OBS AUCTION’S SILVER LINING
By Ray Paulick
The good news at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales company’s February select sale of 2-year-olds in training is that Thoroughbred racing continues to hold a fascination with people who have worked hard, enjoyed a certain measure of success, and want to live out a longtime dream to have their own racing stable.
That was the case with Chuck and Maribeth Sandford, who stepped up in a big way with their first auction purchase, a $475,000 colt by Tiznow who topped the one-day OBS sale in Ocala on Tuesday. The Sandfords come from Marengo, Ill., a small farming community in the northern Illinois cornbelt; they built a business from scratch that has been highly successful (click here to learn about their business), and in the last year have made the transition from horse racing fans to owners.
That’s welcome news for anyone in the Thoroughbred trade, especially at a time when many existing owners are cutting back on their stables. There has always been turnover in the ranks of owners, or among buyers at public auction, but for the industry’s future health it has to continue to have a magnetic appeal that attracts individuals like Chuck and Maribeth Sandford who have a dream.
How much turnover in buyers was there at this year’s one-day sale? In 2009, there were 19 individual buyers who spent $150,000 or more at the OBS February auction. Of those 19, only two spent at that level in 2010, and both made considerable cutbacks—West Point Thoroughbreds, through agent Buzz Chace going from six purchases for $1,260,000 in 2009 to three for $340,000 in 2010; and Dogwood Stables, going from five for $545,000 in 2009 to five for $355,000 in 2010.
Last year’s second-leading buyer behind West Point was Westrock Stable, which spent $595,000 for four horses. Westrock was not listed as a buyer this year. A number of other buyers who bought at least one horse in 2009 were not among 2010 buyers, including Coolmore associate Demi O’Byrne, Sheikh Mohammed’s chief bloodstock adviser John Ferguson, the Sanan family’s Padua Stables, and trainers Ken McPeek and Gary Contessa.
Fortunately, in the absence of so many 2009 buyers, there were purchases totaling $150,000 or more from 11 entities in 2010 that were not among the leading buyers last year, including Amy Tarrant’s Hardacre Farm, the sale’s leading buyer with two purchases for $675,000; the Sandfords, second leading buyer with their one purchase; California-based agent Hubert Guy, third-leading buyers with four purchases for $465,000; Let’s Go Stable, fourth-leading buyer with one purchase for $400,000; and the Steinbrenner family’s Kinsman Farm, seventh-leading buyer with two purchases for $300,000.
A boutique sale with only 160 horses catalogued cannot be used as a reliable barometer for the health of the Thoroughbred marketplace. But the results of Tuesday’s sale followed the forecast of Leprechaun Racing’s Mike Mulligan, a major pinhooker who also serves as president of the National Association of Two-Year-Old Consignors. Mulligan told the Paulick Report last week that buyers in past years who might spend $60,000 to $80,000 apiece for eight or nine horses at a 2-year-old sale are more likely now to cut back on the number purchased but focus more on higher quality, thus spending more per horse. That’s why this year’s sale saw a much steeper decline in the median price, dropping 25.6% from $90,000 to $66,000, than in the average price, which fell by 8.2%, from $106,115 to $97,182 (click here for the full results). And with more people focusing on the high-end horses and creating more competition at that level, there are going to be shoppers who were turned away without getting what they wanted. That may bode well for consignors who have the goods in upcoming auctions.
Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report
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Tags: Amy Tarrant, Buzz Chace, Chuck Sandford, coolmore, demi o'byrne, gary contessa, Hardacre Farm, horse, Hubert Guy, john ferguson, ken mcpeek, Kinsman Stud, leprechaun racing, Mike Mulligan, obs, Ocala Breeders' Sales, padua stables, Paulick Report, Ray Paulick, satish sanan, thoroughbred, tiznow, west point thoroughbreds, westrock stable
February 17th, 2010 at 9:02 pm
If sales keep having a 35% drop in gross and a 27% drop in median, maybe your next silver lining will be that everybody now understands they are going to get destroyed instead of there are still a few new people buying that don’t yet understand they are going to get broke.
February 17th, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Prices are still too high………..it costs roughly $2 billion per year to train and keep all racing t-breds in the usa while the annual total available purses amount to roughly $1 billion (less of course 10% for the jock and trainer so actually $800 million for the owners).
there is not enough blood on the streets for this industry to have found its natural bottom…..we have a ways to go yet.