Down, Down, Down

Down, Down, Down

Auction – 3728 –  Wow!  I thought things were bad the past couple of weeks but this week was the worst I have seen in years.  Like the economy, the auction went south and only one of the categories showed any increase and it wasn’t in a good way.  The number of 2 YOs that were not sold increased from six to ten this week.  Other than that, everything was down.  Of course, the big decrease could have been due to the neighbor who cut the phone lines and left the Sim without power for what seemed like forever, even though it was only about 24 hours. 

Whatever the reason – we only had two horses sell for over a million dollars and only two of the old guys sold for more than $1.00 but….. both of them are rather interesting.  Hip number 7947, Direwolfe was one of them.  A pretty, almost white, eight year old mare by Cee’s Tizzy was led into the ring by Shredder.  She has only won one of eight starts and hasn’t run since February of ’04.  She’s got all her conditions and Lidman1 decided to take a chance and paid $50,002.00 for her.  The other old horse is a 9Y0 bay mare, # 77622, Straight Digger.  She has a low tag of $2,000 and for her age is lightly raced.  She has won two of her 10 starts but she has been in the money in six of them.  Monoploy3 led this daughter of adventure Road in the ring and Bonnyd paid $8,001.00 to lead her out.  OK, ok – here are the auction statistics for the week.   

Auction Stats

Horses Entered -442 (last week – 550) –

Horses Sold For More Than $1.00 – 131 (last week – 148) –  

Horses Not Sold or RNA (Reserve Not Attained) – 38 (last week -56) –

Horses Sold For $1.00 – 107 (last week – 120) –  

Two Year-olds – Entered – 89 (last week 118) –  

Two Year-olds – Sold – 79 (last week – 112) –

Two year-olds – Not Sold or RNA – 10 (last week – 6) +

Total Sales – $13,229,054 (last week $21,313,253) –

Average Sale Price – $55,584 (last week – $79,527) –

Leading Buyer – Computer Stable – 166 (last week – 226) – 

Sale Topper – # 125414 Bowel Movement $3,504,212.00

The Millionaires: 

There were only two of them this week and both look promising.  Even with the horrible name of Bowel Movement, hip number # 125414 brought down the hammer at $3,504,212.00.  Consigned by Hawk10, the 4 YO light chestnut colt is a former $3500 claimer and is by Rainbow Quest out of a Vice Regent mare.  He has six victories from 25 starts although he hasn’t won in more than a year.  In fact, he won that claiming event on April 21, 2007 and was claimed.  He rewarded his new barn with an allowance win and actually won five of his next seven races before hitting his present winless streak.  He has been running in nothing but graded or open stakes races and is the winner of The D Shot Special about a year ago.  His best recent finish was a good second in The Swift G Special back in April.  Reman12000 signed the ticket.

A 2YO dark bay filly trimmed in white was offered by Turbo1 after a wire to wire victory last time out.  Miss Nancy, #163260, is by Dylan Thomas out of a Lyphard mare and has only started three times.  While one would think with her breeding she would be a turfy type she turned up her nose and improved greatly after being switched to the dirt.  Kdiv paid $3,000,001.00 for her and hopes to see her improve with seasoning.

The Auction Seen:

I arrived a bit later than usual due to having to get water on my newly seeded pasture before I left AZ.  Of course one of the sprinklers was broken – one that worked perfectly the day before.  I swear I have sprinkler gremlins that live under the trees and come out every evening just to make my life miserable.   A new sprinkler head, a bit of primer and glue and I was on my way east. 

I stopped by the bar and visited with Itch and Nogo who had the top of the bar spread with Monopoly’s money.  They were consulting with Financr about how best to spend it.  Itch noticed we had run out of our beer stash in the BTB press room and was most upset so I had to tell him where we had moved it.  Just too many of those cub reporters helping themselves when we weren’t looking.  I bought the group a beer and wandered down towards my table with the help of Biggerjet and Dumptruck who cleared the way.  Tsunami was moving horses around between stables trying to take advantage of the boost some horses seem to get when changing stables.  Hawk was also moving horses but he wasn’t necessarily buying them up with his other holdings.  Quiggy and Opus called me over and they invited me to sit and gossip but I had someone waiting at my table so couldn’t stay very long.  I waved at Kingranch, who races under the LFZ 3 Man Team.  He was giving Goldeneye a look at Ranch102 and Phatfarm.  LFZ….hummmm.  Lenny, Fats and ?? 

When I finally got to my table, Shredder was already sitting there.  After speaking to Bonnyd and Herbie who were sitting to my left and nodding at Whitebeard (I can’t ever remember his name) on my right I got down to the main business at hand.  I wanted to ask Shredder where he had been for so many years and why his horses hadn’t been seen since ’04.  It seems he trains under the banner of Jrogue Farms which is a conglomerate of 40 stables.  From what I could gather, Jrogue is very rich and loyal to his help and keeps them on the payroll even if they have nothing to do.  Shredder feels he is better off than 11 of the other trainers that don’t have any horses at all.  Seems Jrogue seldom gets rid of any horses and it is not unusual for some to be turned out and rested for great lengths of time.  There is a trainer like that in Arizona, John Hudman, who does the same thing.  So that is what I know which isn’t much.

Good Luck with all your auction purchases.