NEWS
Bloodstock agent Cullen suspended
from auctions until 2011
Posted: Monday, November 16, 2009 8:01 PM
by Pete Denk
Lexington-based bloodstock agent Jim Cullen has been banned from public auctions until at least 2011 for violating the bloodstock agent code of conduct as put forth by the Sales Integrity Program and the four major U.S. auction companies.
Cullen is the first bloodstock agent suspended since the reformation of the Sales Integrity Program in 2007.
Keeneland Vice President Harvie Wilkinson said the situation involved failure to disclose and pay sales proceeds to clients.
“Over the past year, we received two complaints from participants at our sales about Jim Cullen’s dealings with them,” Wilkinson said. “We researched both incidents and confronted Mr. Cullen with the complaints. He did not deny what he did, although he had an excuse, and he agreed to the suspension.”
Cullen can request to have the sanctions lifted in January 2011.
Officials with Fasig-Tipton Co. and Barretts Equine Ltd. said they would uphold the suspension announced by Keeneland.
“If the industry is going to do this sales integrity push, we have to stand together to make it worthwhile,” Barretts Vice President Kim Lloyd said.
Tom Ventura, general manager of the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co., said his company probably will uphold the ban, but Ventura said OBS officials want to review the facts before making a decision.
“We’ll react to this news accordingly, and I would assume we’ll be in line with the other sale companies,” Ventura said. “But we want to see the details instead of just unilaterally accepting it.”
D.G. Van Clief Jr., chairman of the Sales Integrity Monitoring Committee, said the suspension is a sign that the sales integrity push, which began in 2004 and was reformed in ’07, is working.
“We are a watchdog to observe the marketplace and evaluate whether or not the new standards put in place are working or not,” Van Clief said. “The recommendations wouldn’t have any teeth without the sales companies, who have the means of enforcement through their code of conduct and conditions of sale.
“I think this is a positive step. It shows that the system seems to be working, and there is recourse for people in the marketplace who feel they have been wronged.”
Pete Denk is sales editor for Thoroughbred Times
