Auction Strategy

Sorry about the lack of recent posts. I'll see if I can make up for it over the next few weeks.

In his latest blog post at The Bloodhorse ( ) Scot Gillies asked readers to weigh in with their thoughts on strategy for buying broodmares at auction. I thought I'd post my response here.

Basically, I think we need a little more information than he's provided...what is his total budget? Does that included the money allocated for ongoing expenses? What price range are the sixteen mares he's looking at likely to fall within? What his goals for his purchases? Is he planning to sell the offspring of his broodmare, or to race them?

Assuming that his budget is typical of a small-time owner, and not someone like IEAH or Zayat, and that he's breeding to race, I think he's better off going for a single broodmare. The expenses on two horses will be so much higher than one, that's each one is likely to have a negative contribution to profitability.

Also, I think he should wait until later in the sale, when the bargains are likely to be steeper. Yes, he may miss out entirely on getting one of his targets. But really, what's the harm in that? There's always another sale, with more mares available. In the meantime, it looks really unlikely that the overall economy or and/or the 'thoroughbred economy' will recover so fast that bargains won't still be available in a few months.