Weekend Sales Bonanza
More than 700 yearlings will go through the auction ring this weekend at regional sales in Ohio, New York and Ontario. But will the glut of sales and the logistical challenge that may cause for buyers impact prices?
by Dave Briggs
Sale organizers admit itâs not ideal that there are four yearling sales this weekend starting with the Ohio Selected Jug Yearling Sale in Sunbury, OH today and Saturday, the Morrisville College Yearling Sale on Saturday and both the Goshen Yearling Sale and The Canadian Yearling Sale Sunday in Middleton, NY and Hamilton, ON, respectively.
Originally, both the Morrisville and Goshen sales were set for Sunday, but organizers of the Morrisville sale moved their auction to Saturday earlier this year.
âI think it was a little unfortunate this year, because of certain scheduling conflicts,â said Bob Boni, president of the Goshen Yearling Sale to be held at the Mark Ford Training Center. âIt really couldnât be avoided. Itâs very easy for those not involved to say âthey should have done somethingâ but there werenât a lot of opportunities the way it worked out. Iâm hopeful that next year something can be done differently, and we can work it out so it can be more functional for people.â
Preferred Equineâs David Reid, who will sell horses at Morrisville and The Canadian Yearling Sale operated by Standardbred Canada, said avoiding a sales logjam âwould have been beneficial to some of the parties⌠I think that could have been avoided and should have been avoided,â but, he added, âEven though itâs not an ideal situation this weekend, Iâm sure the yearling buyers will bite the bullet for one weekend and just work extra hard to attend the sales or make arrangements with other sources to cover their bases at the sales if they canât be there themselves⌠I know some people will have somebody bid on some for them. I think the astute horsemen who are going to be buying yearlings know how important it is to do their homework because these are the future stars of their stables. I donât think theyâll short themselves any effort. For one weekend Iâm pretty confident they will try to cover their bases.â
Michelle Crawford of Crawford Farms of Durhamville, NY said she wishes something could have been worked out to avoid the four sales being on the same weekend. âI honestly am disappointed that I canât physically get to the other sales that Iâd like to go to and experience⌠Iâll be diplomatic because Iâm really tired of fighting, but I had to leave my allegiance to what I thought was the strongest sale, Morrisville,â she said.
The Morrisville sale, which began in 1989, provides critical financial support to the Morrisville Equine Program at the Morrisville State College, one of the few post-secondary programs that has proven to produce students that work in the standardbred industry.
âI walked into my barn today where my consignment was set up and I had seven girls there. I was excited to meet them and talk to them and theyâre excited to be there and help,â Crawford said. âI donât know if anyone else gets that. These kids are starving for this. They look forward to this all year long. You canât deprive them of that.â
Hanover Shoe Farms is selling some of its yearlings at Goshen and the Ohio Sale this year. Had the Goshen Sale been last weekend to avoid the conflict with Morrisville, Hanover would not have been able to sell at Goshen due to the Pennsylvania Sires Stakes championships for two-year-olds held Sunday at Harrahâs Philadelphia.
âHaving the sales all on one weekend obviously isnât good, but speaking from Hanoverâs perspective, we just had no choice. We couldnât have gone last week, as it was conflicting with all the Pennsylvania finals,â said Hanover publicity director Murray Brown.
âActually, if they werenât going day to day, we probably would have sold some at each,â Brown said, referring to both the Goshen and Morrisville Sales. âBack to back just makes it an impossibility in terms of manpower, especially with Ohio the day before.â
This weekend is the unofficial kickoff of the big yearling sales season and Reid said the results will be something of a barometer for bigger sales to come in Lexington and Harrisburg.
âThis weekend of sales will set the tone a little bit, for what the market is going to be. You always get concerned about the overall economy, concerns about an election year⌠Weâll get through this weekend and then weâll see what the pulse is, but I anticipate Lexington being a very healthy sale,â said Reid who is the co-sales manager of the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale that runs Oct. 4-8 at Fasig-Tipton. âThe Lexington catalogue is out and Iâm very pleased with the whole catalogue from a Lexington Selected sales manager point of view.â
Though this weekendâs sales glut will undoubtedly provide a logistical challenge to potential buyers, Boni said those looking to run successful operations owe it to themselves to look at as many horses as possible, wherever they sell.
âYouâll hear me say this time and time again. If this is the business youâre in, and you donât spend the time to look, you are really doing yourself a disservice and the people that operate for you a disservice,â Boni said.
âI know from doing this all my life. If this is the business that youâre in and you donât show up at these sales, whether itâs our sale or one of the others, itâs kind of inexcusable. Thatâs where you are going to get your inventory from and thereâs nothing worse than passing up on something that you didnât look at because you didnât take the time to. And that includes people at sales because, once youâre there, why donât you just look at anything you can look at? I guess itâs a little bit of a pet peeve of mine, that horses do get overlooked because people donât look at them. And itâs for a variety of reasons, the stupidest of them being that itâs going to bring too much money. Thatâs kind of silly. Itâs one of the few things in our business that we basically donât get charged for, and thatâs looking at horses.â
Boni said the Goshen catalog is strong for anyone, âlooking for a more moderately-priced horse. Iâm not making any other representations that itâs anything other than that, but thereâs certainly some nice yearlings in there that are already brothers and sisters to those that have performed.
âThere is a good variety and youâd like to think that people will come and look. And if you come and look, youâre going to find something. Thatâs been a policy of mine for a long time â if youâre going to pay attention and look at whatâs out there and you take the time, thereâs brothers and sisters to pretty successful horses.â
Reid said Preferred is selling 15 yearlings at Morrisville.
âI believe I have a very nice group of horses going up there, good individuals with a lot of first foals, good pedigrees. Conformation-wise, Iâm very happy with the group thatâs going to be selling at Morrisville,â he said. âThe same could be said about Standardbred Canadaâs sale. We have a great representation of yearlings there and for their regional program in Ontario, I think we have a strong group of individuals and, obviously, itâs probably going to be highlighted by the Kadabra brother to What The Hill. The numbers are pretty consistent up there and I expect both markets to be pretty healthy this weekend.â
Last year, The Canadian Yearling Sale was up 69.5 per cent in average mostly on the strength of the Ontario Sires Stakes program, the lucrative Ontario Resident Mare bonus program and a lower number of available Ontario-sired horses. Reid is expecting more of the same this year.
âI just seems like the industry, as far as the government is concerned, has much more stability than there was in the past few years and the number of overall yearlings being offered for Ontario is probably similar to last year or maybe slightly down⌠so from that point of thinking, I assume we will follow suit and I actually think there might be even a little more anticipation for the sales than there was last year,â Reid said.
Prices in Ohio should be positively impacted by the growth of the Ohio program under video lottery terminals (VLTs).
âWeâre selling all of our Ohio-breds in Ohio,â Brown said, referring to Hanover Shoe Farms. âWe have a few very nice ones and maybe a couple that arenât as nice, but generally speaking the strength of our Ohio allotment is Dragon Again. He brings a new dimension to Ohio, I think. Heâs proven to be, if not the foremost sire, then one of the key sires in the pacing world⌠We have one Pet Rock yearling, who I believe is outstanding. Of course, itâs the first crop of Pet Rock. Iâd hear that generally speaking they are very nice horses, and the one we have is certainly very nice.â
Brown said Hanoverâs consignment at Goshen is âvery solid. Weâve got representatives of all the major sires, of both New York and Pennsylvania. And if I were to pick one real standout colt, it would be number 59. Heâs an RC Royalty colt, first foal from a mare called Variety Girl. Itâs a top-bred mare and heâs the kind of colt I call a âmouth-watererâ, heâs just gorgeous. Big, beautiful, very dark horse. He has a great presence and trots really well in the paddock. If I were to pick one, heâd probably be the one. But weâve got nice yearlings from Roll With Joe, American Ideal, Andover Hall, Cantab Hall, Muscle Massive. I think they are a very solid group.
Crawford said she is hoping for big things from her consignment at Morrisville.
âIâm super happy. I think itâs the strongest consignment for Morrisville that weâve ever had,â Crawford said. âI think if we get the same attendance that weâve had in years past that weâll have a very solid consignment with even more to offer.â
All of which gives yearling buyers a lot of choice.
âI think, at the end of the day, customers are going to be able to go to both Morrisville on Saturday and Goshen on Sunday, and due to the size of the catalogs that should be a very do-able thing to do,â Reid said.
Brown said the interest in Hanover yearlings has been brisk and some potential customers were planning to attend all three U.S. sales.
âWe had a couple of people (at Hanover) yesterday who said they would be going to all three of Ohio, Morrisville and Goshen. Now, Iâm not too sure there will be many people that will do that, but I think the major conflict will be between Morrisville and Goshen, because they are, to a large degree, selling the same type of horse,â Brown said.
As for the future, Reid said there has already been some dialogue between sales parties.
âI would assume next year the sale company representatives will try to work a little more closely with each other. Some of it is subject to the race calendar, so itâs hard to say, but I assume there will be some general consensus done next year among the companies,â Reid said.
Boni said he is already honing in on a date for Goshen.
âNext year, it looks like September 10th could be a reality (for the Goshen sale),â Boni said. âHopefully we can work something out⌠similar to the old Jersey Classic years ago, It used to be always the next weekend after Labor Day. Now, the only difference is, back then there wasnât the abundance of racing that you have now.â
Crawford said maybe the Morrisville sale could move to August.
âCould we get the yearlings prepped one month sooner so it doesnât interfere with everything?â she asked.
All of which provides hope that yearling buyers wonât be torn in four different directions a year from now.