by Debbie Little

If variety is the spice of life, it should be hot in Lexington for Bob Boni.

Boni’s Northwood Bloodstock consignment at the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale has something to show all five nights from a wide array of stallions.

“There’s enough variety there that it will be a good horse sale,” said Boni. “Because not everybody can raise their hand for $200-, or $300- or $400,000. Different people have different tastes in what stallions they like and what mares they like. It’s all very subjective.

“When it comes to any horse sale, one of the biggest things to me is the ability to pay attention, do your homework and look at a lot of horses. It doesn’t cost anything to look at horses and the more you look, the better off you’re going to be.”

Boni has 33 yearlings from 16 different stallions at Lexington and he’s excited to see how those making their debut will do.

“I’m always interested to see how the first crop horses sell,” said Boni. “I’ve got a Greenshoe, Six Pack, Captain Crunch. A lot of them are brothers and sisters to good horses.”

In total, he has five by Captain Crunch, four by Six Pack and two by Greenshoe.

“Number 158 Oh My Gosh Shoes is a Greenshoe sister to Sister Sledge,” said Boni, who also has Hip 536 Summer Shoes by Greenshoe. “Because he was such a brilliant, brilliant horse, I’m anxious to see how they sell.”

Northwood’s Lexington consignment has eight pacing fillies, which Boni said he hopes will once again have a good showing.

“Number 156 Sweet Gal has a strong pedigree as does the Captaintreacherous filly, number 67 Stonecoldtreachery,” said Boni. “Pacing fillies were more in demand last year than I’ve seen in recent history. Significantly stronger than people anticipated and right across the board. And I’ll be curious to see if that holds up again this year.”

Boni has been representing horses at public auctions either by himself or for someone else since the early 1970s. He was also a pioneer when it came to horse videos. According to Boni, he and Hanover Shoe Farms each debuted videos the same year in either ‘73 or ‘74.

Although Northwood’s Lexington yearling count is less than half of the 77 they will be showing at the Standardbred Horse Sales Company’s Harrisburg sale, according to Boni, there are a lot of factors that play into where to sell a particular horse.

“Very often that’s the owner’s decision or request,” said Boni. “If they sell in both sales we might come up with a split. For example, Sergent Stables, they have a very nice consignment here but we also have a good consignment at Harrisburg. I’ve been selling horses for them for 20-plus years, so we kind of pick and choose which ones we think would have more appeal one place versus the other. Which ones will be a little more ready earlier.”