The bull market in horses continues. Average and median prices were up 35-40% compared to the 2019 sale. The buyback rate was only 15%, and there were very few mysterious withdrawals. What was really surprising was the bottom end of the market. There were many horses with 11.0 and higher works that still got bids of $15,000.
Some of this might have to do with a higher purse structure at Lone Star. If you want to win those purses you still have to beat Asmussen, Calhoun, Broberg, and Diodoro, which is not easy. Not a single partnership bought a horse, and only a few well known owners made a purchase. The sale topper was a strange horse by Tiznow that did not even work, he just galloped. Yet he sold for $240,000 to a trainer named Austin Gustafson that I wrote about during the Keeneland sale. He is the third leading trainer at Remington.
Just for the record, the sale was about 90% mask free among the buyers. What is interesting is that I did not recognize a single familiar face from the Simulcast Pavilion. Gamblers and owners seem to be two different crowds. Many of the buyers had cowboy hats and jeans, this was not the Keeneland crowd. It was fun to sit in the crowd and have real buyers right next to you. About 10-20% of the horses were sold to internet bidders.
I will leave the sale with four “purchases”:
- #23 – f – Mr. Speaker – Red Hot Tops by Arch, $40,000, real buyer Dan Bates
- #76 – c – Lea – Crema d’Oro by Medaglia d’Oro, $28,000, real buyer Mark Allen
- #106 – f – Dialed In – Hard Ten Hopping , by Rock Hard Ten, $27,000, buyer Tom Galvin
- #79 – f – Bal a Bali – Conquest Slayer by Scat Daddy, $13,500, buyer BKD Consulting
All four real buyers have little racing experience, so they will be interesting to watch. I thought these prices were reasonable, but certainly not bargains. The Dialed In filly was a really big horse, like her damsire Rock Hard Ten. I was not that impressed by the physical appearance of several of the other horses that I had an interest in. I tried to find a Texas-bred, but they all looked like small sprinters to me.
Given the poor sale results I detailed in the previous post, I am not sure I would have really bought any of these 4 horses. It might be fun to watch my own horse at Lone Star, but the meet ends in July. Sam Houston in the fall makes more sense.
Buying A Race Horse 