Sellers, buyers, and sales companies are caught in an uncomfortable trap at juvenile sales

The two-year-old sales game has worked itself into a trap and nobody-not sellers, not buyers, not sales companies-is happy about it.

Until the mid-1990s, sales of two-year-olds in training worked like this: Consignors bought well-conformed yearlings of modest pedigree for modest prices, trained them to run a two-minute lick in company or breeze a quarter-mile comfortably, and sold them for a modest profit. Buyers, primarily trainers, loved juvenile sales because they could pick out horses with good action that they knew could stand training and would give them a chance to win a modest stakes races. Auction houses, likewise, made modest profits and padded their lists of stakes winners sold. Everybody, through the rose-colored glasses of hindsight, seemed to be happy with this niche.

Then, in the early 1990s, a few Japanese buyers began paying higher prices for horses at juvenile sales, horses selected almost entirely on how fast they worked. Pinhookers are observant types by profession, but after Unbridled's Song attracted a $1.4-million bid after working an eighth-mile in :10.27 at the Barretts March sale in 1995, it did not require great powers of observation to realize that any consignor who did not work his horses as fast as possible was leaving money on the table.

Soon, a horse that could not work an eighth-mile in less than 11 seconds at selected juvenile sales became both a relative rarity and sure to bring a low price, if he sold at all. While profits on individual pinhooks soared, so did buy-backs. Consignors, desperate to ensure fast workouts, turned to lightweight riders, whips, and medication.

At the recent Fasig-Tipton Calder and Barretts March two-year-olds in training sales, horses that posted the fastest eighth-mile workouts brought bids of $1.95-million and $2-million, respectively. At Barretts, the top-priced horse worked an eighth in ten seconds flat. The second- and third-fastest horses worked in :10.01 and :10.02. They brought $900,000 and $700,000, respectively. Is one-hundredth of a second detectable by the photo-finish camera?

A note to buyers: The three most successful racehorses ever to pass through a two-year-olds in training sale were 1998 Horse of the Year Skip Away, 1997 champion three-year-old male Silver Charm, and 1995 champion three-year-old male Thunder Gulch. Not one of those three worked an eighth in less than 11 seconds in their presale breezes.

At Barretts March, one California consignor lamented, "Two years ago I had a really nice colt here, but I could not get him to go any faster than :11 and change and I didn't get him sold. Turns out he still can't go any faster than that, but he can do it eight times in a row, and he's Grade 1-placed."

The point is that horses at sales of two-year-olds in training are now being asked to do something they will never be required to do in a real horse race. In fact, running an eighth-mile in less than 11 seconds in a real horse race would generally be pretty counterproductive, since-at least in America-it is likely to come in the first or second eighth-mile of a much longer race. Any horse that does that is not going to be around at the important part of the race-the finish.

The 10-second trap, combined with the innovations of videotaped workouts and the repository, has inevitably led to abuses. As one veteran Florida consignor noted recently, "Used to there would be big crowds at the previews. Now trainers are out playing golf. They say why should they spend all day at the previews when they can watch the videos."

That same consignor said, "I guarantee you that there are some horses here that worked fast that absolutely cannot make it all the way around the racetrack. They can't train. If the trainers were here every morning during the week they would see that, but they will never see it in the videos."

Sales companies report that buyers frequently complain that consignors are working their horses too fast. Sales companies also report that those same buyers are the first to wave their catalogs to bid and are the ones that wave them most persistently for the horses that worked fastest. Those same buyers sometimes find that their fast workers are so sore that they were obviously medicated to allow them to go so fast.

Another veteran consignor at Barretts said, "I don't know how we get back to the way we did it ten years ago, but I know that everyone would be better off if we could."

For sure. There is every reason to believe that the process of preparing horses for sales of two-year-olds in training is good for them. There are an equal number of reasons to believe that the actual 10-second workout is not.

Having seen more than one fast worker at juvenile sales with a throbbing foot in a tub of ice on the morning after, here are a few suggestions for buyers that might slowly bring about some changes:

• Along with heart scans and biomechanical measurements, pull blood on every horse you vet. If the consignor will not allow you to pull a blood sample, do not buy. If you cannot resist buying, pull a blood sample immediately after the hammer drops and test for medication. Sales companies are unlikely to require medication tests for juvenile sales for a variety of reasons, but no consignor wants his name to appear in the pages of Thoroughbred Times or in newspapers beside the word "drugs." Juvenile sales consignors are mostly honorable people, and they are some of the best horsemen in the world. They would prefer not to medicate their horses but often feel forced to do so by the 10-second trap.
• Videos are wonderful but they are not enough. The most successful buyers or their representatives are there on the mornings the horses are not breezing. They know which ones hate to train, which ones are sore, and which ones cannot breathe properly.
• Remember that there are no eighth-mile races. Remember that the richest races in the world are at ten and 12 furlongs. Remember that there has never been a 10-second eighth-mile run in any of those races.

It is true that Thoroughbred racing is all about speed. It is not necessarily true that the absolutely fastest horse wins. The best horse is the one who can maintain a high rate of speed over ten to 12 furlongs. No one can determine which horse that is in ten seconds.