I heard a comment the other night on one of the shows regarding a Ready To Run sale and the comment was, "if you want to buy something that will run soon then get involved".
This perception and opinion creates unrealistic expectations without actual facts being made available, don't get me wrong, all the sales companies do this, "come and buy a Champion"...
What would be good for race horse ownership is the facts being available upfront which gives the prospective buyers the facts and they can then realistically make a decision with realistic expectations post the sales. Most companies only want to punt their Graded stakes winners in the lead up to a sale however what they fail to make people aware of is the 97% of horses sold do not reach these levels. Maybe just maybe transparency and upfront statistics will help with not having buyers believing in unrealistic expectations which Trainers then have to manage.
The sales companies should give the previous years statistics up to 5 years back;
No. horses catalogued
No. of horses sold
No. of horses raced
No. of winners
No. of stakes earners
No. of Graded stakes winners
This will at least let the prospective buyer know that when buying a Ready to Run horse what the statistics are that the horse will race within the next 4-6 months.
The reality of a Ready to Run sale is that these sales save you 30-40k in stabling as opposed to buying a horse in Feb or April but it does not necessarily mean they are all ready to race.
Another comment I heard from a Trainer in an interview regarding a particular Stallions progeny was, "they were there for sale with serious buyers bidding", I don't even want to comment on what that could mean and it's a conversation for another day.
Last edit: 7 years 8 months ago by Tigershark.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Bob Brogan, Warren Laird
Most owners get involved because they want to buy a dream, a ticket, a chance.... some are given misleading information which leads to anger, non-payment of bills and then a swift exit due to frustration. I read the article by Barry and maybe it is time just to give the actual facts to prospective buyers to limit unrealistic expectations, maybe a different approach could work....
Would be great if Garrick or anyone could give the stats for the upcoming Ready to Run sale. I'm sure it will generate interest and my belief is that those who were going to buy will do so anyway.
Bob Brogan wrote: Maybe a guarantee with a sale would be great
If not ready to race in 2 months , the seller makes a refund
If not ready to race in 6 months , monrybback with interest
A tricky one as things can and do go wrong (soundness, penny not dropping etc) but something worth discussing could be subsidising stabling after x time or like in Ireland recently where the sales company introduced incentive to race horses bought at the sale in Ireland and paid the authority to act on behalf of the owner. All helps I guess.
....Imo....the concept is no longer what it once was....with the emergence of CTS rivaling for a share of the sales market adding to the amount of sales held....then the break away of Summerhill to take RTR draft to CTS.....then abandoning both sales houses to go it alone.....has caused the concept to loose its shine......CTS RTR are in essence a closed shop as a majority of the better horses are sent through the ring but land up being purchased by the original connections.....this leaves the only original RTR to be stand alone affair.....the quality here is not what it once was....no more PJ or Igugu's....the horses may be broken in and put through a breeze up.....but still need much schooling....they may be able to run.....but not very fast....see our poster 20/1 who has shares in 3 of the last RTR candidates.....2 are already running and not running very well.... :S
Last edit: 7 years 8 months ago by Muhtiman. Reason: he is not the one
The following user(s) said Thank You: Warren Laird
Thank you . Nice to see someone calling a spade a spade and not a garden utensil.
" I read the article by Barry and maybe it is time just to give the actual facts to prospective buyers to limit unrealistic expectations, maybe a different approach could work...."
We will not be far off if we follow the experience and advice by other countries and racing enthusiasts.
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