Escaping the January Mud

Just when things were feeling and looking great... The rain set in with a cold vengeance and we have been rendered completely useless. It's Thursday and the temperatures are dropping, the rain turning to sleet and snow. For four days, Tucker and I have been slushing feed and hay through the mud, changing out soaked blankets and letting a few into the stalls to dry out. The first day of rain, I trimmed Vicar but decided to wait to repair his cracks until things were a little drier. I trimmed Z's mane on Tuesday. But overall, we've accomplished NOTHING for 4 days. I have to tell you there is nothing that irritates me more than doing nothing.

So, soaked and freezing, I dragged Tucker off to Starbucks yesterday and pulled her into my favorite January fantasy... The Winter Mixed Sales at Keeneland and Ocala. Last year I actually escaped the misery of January and went with Yvonne Maddelena and Danielle to Keeneland for the sale. This may have been a bad idea since I really didn't need much more fuel on the fire of my passion for Thoroughbreds and racing. But the sale, the exchange of money for unproven genetics, the study of statistics and the beautiful horse flesh converged in my mind like a literary well spring. Here was a world that I longed to participate in, but even if I couldn't, I could virtually participate in. You see, the American Thoroughbred industry is the most incredible machine in the horse industry because it is thickly layered with statistics, industry press, and methods for anyone to participate. And I mean ANYONE- blue blood to blue collar.

Here's how they do it...

There are several arenas of the Thoroughbred industry that are monitored by industry tools. There is the auction- the place where genetics and the marketplace create a whirlwind of wins and losses that number in the millions. Each major auction site (Keeneland, Ocala, etc.) maintains an extensive, highly searchable database of bloodlines, buyers, sellers and prices. Sales happen several times a year with focuses on different types: yearlings, two-year olds in training, broodmares. Buyers are able to research endlessly to predict prices on their desired purchases. Matings for the year are planned and stallion breeding shares are determined on recent market highs and lows. These micro-economies illustrate trends in the marketplace as a whole. The information is abundant and search-ability rivals any Google pursuit allowing any student of the industry an opportunity to imagine themselves an expert. If you are a research junkie like myself, the tools of the auction sites are better than any candy shop I've been in.

The first Thoroughbred auction I ever attended was the Ocala Winter Mixed Sale in 1996. I talked my grandmother (who was my favorite horse show and horse activity companion until her death in 2007) into driving down to Ocala to take in the horse world during one break when I was home from college  for the holidays. While in Ocala we attended a show jumping competition and a day of the sale. At that time I was much more familiar with the world of show jumping than I was with racing. When we entered the main auction room I was struck with the formality and etiquette that was totally unfamiliar. Also I was struck by the prices. Fat colts garnished high dollars while horses of riding age that looked like perfectly good specimens for showing sold for almost nothing. I remember catching the attention of an older gentleman that could see right away that we were novices. We were thankful when he opened the catalogue and began to decipher the pedigrees and expressions of value. I knew nothing of what it all meant and a single explanation was hardly enough to discern the meaning that the other bidders battled over. However, my curiosity was sparked. The older gentleman offered one piece of advice, "Most people determine a horse's worth by their sire. But the real success of a horse is in their damlines." Anyone who's been around horses a while can recognize the tone of wisdom in an old horseman's voice. To this day when I'm looking at a pedigree I hear that fellow's voice.

Yvonne matching the catalogue with the horse.

When I attended the Keeneland Winter Mixed Sale in 2012, I was equipped with a notebook of research and some experienced company: my friend Danielle and her parents who had purchased several yearling in years passed. I was also thankful to have Yvonne with me. She is one of the few horse friends that I have that is as engaged by the world of racing as I am (I may have corrupted Tucker by now). Mind you, I had no intention of purchasing anything. I was on a pure reconnaissance mission. (In my fantasy world I will one day try my hand at the racehorse world). This adventure was definitely more fleshed out than my first sale experience. We spent time in the barns before the sale, handing over cards with the numbers for the horses we wanted the consignors to parade out for us. We stood in the holding area of the sales pavilion and examined vet records. At one point Yvonne and I talked ourselves into bidding on a broodmare that quickly priced out of our pittance budget. All the while Danielle and her father explained nuances that were passing over our heads without notice- fractions from recent races of racing age fillies and colts, conformation faults that were easy to overcome in racing versus ones that were crippling... the tapestry of the auction world increasing in intricacy and allure as the day wore on.

Danielle assured us that our experience was not complete without a visit to the stud farms. Did I happen to mention that Danielle is a very successful enabler of anyone with a Thoroughbred problem?

Winstar Farm

The view from Darley

In my opinion, one of the great treasures of Americana are the Kentucky bluegrass Thoroughbred stud farms like Lane's End. These farms are palatial symbols of American agriculture. They are immaculate, grandiose and pastoral like no other place I have seen in this country. Part of what is so incredible is the quantity of beautiful farms. We had time to visit four farms and were able to see in person great sires such as A.P. Indy, Holy Bull, Dynaformer, Street Cry and the ever popular Bernardini. It was an experience that only added to the romance of racing.

Bernardini

Flashforward to 2013 and January in the Alabama Mud

Since Danielle has relocated to Florida, she planned to attend this year's Ocala January sale. Although I do not have the means to be in Florida for the sale, the weather in Alabama definitely sent my mind to Florida. She was interested in a horse of racing age and I followed along virtually by watching the Under Tack Show of the horses galloping and making a list of virtual picks. I commented on certain horse's styles of running- some ran head high, others stretched long and low as they dug into the dirt. One gelding struck both of us as having an impressive stride and style. I also took particular interest in an English Channel colt with a broad white snip across his nose and gallop that was flat and seemed to cover twice the length of a normal horse's stride. (As an aside, I read yesterday that stakes winning horses on average have a stride length of over 24 feet). I made a list of choice horses on my Ipad and the following day of the sale, between strides across the six inch deep mud to dump the wheelbarrow of manure from cleaning stalls, I checked auction results to see how my choices did. Meanwhile, Danielle was on scene, in the action, trying to purchase her own picks. The results were discouraging for a poor horseman like myself. And based on the brief texts from Danielle after the auction, she was thinking something similar. (Two years ago it seemed like anyone could buy a racehorse at an auction with a little bit of chump change. Now the chump change is getting serious. If the racing industry is any indication of the progress of the economy, America is definitely on an uptick.) Of my picks, the English Channel colt was the highest priced. Maybe someone else was also measuring his stride at over 24 feet.

At Starbucks with Tucker, I easily engaged her research-minded nature in the sources of information and the guesswork connected with the auction. A year ago when I returned from Kenneland, we used the "Virtual Stable" on Equibase to satisfy our racing desires. Tucker filled her imaginary barn with Lawyer Ron runners and I imagined success for 2 year olds by such new sires as Utopia. Throughout this past year, we would occasionally comment on the successes or failures of our horses. We tried to understand how recorded workouts reflected on eventual races, all the time enjoying these up to the minute results available from the tool the Thoroughbred industry uses to fuel racing passions.

Just a Horse of Course

I love escaping the drudgery and frustration of a muddy January by spending hours on the internet following rabbit trails and hunches through the maze of information on Thoroughbred racing. The fields are unridable at the moment and keeping my horses warm and not losing too much weight in this weather is enough to keep me awake in the middle of the night. Thankfully I can distract myself with the genetics and economics of the sport of racing. The tools the industry provides to gather statistics means that even though I do not have millions to spend purchasing and racing horses, I can populate my fantasy world with real buys and watch their successes and failures without feeling the financial pain of the actual owners. Meanwhile, back in reality, I will continue looking after my youngsters who have migrated from their failures in the "glamourous world of racing" to our humble setting in Alabama and try to convince them that racing is nothing compared to jumping and dressage... in spite of the mud of January.

January Mud in Alabama