CBA Hosts Deal or No Deal Ahead of Keeneland September

On Sept. 11, the eve of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, the Consignor and Commercial Breeders Association hosted its "Deal or No Deal" open forum, comprising a panel of industry representatives to discuss their approaches and selling horses.

Facilitated by CBA president and Lane's End Farm sales director Allaire Ryan, the discussion was driven by questions from the audience, including those submitted via a QR code on promotions for the event.

Taking questions were trainers Todd Pletcher and Susan Montanye; veterinarians Mark Cheney and Bob Hunt; European pinhooker Brendan Holland of Grove Stud; and Niall Brennan, who consigns, buys, breaks, and trains horses at his Florida farm.

The event took place at the Paddock Chalet on the grounds of Keeneland Racecourse and was streamed from the CBA's Facebook page.

Topics of conversation ranged from what the panelists might consider a "dealbreaker" in a young horse; to how their approaches to buying yearlings has changed over time; to pre-sale medical and surgical interventions.

Though veterinary records of various sorts are readily available at the sales, the trainers said that once a horse is in their barn, they rely less on those records and more on the horse's clinical profile.

"We'll generally look for clinical symptoms if we're concerned," Pletcher said. "But we bring them all in with the idea that we're starting from square one."

"We start the breaking process the same for every horse," Brennan said. "I'll follow up if I have information (from the sales), and we do a lot of vetting ourselves. If I'm aware that a horse had sesamoiditis or if an ultrasound showed an injury to the suspensory, we'd get the breaking process going and scan again at 45 days to see if there's been any change. If there hasn't, we go on, and at 60 days, we scan again."

"If a client sends me a horse and there's something on the X-rays that needs to be discussed, we'll talk about the process and the findings," Montanye said. "Depending on what it is, I might give it a little time or go on with the horse. It's the same when I'm buying the horse. If there's an imperfection, we'll go on and address it if it comes up. Most of the time, whatever those findings are (from the sale) aren't the issue."

Questions about juvenile tendinitis and sesamoiditis elicited detailed answers from the panelists, with the latter leading to a discussion about the role of ultrasounds at the sales.

"This is one of the hottest topics on the table right now," Hunt said. "One of the most controversial things we deal with. I think that ultrasounds are a valuable tool, but should we ultrasound everything? The pendulum on this may have swung a little too far. There are a lot of good horses with a grade 1 lesion that can be turned down (at a sale). It's not until that you get to grade 3 or 4 that it's risky for horses, at least for a delay in their career."

Cheney offered a similar perspective.

"I've seen so many horses with grade 3 sesamoiditis in horses that never had a problem. If there's necrosis at the top of the sesamoid, that's a bad warning sign, and I'd be concerned about that. But very few horses have severe sesamoiditis, and if they did, most consignors wouldn't even bring them to a sale. To turn down a horse for minor changes in ludicrous."

Several panelists noted that attributes that they might have considered dealbreakers earlier in their careers are no longer disqualifying.

"I'm most forgiving on horses that are back at the knee," Pletcher said. "Early on, I was always told that you'd rather have a horse over at the knee than back at the knee, but some of the best horses I've had are at least flat and some are back."

Brennan agreed.

"I've learned that good horses come in all shapes and sizes," he said. "If a horse moves well and is athletic and light on his feet, there are very few things I can't live with."

"They can either run or they can't," Montanye said. "Back-of-the-knee horses can be really pretty movers."

Offering an international perspective, Holland noted that in Europe, he's willing to be accepting of a horse if he likes its physical enough, "unless the X-rays are a disaster." He also expressed surprise that horses are seldom asked to trot at sales in the United States.

"We watch them walk, but when you ask a horse to trot, you see gait changes and how the foot lands," Holland said. "It makes a big difference to me, but people here laugh if I ask to trot a horse."

And while there was an overall sense that buyers can be too quick to discount a horse, the panelists did acknowledge there are some issues that would prevent them from buying.

"If a horse can't breathe, you can't train him," Brennan said. "There are very few faults that I can't forgive."

"There are very few things that I would completely never buy," Pletcher said. "But one thing I try to stay away from is a severely club foot. There's not much you can do to help that."

Hunt also named foot distortion as a big red flag for him.

"It can mean a lifetime of foot problems that get worse as they age," he said.

They were also able to name horses that had vetted poorly and gone on to successful careers.

"Easy Goer," Cheney said. "If you saw his ankles or the X-rays of his sesamoids all the years he raced, you never would have bought another horse."

"I had Yaupon in my barn," Montanye said. "He didn't vet great as a yearling, and every vet in America looked at him at the 2-year-old sales, and now he's a grade 1 winner." 

"Dayatthespa had knee spurs," said Brennan of the New York-bred 2014 Eclipse champion turf female who earned $2.2 million. "Nyquist had a bump on his tendon and he won the Kentucky Derby." 

"When Niall sold me Jersey Girl at a 2-year-old in training sale," Pletcher said, "she had fairly advanced spurs that my vets were a little afraid of, but I loved the filly so much that we went ahead and bought her. Ultimately, those spurs caught up to her, but she had a lot of good grade 1 wins."  

The Keeneland September yearling sale begins Sept. 12, and continues through Sept. 24.