Selling candidates and selling horses

Published: November 10, 2008 02:29 pm EST

Two events took place last week in the U.S. last week that may not be directly related, but the same overwhelming force had an impact on both of them.

We had this presidential election thing and selected Barack Obama as our next leader and we also had the Harrisburg sale, harness racing’s one-stop shopping mall.

John McCain went down in the election largely due to the economic upheaval and sale prices went down at Harrisburg largely due to the economic upheaval.

The economic upheaval turned Republicans out from the White House and into the dog house, and turned Harrisburg from a mall into Wal-Mart.

There are other comparisons. I worked in political campaigns many years ago and there is nothing more exhilarating than being at an election party when your candidate wins. Conversely, there is nothing more depressing than being at an election party when your candidate tanks.

I once worked on a campaign of a guy who had a successful sporting goods business. He decided he wanted to dabble in politics and was pitted against a matronly woman. Our guy had name recognition, money, endorsements -- everything except a willingness to work to win election. His opponent outworked him and got more votes and that election night scene was so traumatic that I remember it still.

Candidates always look to blame someone -- after all, it couldn’t be their fault, could it? -- and they love to blame the people who ran their campaign. So when the results were known at the election party, I ducked out a side door.

There is noting more exhilarating that being at a horse sale when you or a friend sells a horse expected to bring $20,000 for $50,000. There are handshakes, high-fives, and smiles all around. Champagne flows later that night.

Conversely, there is nothing more depressing than being at a horse sale when a $50,000 horse sells for $20,000. Recriminations abound. Friends duck out the side door as soon as possible.

I suspect that friends of some Harrisburg consignors were ducking out side doors (and there are lots of those at Harrisburg) or hiding all the sharp objects last week. It wasn’t pretty. It also wasn’t unexpected.

I enjoy elections and horse sales, but they don’t always turn out the way you expect.

I’m not the only political junkie in my family. My daughter Meredith had just turned five when Bill Clinton beat George H.W. Bush in the presidential election. I remember we asked her who was president. She thought for a while, the five-year-old wheels in her brain spinning, and blurted out, “George Clinton!”

Meredith was either being precociously bi-partisan or she was thinking of the pioneering funk musician of the same name. I can assure you that she now knows the name of the president, which is reassuring since she is majoring in political science in college.

The economic storm turned into a tsunami in the weeks leading up to Harrisburg. It was a classic case of bad timing. If it’s any consolation, the situation was even worse at the concurrent Keeneland sale in Kentucky. The last I looked the sale average was down about 30 percent there.

Bid-ins abound at such sales. At some sales, they are listed as RNA or no sale while others simply list the name of the person signing the slip. It doesn’t take much digging to sniff out some of the bid-ins. You see people closely affiliated with the consignor signing the sales slip. In the racehorse portion at Harrisburg, you saw trainers signing slips of horses they’ve trained.

One person lamented the number of broodmares hammered down at giveaway prices. But you must realize that a mare sold in foal in 2008 won’t likely generate any income for the buyer for 24 months.

I noticed that mares in foal to Revenue S, whose first crop didn’t exactly set the world on fire, were treated as if they were radioactive -- no one wanted them. You could buy some mares with nice pedigrees in foal to Revenue S and breed them to the stallion of your choice. And I also suspect that the offspring of Revenue S will be held in higher esteem in a year or two.

One thing I really like about Harrisburg is that they keep a tally of the eligibility of various yearlings and note the average prices.

So for 2008, the New York-sired yearlings averaged $38,205 while Ontario-eligible yearlings checked in at $32,910.

After New York and Ontario, the programs ranked in this order: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky.

It would be a nice feature for breeders to list the “covering sires” on in-foal broodmares and their averages. That way we could tell how much that the mares in foal to Credit Winner, Ken Warkentin, Real Desire, or Artiscape sold for.

A presidential election and the Harrisburg sale -- yes, two significant events last week.

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