$1.9 million not enough?

[Wrongly]

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/214991/havre-de-graces-son-a-1-9-million-rna

I don\'t get it.  They intended to sell the colts and retain the mares, so why didn\'t they let this one go?

[TempletonPeck]

Seems pretty clear they think/thought he\'s worth more than $1.9mm, right? Beyond that, keep in mind that some portion of RNA\'s get bought/sold privately at or shorlty after the auction.

A little back of the envelope math: she paid $10mm for mama, IIRC, and $200k for papa\'s services. Figure mom is going to have maybe a dozen babies if we run pretty even (i.e. it could be 10 or it could be 14), she\'s gotta get back ~$1mm/baby to break even on the deal, not even counting the cost of keeping mom alive/healthy for the next 15 years.

Nah, no problems in the horse racing economy!

[Strike]

Not impossible though. She owns over 100 horses and knows what she is doing. She also bought Plum Pretty and Groupie Doll for millions. She says she wants to keep the fillies and sell the colts at auction. If she sells the colts for $1 million (and using your numbers) and have 7 colts -- she gets fairly close right there. If the fillies can run -- what will they be worth as runners and eventually broodmares? Not impossible especially for someone who knows what she is doing.

The \"mix up\" today is very strange though. How can there be a misunderstanding on a well-bred colt prospect and a million plus dollar reserve? Hard to buy it.

[Agastache]

That game is dirty. Willing to bet that they rolled the dice and tried to run the bid up on a potential buyer after advertising that the reserve was a million or so. You think racing is dirty?  Breeding and selling is even worse.

[Jmoore]

The explanation given at the sale was that they intended to put a reserve of 1.19 million, essentially selling for 1.2 million or more. Instead the reserve was given to Keeneland accidentally as 1.9, the bid was ran up to that amount without any live money bidding the last few bids.

Several potential bidders were caught a little off guard because they had been told the reserve was going to be 1.2.