The price was 270. There were a lot of things I liked about this horse, I've been chasing him for 2 years while being told he couldn't be bought, and raised the roof with a certain bloodstock agent when someone else ended up buying him. I sent him in again a couple of races later when he failed to win in two stake tries at Delaware, and the new owners were willing to take what they paid for him.

The sheet will be up in ROTW in a little while. I liked the good numbers at two, and the development since then-- he did enough at two (like win a stake) to help him as a stallion if enough happens, but he's also developed nicely since then, especially at 4, which makes me think he's not going to deteriorate quickly if he stays in one piece.

I liked the figures, and I liked the PERCENTAGE of good figures, and to a degree I liked the overall (as opposed to short term) pattern-- it was not perfect, but it was good enough, and you can't have everything. If he had been running those figures on a major circuit he would have cost twice as much-- in California, more than that.

He doesn't have a huge pedigree, and Pine Bluff is no help commercially, but the dam side is pretty good (even better if you look at figures, not black type), and there is enough there to let him stand somewhere, for something, if he does some good.

And yes, the division in California is weak-- and not so tough everywhere else. The fact that this horse had not ACCOMPLISHED much was a plus-- not only did it keep his price down, but it kept the weight he would carry in handicaps down.

Finally, this-- all figures are not created equal. When we bought Victory Gallop someone in Ragozin's office told Elliot Walden we were "out of our ----- minds". Accuracy aside, I keep tight control over our data-- unlike Ragozin, we don't let people just buy a sheet for any horse for $25, like one that is for sale. The idea is to keep value high for our clients by not having them compete with everyone in the world for the good ones. The good news is our record because of that, the bad news is that Friedman gets to claim they have all these "clients".



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/2005 08:06PM by TGJB.