I got 2:
Arrogant Filly Worth My While x Galatica Yearling
Unnamed Colt A.P. Indy x Bonfire Weanling
I need to come up with a name for that colt. I’m brainstorming at the moment.
We decided to splurge just a bit (with having 1 foal sell for a good price, and this being the first year we can risk more than 15k, haha), and brought home 4 yearlings. Was hoping to get a 5th but the colt went out of our spending limit.
[color=red]Cherokee Princess - by NCH. Boldness Shows (S) out of Cherokee Freedom.
[color=blue]Red Dog - We were super excited to get this guy. A son of the retired chef-de-race Almost Home (S) out of Foxy Queen (B), whose 2 racing-age foals are both winners.
[color=red]Hills of Snow - by NCH. Gimme a Shot (S) out of Icy Honor (B), she is a half-sister to 4 winners and one stakes placer.
[color=blue]Pepper Bomb - Titanium x Red Hot Quesadilla (by Dizzybird Jazz).
Well, we were rather sad to lose the NCh. Gazelle daughter we had set our hearts on, but we managed to get our 2nd choice.
Pearls of Wisdom is the last daughter of Sister Sage (G) and from WCh. Strider’s first crop. She’s 1/2 to NCh. Highland Sage and GCh. Worthy Sage, as well as a handful of other stakes horses.
We are also happy to see the foals we listed sell for a reasonable sum this year. Good luck to their new owners!
Pleased to finally come home with three, two colts and a filly (all unnamed) and all three were on the original wish list so I’m pretty happy with that.
First in [color=blue]Ganymede a yearling colt by Strider out of Across The Stars. He’s from Strider’s first crop so not quite sure what to expect but mum is stakes placed although no runners as of yet. She has an unraced 2yo in the Final Furlong stable.
Then the filly who’s been named [color=red]Rebel Yell. She’s by Chef-de-Race Almost Home out of silver ranked Flash Photography. All the dam’s previous foals are winners with two SWs and one MSW so fingers crossed she might have some potential.
And finally [color=blue]Unnamed by Giant’s Causeway out of Just A Fox. The mare has produced one SW,MSP runner and the other two to race are both winners. Not sure exactly what he’ll be called but as he’s a weanling there’s still a bit of time to make a decision. Had an afterthought regarding the name and I’ve gone for [color=blue]Sionnach which is apparently a very old Irish word for Fox 
Nabbed three, and didn’t even have to max out at $100K! Success? 
Yearling colt by [color=blue]Sadler’s Wells out of Gold-rated [color=red]Timeless Wiccan. He’s been dubbed Donmar, after another very famous London theater. Very excited to debut him in a few months!
Weanling filly by [color=blue]NCh. Sneak Peek out of Gold-rate [color=red]Lost Without You. She’s been named Midnight Premiere, though she’s got another year before she hits the track.
Weanling colt by [color=blue]GCh. Worth My While out of as-yet unrated [color=red]Good Times Roll. He’s still got a year at home as well, but I love Stormy Island’s name for him-- Laissez Faire.
With 37 yearlings ( 
), I really shouldn’t have made another addition…
I couldn’t resist [color=red]Highland Wish. She’s a gorgeous 15.1h grey filly by WCh. As You Wish (S) out of Ch. Highland Fern (G). Her lines are fantastic - her sire is Secret of Love x Cross My Heart and her dam is Highland Rogue x Botany. I’ve got a soft spot for horses out of Highland Rogue mares and this little filly was going too cheap to give up!
Me thinks there will be a Vaucluse Farm sale in the new year so watch this space!
Nice filly Jason.
I got only one horse (so far), but this is the one I wanted the most (I also wanted that Just A Fox colt, but you can’t win 'em all, lol). She’s a tiny 14.1hh Unnamed yearling by No Duplicate out of ICh. Little Miss, the mare being a fantastic producer, and her own dam is a fantastic producer as well. I’m not sure yet what to name her, but I’m sure it’ll come to me soon.
Very happy with these three:
[color=red]Diamond Ring is a pretty little yearling by Ich. Ring of Fire out of Diamondintherust, a daughter of Omaha, whose only foal to race to date is a stakes winner.
[color=red]Parvenu, originally named Paparazzi, is by Ch. Rumor Has It out of Nouvelle Riche, who is Black Gold x Trouble Ahead (G). Did some research on her dam’s name, which essentially means “new rich” and found something very similar in parvenu, which refers to someone who has recently ascended the social ladder and/or acquired wealth.
[color=blue]The Bent-Wing Bird, previously unnamed, by Nch. The Fighting Fifty x Striking Proposal. His dam is stakes placed and I own his half-brother, so I couldn’t resist. I decided to go with a military theme for his name, and after some research was going to name him Corsair, after the famous WWII fighter plane. Unfortunately that was already taken, so I gave him its nickname instead.
For the first time I was a seller instead of a buyer (must keep a closer eye on the budget!) Best of luck to everyone who purchased one of our foals!
Had 3 in mind, one I really want but missed out in the ballot 
actually forgot and missed the other two which went relatively cheap 
doh!
Still can home with 4 as I could resist all colts
[color=blue]Caliburn 2013 ICh. Alley Cat x GCh. Avalon
[color=blue]Corkscrew 2014 A.P. Indy x Entwining Spring
[color=blue]Scattered Mercury 2014 ICh. Dark Continent x Liquid Gold
[color=blue]Ariakas 2013 NCh. Highland Wizard x Ch. Pointed Remark
2 yearlings & 2 weanlings
Went to the auction only looking to pick up 1 or 2 horses and ended up coming home with 5 weanling fillies.
[color=red]Glamorous Gossip out of Rumor Has It x Sudden Appearance. This is the broodmares first foal but her siblings from Rumor Has It includes stakes placed.
[color=red]Paris Lights out of created lines. Not sure what drew me into her but looking forward to seeing what she can do.
[color=red]Robyn Hood out of Street Wise x Prosperous Cheater. I liked her pedigree and had her name written down for reserves and her lines just fit! Bought her with broodmare in mind (Little far to be thinking I know) if she doesn’t make it on the track.
[color=red]Scarlet Fever out of Dark Continent x Cherry Flavoured. I have a soft spot for Dark Continent. Her 1/2 sibling Cough Syrup has done really well on the track winning 6/9 starts. Hoping maybe this little gal will share some characteristics. With all said and done I had my eye on her and was happy to see her arrive in my stable!!
[color=red]The Magic of Love out of Highland Magic x PS I Love You (Gone Haywire). I had my eye on this filly before the auction started and was bound and determined to have her!! I love her lines as I have been dying to get my hands on a Highland Magic foal (& a filly to boot!). Her 1/2 siblings are doing well and Im super excited to see what this little lady will bring!
All in all not bad. Im very happy with my selection and stayed under $65,000 ;)
I went to the auction just to look around (we all know how that goes) and came home with 2 yearlings spending over $30,000 for each.
[color=red]Malizia out of Alley Cat x American Graffiti (Killing Time). I have always been an Alley Cat fan with Alydar, Highland Rouge & Native Dancer in his lines so when I saw her I had to snag her. Malizia is Italian for mischief.
[color=red]Majestic Design out of A.P Indy x Gone Majestic. Her lines also drew me in with Seattle Slew and Secretariat on her sire’s side and Mr. Prospector on her dam’s.
Of course we purchased a few beautiful foals. I swear these auctions are too good to pass up most of the time.
So far we have 2 fillies:
[color=red]Swing Jazz (Jazz It Up X A Splash Of Color) -
After Jazz It Up’s retirement we have really been wanting a few of his babies especially fillies. We were fortunate enough to snag this cute little girl who is out of A Splash Of Color (A broodmare associated with the Nation’s Pride lines as well as Seabiscuit to boot!). Since her first foal was a winner we thought she was probably worth the gamble especially with these lines.
Previously Unnamed -[color=red] Hope’s Causeway (Giant’s Causeway X Hope’s Crossing)
Well we lost a Giant’s Causeway filly a year or so ago and thought this little girl would make a nice replacement. Hope’s Crossing is half sister to one of our favorite broody’s Hollywood Hopes and feel this dam line is tried and true. We are super excited to have this filly.
**On a side note I was excited to see a bit of a fight for the Nightfight colt, [color=blue]Set If Off. We wanted to make sure he got a decent start on the track, but are please to see him starting his training under Railbird Racing silks. Congrats!
After reading all the commotion about last minute bidding I feel bad about bidding on the last horse with 4 min left but I swear I just logged in to check and was excited to see he hadn’t sold yet. I don’t get a chance to get on the internet 24/7 and I lost a couple of my other “potentials” because I wasn’t around to bid. Sometimes it just happens that way…
Well, being new and all I wanted to just get some nice yearlings for my that I could have running sometime in the coming year. I did some research on a couple foals and put them down as favorites and then looked at last years auction to try an gauge how much they would cost me. As I found out as the auction went on I was a bit off, but luckily came home with two foals.
Although I told myself I didn’t need any weanlings I still ended up getting one. [color=red]Sins Yet Unfound is from the first crop of [color=blue]Devil His Due and the first foal for her dam [color=red]Pot of Gold. It should be interesting to sees how she does on the track with both parents new to the breeding shed but I’ve still got a while till that happens.
The other foal I came away with was one of my ‘must haves’. [color=blue]Dark Seduction is from [color=blue]Dark Continent’s first foal crop and out of the silver ranked mare [color=red]Romance Me. Romance Me’s foals are all winners, which includes the multiple stakes winning mare Not Another Mare. I’m quite excited to see how he’ll do when he hits the track
Now we’re just about finished, is it time to think how this auction is run?
The change that was made mid auction about the clock not re-setting if a new maximum bid isn’t established was a great one but maybe the time before sold could be extended to 18 or 24 hours as we are all in different parts of the world and time zones.
I also think the spending limit should be scrapped, a number of the foals in the auction could have achieved far more than the $100k limit, this would help reduce some of the $$$ in the game that the leading stables have and create more realism.
If there needs to be any limits, maybe limit the number of horses able to be purchased, that way there will be a spread of horses purchased across all stables and budgets.
I think the reason there is a spending limit is so that the newer stables or those who don’t have the same sort of funds as the bigger stables have an equal chance of picking up a nice horse. The select auction does not have a limit, so the oportunity is there for the wealthier stables to spend big if they feel they need to. I think having a spending limit evens the playing field a bit.
This is correct.
The 2yo, mixed, and foal auctions also generally have a limit on the number of horses you can buy, but this year was rather crazy and I forgot to add that flag in.
If you want to see what happens when you take off spending limits, check out the Select Auction.
I understand why it’s in place, doesn’t mean it has to always be like that.
It seems no one has bothered to read or consider the reason I suggested it?