Saratoga Yearling Sales LIVE (Thoroughbred Racehorse Auction)

Second and final night of the Saratoga Selected Yearling Sales. This is the premier sale of the summer. Even if you don't care about racing, I think it is interesting to observe the sale of a couple of these horses. Most draw six figures. Some get over a million. Bids are made solely upon breeding and conformation. These horse will not be asked to run until next year at the earliest. They will be eligible for the 2011 Kentucky Derby.

I was a partner with my husband with a thoroughbred farm owner and was given a filly for Christmas one year.

My filly was an AZ bred and good breeding for then, from there.

The sign I designed for the ranch is still at the entrance all these years later, but the aura of enchantment that we (and many guests) found there, has died.

We hit the Del Mar Select Sale every year and always had one of our babies in it.

I am a thoroughbred nut and have always been one -- too costly an avocation and our partner marrying an animal hater, killed the partnership and ALL of our financial security.

My daughter and I watch TVG every weekend, but don't bet. I occasionally hit the track when a friend's horse if running, but he has been out with a soft tissue issue for a while. He should be out at Del Mar before it closes.

Our saddest experience at the Ranch was the loss (due to ineptitude of our "ranch" vet)of our Gr I stakes winning mare after a battle to keep her alive. She had such class that when we sent her to Jungleland (or the equivalent) she lay down in the ratty trailer that was "sent for her" and realized that this was not the way she was accustomed to traveling. She stood up so proudly as they left the ranch that we all (my husband, kids, our partner -- everyone of us) cried to see her wonderful head once more towering over the trailer and ears pricked for her last adventure.

Most of the memories of that time where we shared several colts one year, and our dogs in the extensive kennel we built there are filled with joy and regrets.

But thoroughbreds will always be my passion.

Some of my immediate family is in to quarters and their mare will be bred to a Gr I Stakes winner after she foals next year. I don't know if that stud is a quarter or a thoroughbred. Soubds like we"ll be having some late night in the winter waiting for a foal. ;~)

Well, thirty years ago, with limited "ground rights on the ranch" this was not as "Cruel" as you make it seem.

This was a Kentucky agent bought ... shipped in foal to Jungle Savage at time of purchase, 14 year old mare who, due to the stupid vet's error, had her entire uterus and its tiny growing foal ... totally and entirely prolapsed. It was horrid and unable to be cured in any fashion.

Yes, she went to be used at the Cat sanctuary ... as do most of the horses today, who have not had drugs used in their systems and need to be useful, rather than memorialized, in this very horsey area. They are treated very well there until they are euthanized (shot).

We did sell a beautiful 17 hand gelding to a ranch in Sedona, AZ to be trained as a hunter-jumper.

This mare would never have been in the older horses sale in KY, if there were expectations of further greatness in any faction of the industry from her, and sold at the price for which she sold.

Sometimes black type is a fluke or, as in her case, a one time thing.

It did not make an iota's difference, she better served the animal world in her life's end, than burial ever would have. Our biggest problem was her very tall unweaned colt which all of the other mares we had, hated.

Actually, none of that mare's babies ever were selected for the Del Mar Select either -- our old Tim Tam mare was our best producer and her babies always made it to the Select.

I am sure my husband and I, who had no ownership at all in this mare, would never have made any other decision than this one if it were our decision to make, which it was not.

I understand better now. Your post gave the impression that you were just sending her to an ordinary kill buyer, with all the misery, terror, and pain that represents. It’s quite different if your mare was simply shot. Sometimes there is nothing to be done.

I do accept the need for horse slaughter, as sad as that is. Poor animals.

I've been to enough small town horse auctions to know exactly of which you speak.

They (the glue men, the dog food men, etc) had their long trailer at every one of them and your heart broke when they picked up (people's former pets, in the main) the unwanted and loaded them with no care for the animals at all.

Sorry to have made you sick for a bit with my tale.

Through my grandaughter, I just talked them into doing the same act of kindness to a retired rodeo horse (they estimated his age at close to 40) which my grandaughter was using for gymkhana. The old man was in an old age lean, with the flesh melting away all over from his spine to his head.

All I could picture was that wonderful old mustang dropping dead with her on him. He did love it though, so he lived a great life for a lot of people.

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