New York Sale

"...it goes without saying that hell is more crowded than heaven..."
                      --Jose Saramago from  The Gospel According to Jesus
                                                                                                 Christ

On that rousing note the blogger is back in action after a week of, to be polite, personal non-action spent watching such things as this weekends interesting NY breds sale at Saratoga.  Once again observing horse after horse going through the ring the eye starts to sharpen and instantly recognize what the blogger prefers in his racing animals.

Size matters, although maybe too much.  Legs too short for the body for me tends to disqualify.  Ditto lots of white on the legs--injury waiting to happen.  How many races do we see won by white legged horses? Unraced dams--certainly a risk to have a breathing problem.  Am sworn personally to avoid the unraced, although with the declining foal crop might have to bite.  Will see on that one.

Like in that day when for fun I spent some time on weekends coaching 4th and 5th graders in basketball, you instantly spot the athletes and one or two youngsters inexplicably stood out as athletes--Ring presence, a graceful way of moving, interest in the proceedings.  Somebody study-- horses that come into the ring alert, and with it, compared to the half asleep or intimidated bunch in terms of subsequent racing success.  Is there a correlation between horses that are up and active in the sales ring and the sleepers?  Is there a correlation between the larger youngsters and their more stubby companions.  In this sale I'd say you could quickly spot why the $5000 horses were going for that price while most of them went $30-$50,000.00.  However, really--who knows once a good trainer gets their hands on them?

Then there was that total dud that went for $300,000.00.  Unraced non-producing dam and very little to recommend the horse  on pedigree or appearance.  Just sat there stunned as they kept bidding this horse up.

For myself, am similarly concerned to consider the huge lifestyle change involved in trying to get back to the race track.  All the local infrastructure has been stripped away since my first start in the mid-1980s.  Similarly, the horse support in the entire States of Kansas and Missouri that was once there has evaporated. In terms of horse racing around here one is on one's own these days.  I'd sworn with my next horse that I'd get it to the race track in short order and would have this planned out before the purchase.  With the $17,500 due in next week--and I hope it arrives before the very nice OK sale--figuring out what to do with the horse after purchase seems the immediate problem.