NEWS
The digital future is now for Thoroughbred auction market
Posted: Monday, September 13, 2010 11:07 AM
by John P. Sparkman
For more than 150 years, buyers have tramped from barn to barn at Thoroughbred auctions, voluminous catalogs in hand, making notes on the catalog page of each horse they inspect. In recent years, THOROUGHBRED TIMES BUYERS' GUIDES, veterinary reports, reports from biomechanical and genetic analysts, and other printed aids have added to the burden buyers tote around the sales grounds.
For tech savvy buyers, help has at last arrived.
“It's impractical to walk around the sales grounds with all the catalogs, short-list notes, updates, and vet reports,” says Sohby Sonbol, former racing manager for Zayat Stables, who now operates as an independent bloodstock agent. “I started last year downloading the catalog to my iPhone. When the iPad came out this year, I immediately appreciated the additional real estate. With this, I have everything I need in one place.”
Since every sales company's catalogs, including Keeneland's, have been available in portable document format (PDF) online for several years, it has long been possible to download entire catalogs to computers, but Apple Inc.'s new iPad as well as other tablet computers offer new possibilities to anyone who might feel overburdened by the burgeoning tools of the Thoroughbred trade.
“With the iAnnotate [application], you can write any note you want [with a finger or stylus], highlight anything you want on the catalog page,” Sonbol said.
Available through Apple's App Store, the iAnnotate PDF program is essentially a PDF document reader that allows and permanently saves any annotation or change to a PDF document and allows searchable sharing with other users.
“It improves the workflow,” Sonbol continued. “Before, I had to wait on all these paper reports, people looking at horses, vet reports. With this and the internet you can get everything updated on the go. I have my own private database as well, and it links to a server system so you can really speed up your workflow.”
Keeneland also has provided buyers new tools by enhancing their online catalog this year, especially for the two opening select sessions. The digital catalog page for Book 1 horses now includes hyperlinks to race records, charts, and race videos for key horses on the catalog page of each yearling, as well as daily digital catalog updates for every horse in the sale.
Those enhancements are, of course, available through hand-held computers via Keeneland's Wi-Fi network.
“The onset of the iPad has gotten people's attention,” said Geoffrey Russell, Keeneland's director of sales. “I've already seen them on sales grounds this year.
“Will printed catalogs go away? I doubt it. Will it change to be more digital? Yes. You can download our catalog to the iPad. With the convenience of a tablet that you can walk around the sales grounds with, it's something definitely we're going to have to look at more closely in the future.”
Consignors also have taken note of the possibilities of tablet computers.
“We've had some our front men [assistants who help buyers call out horses from barns] trying out the iPad, but we've had some problems with them getting too hot,” said Duncan Taylor of Taylor Made Sales Agency, which has used a computer system to print show cards for buyers for the last several years. “We haven't perfected it yet, but it's something we're working on.”
Taylor also is enthusiastic about the possibility that digitization will help better organize sales in the future, however that is a prospect sales companies probably will approach with caution.
“What's so difficult for the sales company, even doing what they've done with the pedigrees, is having the conformation and the pedigree and the vetting all line up so that you actually do get an expensive horse in the front part of the sale,” Taylor said. “The horse has to grow into what you expect it to when you look at them earlier in the year. The later you can wait to vet and actually pick which ones go into the sale, the better off you are.”
Many buyers and sellers are willing to let others work the bugs out of the new technology.
“I've been looking at it, but I think I'm going to wait for the second generation of the iPad,” said Case Clay of Three Chimneys Sales. “I figure they'll work all the bugs out by then.”
“I'm not getting into that yet, but I will eventually,” said Reiley McDonald of Eaton Sales. “Right now, I'm just trying to get through this sale.”
For both buyers and sellers, the possibility of replacing seven catalog books, a four-inch thick three-ring notebook filled with private annotations, and reams of vet reports, genetic reports, and updates with an inch-thick tablet computer you can easily carry in one hand is bound to become more and more tempting as ever-changing technology improves.
“It has certainly made my life easier,” Sonbol said.
John P. Sparkman is bloodstock editor for Thoroughbred Times
