by Pete Denk

The way Molly Lightner sees it, a bad day selling horses is still better than a good day in the office.

Lightner, with help from partner Joclyn Helmbrecht, made her debut as a consignor at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. August yearling sale. It has not been an easy market in which to sell, but Lightner has sold two of the three yearlings she offered for total receipts of $36,500.

“Joclyn and I both grew up in the horse business. We know it’s a roller-coaster ride, but you have to keep dreaming. It’s better than clocking in and being a drone,” Lightner, 37, said from her barn on the OBSC sale grounds on Tuesday. “We’ve both lived in fancy houses and we’ve both lived in trailers. We think we can get by either way.”

Lightner got her first job at age 19 writing pedigrees for The Jockey Club. After office stints with GTECH Corp. and MindSpring, she cashed out her 401k in 2001 and used the money to buy a pick-up truck and a filly.

Lightner worked for West Point Thoroughbreds’ bloodstock office in Lexington before she was hired as Hill ‘n’ Dale Sales Agency’s sales coordinator. As she concludes her six-year stint with the Lexington farm, Lightner is planning to move to the Ocala area and is looking for a farm.

Lightner said she will stick to a few guiding principles as a consignor—treat people how she would like to be treated, be honest, and look at a clients’ resources as she would her own.

Lightner has one horse left in the August sale, an E Dubai filly out of the winning Foxhound mare Dance Lessons cataloged as hip 800 on Wednesday.

“It’s been pretty darn tough,” Lightner said. “Part of it has to be the economy, and plus [the Keeneland September yearling sale] is right around the corner, and this hurricane business … at this point we’re just hoping to sell our last open horse.”

Helmbrecht currently serves as yearling manager for Mueller Farm in Verona, Kentucky. The next sale that Lightner and Helmbrecht plan to offer a consignment is the OBSC fall mixed sale.

“Horses are what we do,” Lightner said. “This is our life, so it’s nice to have our own thing.”

Pete Denk is sales editor for Thoroughbred Times