Keeneland Sale

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by Linny

Obviously, I was not there, but I did see one or two go very cheap. Not sure if they were bought but a couple were sub- $100k, including a Pulpit filly from a nice family. Of course, not have seen them or their records, I'm basing this just on the page.

Being not that familiar with auctions, I have a question. How does a horse that can draw no better than a $40k bid get into Book 1? It is something that came up after the examination process, the market rejecting the pedigree, the lack of expected success by a sire who has his first crop hitting the tracks this year ie. Smarty Jones?
Honestly, if I were selling, and my horse was "only" worth $50-60k, I'd rather have him in a later place in the sale so the "appropriate" buyers would be looking at him and bidding. Tossing him into book 1 makes him look bad by comparison.

The truth is that Book 1 is hard for Keeneland to fill. Many of the owners and consignors would rather sell a $250k horse in book 2 or 3 where there are simply more buyers and less competition. If you take a average $250k horse and match them up against a $2 million dollar horse it is easy to see how they get overshadowed. What happens is that consignors sometimes push 'sacrificial' horses into Book 1, a horse with a good enough pedigree but a physical issue that is going to be a hard sell regardless of where they are booked. In doing so they help keeneland and get move favorable positioning for other lots. I saw a filly by one of the hottest sires in the world today that is just awful. The consignor told me that the owner wanted to be in book 1 and requested it. He advised against but went along simply to get brownie points. She brought less than $50k. As a racehorse I wouldnt take her for free.