| Welcome to
the January, edition of the Hibiscus Stables Newsletter! This
issue includes an in depth look back at upcoming auctions
and trivia. Please
forward this to friends and family members that may be
interested.
Xmas in February? Let the Auctions Begin!
Today in the mail came the OBS February 2-year-old catalog. Two-year-old season has officially begun. Many of you celebrated Christmas a month ago. Our Christmas is beginning now. The 2-year-old sales are always an extremely exciting time of the year for all horse owners. The possibilities are endless. Right now the 2011 Kentucky Derby winner is frolicking around on some farm somewhere. He may go through the ring at a 2-year-old in training sale. At this moment in time anyone that will buy a horse at a 2-year-old sale has a legitimate shot at buying the horse that wins the 2011 Derby. Alfeet Alex was purchased at auction for $75,000. At the 2-year-old sales you put aside all your troubles. You move to the back of your mind all your horses on layups, all your horses with spurs and chips, all of your horses that you had to drop in for a tag. At the 2-year-old sales hope springs eternal. As my partner Al so often says, “That’s why you always gotta’ have 2-year-olds coming through the barn.”
This sale is the
lead-off 2-year-old sale for 2010. This sale is high-end
and is very boutiquey and, in my opinion, horses sell for
retail in this sale. We tried to buy out of this sale in
2008 and were unable to acquire anything in our price
range. I generally like to avoid the boutique sales unless
an extraordinary opportunity presents itself. Because it’s
the first 2-year-old sale of the season it does, however,
get the juices flowing.
This sale traditionally produces the highest priced horses, on average. It’s considered the industry’s premiere 2-year-old sale and a graduate of this sale carries some level of prestige. It’s also a very boutiquey sale and, again in my opinion, horses sell for retail in this sale. Buyers from all over the globe attend this sale (Fasig flies them in) and unless you operate at the very high end of the industry it’s very difficult to find any value in this sale. It’s more of a sale for buyers where money is no object. That all said, I’m extremely proud of the fact that we were able to acquire Slamentine, our Grand Slam New York-bred colt out of this sale in 2009. Slamentine was a late “out” from this sale. We sniffed him out and were able to acquire him privately from his consignor. The average price in this sale in 2009 was over $235k. We syndicated Slamentine for $159k. Unless he proves me wrong on the racetrack I’m going to consider his acquisition a significant accomplishment and one that took a lot of hard work and digging. It’s a deal that allows me to feel that we did an excellent job for our clients and were able to make available a horse with tremendous potential at a bargain basement price.
OBS March
Selected Sale of Two-Year-Olds In Training
Barretts
March Sale of Selected Two-Year-Olds in Training
Keeneland
April Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale
OBS April
Spring Sale of Two-Year-Olds In Training
In 2009, with over 100 New York-breds entered into the sale, we couldn’t find more than three that were suitable for our program. The sire power seems to be evaporating from this sale and I’m very interested to see what shows up there this year. For now we’ll look forward to using this sale as a fantastic social event with an outside shot to acquire horses. Back in 2006 when quality was a bit better we acquired Salt Water Reign out of this sale and in 2007 we acquired Sextant.
Barretts May
Sale of Two-Year-Olds in Training This sale is the more affordable partner to the Barrets March sale. It’s similar to OBS April in terms of quality and price. It’s not as overweighted with Cal-breds as is the March sale. It’s more so an alternative to OBS June in terms of giving consignors a late-season option to move inventory.
Fasig-Tipton
Midlantic Sale of Two-Year-Olds In Training
OBS June
Two-Year-Olds & Horses Of Racing Age This sale is the final 2-year-old sale of the season. As is evident from the average price, the quality out of this sale is usually lean. What typically happens is that consignors use this sale as a vehicle to sell their horses that weren’t ready or have RNAed from earlier sales. It’s often a last ditch effort to get horses moved and, as such, if you do find something you like, you can usually have your way with the consignor. That said, it’s very hit and miss and I wouldn’t want to wind up at this sale with holes to fill on the roster. As it’s probably become clear, I’m not a huge fan of the ultra-select sales. Steve calls them boutique sales. I don’t see a need to pay retail when there are plenty of horses available for a discount if you work real hard and know where to look. There are other partnership groups that are very active at the boutique sales, sometimes bringing home the sale topper. While that provides some level of cache’ and great copy for their marketing materials it doesn’t do their clients any good to be paying a premium for their horses. But I suppose it’s not that important since they’re syndicating 100% of the horse. Since our trainers and I personally retain a significant percentage of each horse I can tell you first hand that we have no vested interest or great desire to overpay for anything. It’s for that very reason why we leave no stone unturned insisting on value at these auctions. I’m anxiously looking forward to finding out what we bring back to the barn this year. - Mike Oliveto, CEO Hibiscus Stables
DA's Trivia Corner - Horse of the Year
1. This colt is the only
Triple Crown winner not to be named
Horse of the Year.
2. This filly
won Horse of
the Year as a 5 year old.
3. This filly
took home top honors as a 4 year old and had a female
trainer.
4. Sired by
Secretariat this filly won Horse of the Year and Champion
Older Filly. See end of newsletter for answers. - Doris Ann Hayes, Hibiscus Stables
Answers to
Trivia: 2. Answer: C. Imp was a direct descendant of Eclipse. She won in 1899. 3. Answer: A. Azeri (2002) was trained by Laura de Seroux; then turned over to D. Wayne Lukas. 4. Answer: D. Lady’s Secret was sired by Secretariat. Secretariat has proven himself as a dam's sire many times over; not so much as a sire, however.
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Missed an issue of the Hibiscus Stables Newsletter? No problem.....just click below for previous months. April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 Sept 2007 Oct 2007 Nov 2007 Dec 2007 Jan 2008 Feb 2008 Mar 2008 Apr 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 Aug 2008 Sept 2008 Nov 2008 Dec 2008 Jan 2009 Feb 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 |
When
I was a kid the Christmas season officially began the day
that the mailman delivered the Sears Christmas catalog. The
Sears catalog was as thick as a phonebook and had pages upon
pages of toys and games…gotta’ grab a piece of paper and
start to make my list. 
OBS
February Selected Sale of Two-Year-Olds In Training
Fasig-Tipton
Calder Selected Sale of Two-Year-Olds in Training
This
sale is probably my favorite 2-year-old sale. It’s a select
sale so there’s plenty of pedigree power and quality athletes.
However, because it’s after the OBS February and
Fasig-Tipton March sales, a good deal of our competitors’
budget money has already been burned on higher priced
horses. With us able to attend this sale with all bullets in
the clip I feel we’re always in a great position to uncover
quality stock at reasonable prices. Being placed snuggly
between the major select sales and the late open-type sales
we can usually find a nice overlap of quality and price
allowing us to add solid horses to our roster. We acquired
Kat Scratch Fever, Lord Greystoke, and William Thomas from
this sale in 2008. We were active at this sale in 2009 as
Ron Ellis landed on a very nice El Prado colt out of a
multiple G3-winning Dynaformer mare. This colt was a half
to a G2-winning and multiple-graded stakes placed filly.
This horse went onto be the sales topper fetching $450k and
was outside our budget. 
This
sale is the premiere 2-year-old sale west of the
Mississippi. Because of that it tends to be boutiquey and
it also has a strong overweight of California-breds. As
such one needs to be careful. While I’m a great proponent
of state-breds and the oft-times hefty bonuses that go along
with racing them, California is a bit different. Unlike
many other states, breeders of Cal-breds tend to race their
quality stock and sell the leftovers at auction. It’s for
that reason that it’s often difficult to acquire a nice
Cal-bred at a sale. We were active at this sale in 2009 as
Ron Ellis landed on a very nice Tiznow colt out of a Storm
Cat mare. Unfortunately that horse too went on to be the
sale topper selling for $650k. As we said to Ron, there’s
certainly no question as to his ability to identify great
horses. Steve Klesaris then added that finding the sales
toppers is easy; finding the diamond in the rough is
something else.
This
sale is the last of the season’s select sales and it too is
very boutiquey. It can be a very tough sale to get anything
done but I actually like this sale because there tends to be
an overweight in pedigree and quality. The prices are high
but if you do your homework and roll up your sleeves and
work very hard it is possible, although difficult, to find
quality at a very reasonable price. It was out of this sale
in 2009 that we acquired My Indy Kitty. Kitty being a Tale
of the Cat filly out of an A.P. Indy mare makes her, by far,
the most well-bred horse we’ve ever syndicated. Ron thinks
she looks like A.P. Indy and if we’re lucky enough to get
some black type on her resume it could turn out to be a
windfall for the partners.
This
sale is Fasig-Tipton’s other 2-year-old sale and it takes
place later in the spring in Maryland. I tend to like this
sale. Although it’s much more blue-collar in terms of
pedigree it always presents a good opportunity if you do
your homework. The catalog is always heavily weighted with
New York-breds and provides us a great opportunity to add to
our New York-bred program with Steve Klesaris and Linda
Rice. Since it’s in Maryland it makes it easier for us to
attend but the downside is that it also makes it easier for
all the New York-based trainers that won’t make the trip to
Florida but make the drive to Maryland in search of
serviceable New York-breds. We acquired Iron Curtain and
good ole’ Portuguesemano’war out of this sale in 2007.
Well,
the suspense is over and Rachel Alexandra is
the Horse of the Year. I was surprised she won by a
30-vote margin! Both she and Zenyatta are worthy and I was
hoping we would have two winners. Throughout the years there
have been many
horses that achieved top honors and some who have
come close, but no Cigar (pun intended). 
Hibiscus Stables | Somers, NY 10589 |
1-877-WIRE-2-WIRE
Email:
info@hibiscusstables.com | Website:
www.hibiscusstables.com |
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