can probably get a few million dollars for him at a yearling sale. If you try to sell him at a 2 year old sale instead, you have huge downside and not much upside. His workout will have a huge impact on his sale price. What happens if he doesn't have a good workout? If his workout is lousy, you may only get $150,000 for him instead of $3 million. There is very little to gain and a lot to lose.

On the other hand, lets say you have a horse that has great breeding but poor conformation. Let's say the horse is by Storm Cat and is out of a graded stakes winning mare, but the horse is very crooked. You'd still probably try to sell him at a yearling sale, but if you weren't happy with the price, then you could keep him and try a 2 year old sale. Let's say that nobody bids more than $200,000 for the horse. It may be worth a shot to go to the 2 year old sale because if the horse has a really good workout, you may still get over $1 million for him.

Another type of horse that would make sense to put in a 2 year old sale would be a great looking horse with just an average pedigree. Such a horse may only bring $100,000 at a yearling sale. But if he has a great workout at a 2 year old sale, he could sell for $2 million.