Tax Day Cometh

Tax Day Cometh

Auction 3553 – At this time of year, everyone needs money and while for Sim creator, Mike, it meant offering a 1/2 price breeding sale with credits, for most of the horsemen it meant a reduction in assets.  Horses had to go and this week almost 800 animals changed their place of residence.  There were some other big numbers to report this week.  The total sales were up by almost $60 million dollars, the average jumped by close to $100 thousand dollars and the top selling horse went for over $6 million.  Even the old guys brought more with 17 of the 8 and up group bringing more than a dollar.  The 8 YO Ucando #50453 sold for over three million and speaking of high price horses – this week saw 26 horses sell for over a million dollars.  So for those of you that like the exact numbers…. 

Auction Stats 3553

Horses Entered – 787 (Last week – 660) +  

Horses Sold For More Than $1.00 – 340 (Last week – 256) +  

Horses Not Sold or RNA (Reserve Not Attained) – 54 (Last week – 76) –

Horses Sold For $1.00 – 145 – (Last week – 124) +  

Two Year-olds – Entered – 48 – (Last week – 60) –  

Two Year-olds – Sold – 41 – (Last week – 46) –

Two year-olds – Not Sold or RNA – 7 – (Last week – 14) –

Total Sales – $92,324,809.00 – (Last week – $27,723,242.00) +

Average Sale Price – $190,360.43 – (Last week – $72,955.90) +

Leading Buyer – Computer Stable – 248 – (Last week – 204 horses) +  

Sale Topper – # 144178 Rarified Heir – $6,139,217.00 – (Last week – $2,650,003.00) +

Auction Seen:  It was really cold and windy but the rain from yesterday had pretty much stopped by the time I arrived in Kentucky.  I was lucky to get a cab as most were busy taking people to Keeneland for The Bluegrass Stakes but I found a rather decrepit one and arrived in short order at the sale’s barn.  I blew in and with the help of Tootsie and Mcjonny, we got the door closed before to many dead leaves swirled in or too many people hollered about the cold.  Brick, Varsity and Corza were at the far end of the bar listening to Normnormal who was anything but, expounding on the merits of some horse he had found in the catalog.  I said hello to them as I pushed my way toward the fire and my table.  Peri and Faith were trying Experiment’s patience with some of Undercover’s tales of the dark side.  Riderup was alongside Myhorsebig at the table on my left and Jimmyjames, Trotter and Seppy (that’s Ms Seppy to you) were listening closely to Junebug droning on and on at the table to my right.  Eskimojo had Sable wearing a smile as they watched Marre using Quirt to get Littlebay to go forward in the bidding.  Jumbled was down by the ring and was in consultation with Drwho as they waited for Snags show up.  I saw Texasace and waved him over to try and find out what was going on with all the auction shenanigans that seemed to surround him ever week.  He just smiled that funny smile that people do when it should be so obvious you really shouldn’t have to ask, and said he was just having some fun and didn’t mind spending his money to do it.  Stoners, who I really do like as he is always entertaining – have you noticed how boring things are on the message board? – sat at his stable and didn’t say a word.  So, on that note….        

The Millionaires:  There were 26 horses selling for over the million dollar mark this week and an awful lot of them were stable transfers.  Of those that were not, at least as far as I could tell, here are this week’s top five selling horses.

Leading the way this week was Rarified Heir # 144178 a big red, 3 YO filly by Montjeu out of the good Kris S. mare, Jaded Lover.  Jaded Lover may have only won three times but she is the dam of four foals to race, one of which is a graded stakes winner and another is graded stakes placed.  Rarified Heir has three wins and is 6/8 in the money.  She was entered in a claim last time out as part of a stable reduction plan and was snapped up by Slades a division of the Stoner group.  Slades then decided to try an internal stable transfer but Texasace couldn’t let that happen and stepped in and bought her back for $6,130,217.

Not wasting any time mourning his loss of the top selling horse Stoners came back as high bidder of De Spiration # 137654 with his Champions4 stable.  Donnyb, upset after a poor performance in the Grade III, PBSR Memorial last time out, consigned the muscular 3 YO dark bay colt by Dehere out of the Distorted Humor mare Stand Up.  Stand Up is the dam of four foals to race, two of which are stakes placed.  Her last foal,  De Spiration has a record of two wins from seven starts and sold for $5,020,007.

Champions4 consigned # 34185, Polish Reality, a 6 YO horse by Polish Navy out of the Gulch mare Knowledge.  Knowledge won three of her 28 starts and is the dam of four foals to race, all winners.  Polish Reality has tailed off a bit recently but did win a Grade I a year ago.   The copper chestnut horse has a career record of 16 wins from 37 starts but word around the sales barn was that Champions4 consigned him to the sale because the joint injections needed to keep him on track weren’t making anyone but the vet rich.  In the end it was Simsters4 (Lenny) who had deepest pockets and paid $4,454,347.00 for the privilege of leading him home.

 Awesome Sakhiano, # 70599, a well put together 4 YO brown colt by Awesome Again was consigned by Geewestink.  He is out of the stakes winning Sakhee mare, Sakhiano.  Sakhiano saw the winner’s circle 10 times and is the dam of two foals to race, both winners.  Awesome Sakiano has not hit the top three frames in six months but Win4fun thinks the former stakes winning colt can be turned around and signed the ticket for $4,285,001.

Continuing to have some auction fun with Stoners, Texasace was also the high bidder for a 3 YO colt by Ghostzapper, # 154373 Gulfcoast Ghost.  Fatattack signed the ticket for $3,250,000.00 which will help to make Stoner’s one of the richest trainers in the Sim and may cause Texasace to have to go out and get a job if he wants to continue to have fun at Stoner’s expense. Out of a Damascus mare, Gulfcoast Ghost has one win from five starts and a lovely $4,000 starter tag that he got as part of the Texasace cut back in horses sale.

The Stc:  The Stc trainers purchased ten horses on Saturday for a total of $1,195,272.00 making the average for the trainers $119,527.00 this week.   Compare that to the first week in January when the Stc contest started and the average was only $221.00.  Most of rise in average was due to one horse and Primusstc who paid $1,151,633.00 for hip number # 131759, Incredible Whirl.  A 4 YO dark chestnut colt by Smarty Jones, Whirl has won five of his 14 races and was consigned by trainer Tg.  Ccclaimstc and Roscoestc each bought two horses this week to tie for leading buyers in this division.

Well, that’s it for this week.  Good Luck with all your auction purchases.