Many trainers and owners spend countless hours every summer viewing yearlings live, watching their videos and studying pedigrees... all in preparation for the Fall yearling sales. But sometimes you just need fate to play a part. Here’s the story of two trainers who, last year, each brought home at least one yearling that they weren’t necessarily planning on. And at this point, each of them is very happy that they did.

Story by Keith McCalmont

As the idiom goes, there’s more than one way to get a job done.

And when it comes to buying yearlings, well, it can be as straightforward as buying an impeccably-bred machine like Captaintreacherous, purchased for a cool quarter-million at the Lexington Selected Sale, by Tony Alagna et al.

Just 16 starts into his career, the Somebeachsomewhere where colt has already banked in excess of $2-million, topped by a North America Cup win in June.

It can also be as frustrating as opening your wallet to buy an impeccably-bred machine like Bedtime Song, a trotting filly by Windsong’s Legacy, purchased for $360,000 at the 2007 Harrisburg Sale by Michael Andrew.

Out of Bold Dreamer, dam of the millionaire filly Pampered Princess, Bedtime Song was meant to be a good thing. Instead, she won just once earning $1,234 from six career starts.

(Note: Bedtime Song’s first two foals have sold for $120,000 and $100,000 respectively).

It’s enough to drive you to drink.

Which is exactly how Casie Coleman, who trains predominantly pacers, ended up with a trotting colt by the name of Crazzy Crazzy.

Purchased for $27,000 at the Lexington Selected Sale, Crazzy Crazzy is a hangover you don’t mind waking up beside.

The unlikely colt turned heads in his first start at Monticello Raceway in a $44,350 NYSS event on July 11. Sent to the lead by Jimmy Morrill Jr., Crazzy Crazzy trotted the first quarter in :28.3 and never looked back en route a two-length win in 1:59.1. As of July 24 that mark, by the way, just happens to be a North American Season’s Record!

So, what, exactly is Coleman doing with a trotter?

“I don’t know much about trotters and haven’t raced them a whole lot either,” admits Coleman. “But, it was day four at Lexington, late in the day, and there was nothing else in the sale that we liked, so me and my partners went over to the back ring and sat at the bar and had a few drinks.”

Camped out at the bar with Adriano Sorella, part-owner of a number of top pacers like Vegas Vacation, Coleman found that after her third drink she was feeling pretty good.

Better than good, really.

“Apparently they were giving me straight vodka,” grins Coleman. “They had me drinking straight Grey Goose with a bunch of limes in it to mask the taste.”

An hour passed and Coleman knew she had to get some food into her system if she was going to walk out of the sale.

“At this point, I didn’t think I’d had that many but I was feeling it,” admits Coleman.

As Coleman wolfed down a sandwich at the bar, Andrew Harris arrived to play the part of the drinking buddy protagonist. You know, the guy who after just the right amount of drinks decides to up the ante.

“Andrew is one of my assistant trainers and now owns a piece of the horse,” says Coleman. “I made him buy in because of this story… at any rate, he says, ‘Let’s go take a look at this trotter. I really like him.’”

It’s an innocent enough hook, Coleman takes the bait and the pair go off to watch the sales video. Not long after, drink in hand, Coleman finds herself in the sales ring.

“So, Crazzy Crazzy is walking around the ring ready to sell and I’m looking at him thinking I guess he looks okay,” laughs Coleman of her blurry recollection.

Coleman, in need of a little nudge, was then urged into action by the motley crew of Sorella, Harris and assistant trainer Anthony Beaton chanting, ‘Buy him, buy him’!

She’s on the ledge, but the practical Coleman, normally an obsessive and studious selector of horse flesh needs one more push.

“I look across the floor and the guy bidding on him is Tyler Raymer,” says Coleman. “I don’t know him well, but I know he does well with trotters. So, when I see him bidding, I figure he must have looked this horse over…because I know I haven’t. And I thought, ‘Well, shit, maybe he’s okay.’”

The hammer came down at $27,000 and Coleman and crew erupted.

“We were jumping up and down and high fiving like we’d just won the Little Brown Jug,” she says sheepishly.

Drinker’s remorse set in almost immediately.

“Before a sale, I visit all the farms, and the ones I end up buying I’ll have seen at least six or seven times and often 10 or 12 times by the time they’ve gone through the sales ring just to make sure I’m not missing anything,” says Coleman. “But, this particular trotter, I didn’t lay eyes on him until after we’d bought him.”

Coleman, as the ink dried on the sales slip, decided she simply had to see the horse.

“We go to visit Steve and Cindy Stewart’s consignment at Hunterton Farms,” says Coleman. “I know them well and have a few broodmares with them. Plus, I’d bought Sportstwriter off of them.

Coleman asks Cindy to bring out Crazzy Crazzy surprising the confused consignor.

“First off, it sold already,” said Cindy, and knowing her clientele added. “And second, he’s a trotter.”

“No, I bought him,” says Coleman.

“What? You’ve never even seen this horse before!” exclaims Cindy.

And though she may have been seeing doubles of the horse they’ve nicknamed ‘Vodka’ thanks to this Grey Goose fuelled adventure, it’s one drinking session she hasn’t come to regret.

“Adriano texted me after that first win and said, ‘I can’t wait to get more trotters. We’re filling the barn with trotters and we’re getting you more Grey Goose!” chuckles Coleman.

Coleman, still shaking off the hangover moment, punctuates her story with the classic drinker’s lament, “I’m never drinking at the sale again.

Dave Menary doesn’t mind spending a bit of money to get the right horse.

At Standardbred Canada’s 2012 Canadian Yearling Sale, Menary spent $90,000 on Warrawee Phoenix, the sale topper for the first session of the sale. Pedigree and looks pushed up the price on the Camluck brother to 2011 O’Brien Award winner Warrawee Needy.

Menary anted up $60,000 to take home Prodigal Seelster at the 2009 Forest City Yearling Sale and the Camluck horse rewarded Dave with career earnings just shy of $1 million.

Sometimes, however, it seems you just don’t spend enough money at the sale.

Such was the case at the 2009 Canadian Open Yearling Sale when Menary was the under bidder on 2010 Metro Pace champ Mystician.

The Camluck bay was hammered down at $45,000... and has gone on to bank $1.8 million and counting.

It’s a tough game. And just when the ups and downs of the sport cause you to second guess yourself, fate sometimes pushes a horse you didn’t think you needed, right into your hands.

It seems that fate might have intervened for Menary with two-year-old pacing colt Hes Watching, purchased, frugally, at the 2012 Harrisburg Sale.

Just like Casie Coleman, Menary is the type of buyer that needs to see a horse a number of times before opening up his wallet.

“When I go to Harrisburg, I look at an insane number of yearlings and try to visit them as many times as I can prior to the sale which really saves a lot of time. The ones I want to concentrate on buying, I’ll look at over and over again,” says Menary.

Once he gets the Harrisburg book, Menary follows a very specific system.

“I’ll look at every Ontario sired yearling, colt, filly, trotter, pacer and then every New York pacer, every ‘Somebeach’ and, this past year, every Well Said,” starts Menary. “Hes Watching got on that list by being New York sired. He really impressed me when I saw him and he didn’t go for a lot of money because he was a late foal so he was small at the time.”

Size, conformation and pedigree are all key components for a buyer in evaluating a yearling. But a little bit of luck and a little bit of common sense played a big part in helping Hes Watching, foaled on June 13 (not a Friday) 2011, into the Menary barn.

“When you look at a lot of colts born in February and March, those few additional months of growth are a big deal at that stage in their life,” says Menary. “Minus his size, I thought the colt had a good pedigree and he came from a good home. He was raised at Brittany so he had every opportunity.”

Seeing the horse is paramount to Menary’s evaluation - - he’s not one to watch a video.

“Videos are unnatural. They’re too edited, too short. You often see the same clip more than once. Seeing pacers out in the field trotting doesn’t reflect on how they’re going to pace,” offers Menary.

Plus, why stay at home when you can travel in style?

“The farms are all very accommodating. A lot of farms fly us down just to look at yearlings because they’re doing a good job at their business,” says Menary. “It’s nice to see a horse in their home environment to shorten your list. I can go to Hanover Shoe Farms and look at over a hundred horses and when I get back for the sale I might re-look at a dozen out of that hundred. It helps you to prioritize your list.”

At 34 years of age, Menary knows he’s got a lifetime of learning ahead of him. Buying horses is an art form predicated on experience - - expensive, frustrating, and often tiresome experience.

“There’s a learning curve. For a couple years, I think I relied on conformation a little too much,” admits Menary. “You can buy the most perfect horse, but without the pedigree you’ll end up with a sound horse that doesn’t go very fast. You need to find a balance.

“A lot of my decisions are based on pedigree. I also have a pretty good memory, so if I got to look at a foal, I can remember the foal that mare had a year ago. If a mare has had six foals, I can compare the one I’m looking at to every one she’s had in her whole life.”

And though much of the process is based on science and physicality, there’s a bit of spiritual intervention mixed in as well.

“There are so many variables, but for me, what it all ends with, is they have to have that twinkle in their eye,” says Menary. “There has to be something about them I really like because if you don’t love them the day you bring them home, you’ll probably never fall in love with them.”

I guess you could say Menary believes in love at first sight – - and he’s got pretty high standards.

“I’ll never buy a walleye, but I like to see a horse with a big ass. Every horse in my barn has a big ass,” he laughs. “There are flaws and faults I’ll let go and other flaws or faults that I won’t.”

And in the most telling moment of this story, the frugal side of Menary shows through.

“Sometimes you can get a deal if you’re a little more forgiving,” he says. “We can’t all go out and buy ten $100,000 yearlings each year.”

Which is exactly how Hes Watching ended up in Menary’s barn.

“I could easily have missed him. I wasn’t looking for a cheap American Ideal to be honest,” starts Menary. “At the time I didn’t even realize that it was him who was up next. But, when he came into the ring, I thought ‘here’s that small little colt I like from Hunterton’. I put my hand up twice and with no real intention on buying him, I owned him.”

For just $3,000, Menary may have scooped up one of the best horses at the sale.

Hes Watching might be a little under the radar at the moment, but consider this prolific start to his career. After two qualifiers and two starts over half-mile tracks in New York state, Hes Watching has yet to taste defeat.

In his race debut at Saratoga, Hes Watching left the gate at 2-5 in a $46,631 division of the New York Sire Stakes with Jim Morrill Jr. driving.

Midway around the first turn, Hes Watching broke stride. It should have been game over, but not for this colt.

Morrill got him back on gait and quickly started closing the gap.

After giving the field 15 lengths at the start of the race, Hes Watching switched gears at will, closing within three and three-quarters lengths of the lead at the three-quarter pole and finished the ‘Hail Mary’ performance with a three-quarters of a length win in 1:55. Easily the fastest division of the day.

The bay colt bred by Brittany Farms and Robert & Karin Olsson Burgess paced his back half in :56.2.

It should have been a once in a lifetime performance. But, Hes Watching decided do an encore twelve days later.

This time at Buffalo Raceway, and once again the prohibitive favourite, Hes Watching left from the dreaded PP #7 and made a break in the first quarter, leaving him last in the field of seven.

It didn’t matter. Morrill got him back on stride and in the blink of an eye the pair swept the field and were two lengths in front at the half after pacing a :28.2 second quarter.

The end result was a track-record performance, besting Heston Blue Chip’s former track-record for two-year-olds (1:56.2), with a length and a half win in 1:55.4.

Menary fully admits that fate and good fortune played its part in this particular yearling sales experience.

“He’s lightly staked this year,” says Menary with a shake of the head. “I was making stake payments on a lot of babies this winter and it’s hard to dream on the $3,000 American Ideal.”

Perhaps it’s just a case of hard work paying off.

“I was in the right place at the right time. You’d probably go broke trying to buy a handful of $3,000 yearlings every year. I was just lucky enough to be the last bidder,” he shrugs.

But in the case of consistent winners like Coleman and Menary, you have to be good to be lucky.