Well, it’s finally September and the Keeneland yearling sale begins in just 8 days. So far we have identified approximately 800 horses to inspect based on pedigree…around 350 for the select partnership and 450 for our traditional partnerships. The inspection process will begin on Sunday, September 11th.
For those of you who might be interested in what the inspection process entails here’s a very brief description of what we are looking for …
Conformation – correct through the knees and ankles, proper hock placement, strong feet that match, good shoulder and hip angles, strong top line, etc.;
Tracking – we want to make sure the limbs are all going forward in a straight line. No winging or paddling in the front or back; Strength – well defined, strong gaskins. Sturdy limbs and a muscular rear end.
Athleticism – a powerful mover with good reflexes and coordination that extends his reach with fore and hind limbs.
The Total Package – we call this the process of looking at nothing but seeing everything. If a horse gets this far along with us physically we know we like his parts so we don’t want to focus on any one particular thing. By this point we’re more interested in knowing if all the parts work together; and lastly
The Intangibles – Is the horse always moving forward or does he have to be dragged everywhere he goes? Does he have an intelligent eye? What’s his attitude like? Is he calm, cool and collected or is he nervous, scared or sour, etc.?
Depending on the quality of the sale we usually keep around 10%-15% of the horses we look at on the pedigree list based on physical so we should be able to get the list down to 80 – 120, from 800, after we’ve looked at them all. Of those, about a third of them will have vet problems (fractures, large OCD’s, chips, bad airways, etc.) that we can’t live with, which will get the list of horses we will consider purchasing down to about 50 – 80 horses. This is a very brief description of our process – which we apply to every horse that runs in the Pocket Aces silks, whether they cost $100,000 or $10,000 – so if anyone would like more details feel free to give us a call or come out to the sales to take in all the action.
We’re excited to get started and can’t wait to come home with the newest members of the Pocket Aces Racing Stable.