Tinnitus is a curse and after three days of listening to auctioneers begging for bids. I feel punished – getting rid of the high pitched noise in my head is going to take some doing so I took part of Monday off, writes John Freeman on Freeman Stallions’ eNews.
I have to say that it’s hard to concentrate at sales when many at tables around you are there not for the sale but for a day out. The louder the auctioneer made his voice to try and keep people focused the louder they spoke – I am going deaf so that’s cruel torture.
Someone suggested we pitch an umbrella outside the tent and bid “out-back” in future – definitely going to try that. Bidding on the telephone was also difficult.
There is talk about the market being depressed, certain sires not selling well etc etc. Let’s put that all into perspective.
Too many sales, too many horses at the bottom end of the scale.
What do we expect from weak damlines when size and conformational issues pose questions.
There are a host of other factors that affected this market but I am sure that the drop in averages is largely due to over-supply at this end of the market.
Four hundred yearlings at competing sales, two days apart.

You don’t need to be a helicopter pilot to work that out.
The usual sire questions are also doing the rounds; “seems like the didn’t want the progeny of XYZ, he didn’t sell well”.
Really?? Every sire has wastage and this is the place to find them.
Unwise to draw conclusions at this level of the market without looking at the physical specimen and the catalogue page.
There were plenty of well-made horses at both sales with enough type on the page to suggest promise, but it was a buyers’ market, so we climbed in and I am very happy with what we bought.
On reflection we should have pushed a bit harder on a few that we let go but you do that when you know that there are another 650 yearlings coming onto the market in Johannesburg over the next two months.
Having seen both of the Joburg catalogues now I have no doubt that we’ll find a very good short list there. Our record at the Jhb sales speaks for itself.
There very definitely was more of an appetite for some of the new young sires progeny.

We are very happy with the performance of the stallions in our portfolio at both of the March sales.
It is good to see auctions which are a reflection of the market conditions and also what happens when there is destructive competition as opposed to healthy competition.
I hope this is also a wake-up call for breeders in that we have seen so many new Stallions and yet very little being spent on bringing in filly's to race that will add positively to the gene pool later on when they go to stud. The last person, i might be mistaken, to this with any motivation was the late Graham Beck.
It would be great if the sales companies changed the way they recorded sales, i.e. if anyone has an affiliation(share/financial interest/business association) to a Stud Farm or Stallion that any purchase from said Studs/Stallions were recorded as "Buy Backs". In the spirit of transparency i think it could go a long way in simplifying the stats.
I was once offered a share in a horse in 1997. A good mate of mine had a few horses with the late Buddy Maroun and had been fortunate enough to have a few who won. Being a man with a financial services background I did some sums. In those days a winning cheque in a maiden plate was around R25K and the training fees about R3500 a month, so you would need to win 2 races to show a profit. I did my homework and it was soon very obvious that making money out of owning racehorses was statistically very unlikely, so I declined the kind invitation to join in. Now take into account that I was crazy about racing, could easily afford to pay my way, and it still didn't make sense.
Roll on to 2017. A maiden win nets you R56250 before deductions however I am reliably informed that there isnt change in R10000 in "average" yards per month per horse after all costs are added and its no surprise that auctions are struggling to find homes for the "average" horses. Buying the horse is the easy part, getting nailed R10K a month for the "privilege" makes my eyes water. Having a shot with some racing mates recently I was told that there were more than 14000 registered owners in 1999, and today there are only 3000.
We are running out of kings it seems, or perhaps potential new owners are wiser to the schemes.
Last edit: 8 years 2 months ago by Over the Air.
The following user(s) said Thank You: mr hawaii, Garrick
When you have eventually shaken off the 'investment' spin which you will get pre-sale; where all the marketing focuses on 'achievements' of the family rather than the 'oopsies' you will be faced with the brutal reality : How much am I prepared to flush down the toilet each year?
At about R120k pa per horse in keep (excluding the acquisition cost) you need to ask another question :
How much 'fun' did I get for my spend? Your alternatives are :
A nice car if payments are spread over 5 years
About 120 reasonable dinners with your wife, partner or mates.
A fair holiday
The list is endless........
Clearly - according to your stats - 11,000 former owners have already reached their conclusion.
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