Enjoyingtheweather
Lexington, Ky - Ryan Mahan’s voice is the loudest one at Keeneland, and he isn’t even shouting.
Mahan is just one of a team of auctioneers responsible for the fast-talking buzz projected through the sales pavilion and grounds for most of each sales day. As the senior auctioneer, Mahan has been the head of the team of voices driving the numbers for eleven years. After starting off at Keeneland as a bid spotter in 1977, he became the chief announcer for several years, and was then promoted to auctioneer in the 1980s. Mahan said that he started out in auctioneers’ school just out of college.
“They kind of get you in front of people, talking fast … You just feel like an idiot, getting up there and talking fast, but everybody’s an idiot,” he said. “The things that we’re saying are intelligible words. For example, ‘I have ten, anybody give twelve, anybody give twelve, anybody give twelve?’ and we pick up the pace for obvious reasons of momentum.”
From there, he got his professional start auctioning farm equipment and cattle before he transitioned to Thoroughbreds. Many of the other auctioneers (who rotate throughout each session) sell cars when they aren’t on Keeneland’s auctioneers’ stand. Mahan travels with the sales circuit most of the year, and is auctioneer for Barretts Equine Limited in California, and the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company in Florida.
When he’s not traveling to sell horses, Mahan is also part of the inspection team for Keeneland’s September Yearling sale, examining horses on the farm to check out the entries’ physique.
Contrary to popular belief he says, auctioneers don’t commonly get sore throats after a day of yodeling into the microphone. In fact, much like a musical instrument, the pitch of his voice gets clearer the longer he uses it.
“So much of what we do is show business, really … to do what we do, you have to have a little baloney to you. I would say most of us were probably the class clown at one point.”
That sense of performance is also what keeps members of the auctioneering team from freezing up on the microphone. They also study the catalogue ahead of time to gain a sense of what is most marketable about each entry. Each auctioneer also has his own style of creating energy and attracting the audience’s attention, usually crafted from the influence of his mentors over the years. Mahan says that the way he auctions is also heavily influenced by who the bidders and underbidders are, and knowing what drives them to up their prices.
“The style is very personal, but I think it develops over years, and I think it develops because of relationships.”
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Saturday’s session continued relatively steady activity, with gross sales of $11,495,600, an average of $42,576, and a median of $35,000. That represented a decrease of 5.69 percent for the average, and a 12.9 percent increase for the median over last year’s fifth session (with last year’s dispersal horses removed).
“When we started this sale, we knew we were going to miss the boost we had last year [because of the two major dispersals],” said Walt Robertson, Keeneland’s vice president of sales.
So far, the first five sessions of the 2012 November sale are mostly ahead of last year’s cumulative numbers through the fifth session; gross sales are up 4.5 percent to $113,846,000, the average is up .8 percent to $121,501, though the median is down 14.3 percent to $60,000 (with dispersal figures from 2011 removed).
The day also saw a stronger presence from middle market foreign buyers than Friday’s sale.
“They have been in this market quite a bit and are buying a little bit better of a horse this year. I think in the future we’ll see them going on up, maybe not in the numbers, but looking for a better mare to establish things at home,” said Robertson.
The session topper was Hip 1536, Atrea, a five-year-old broodmare prospect carrying a foal by Flatter. Atrea brought the hammer down at $435,000 to buyer Glen Hill Farm.
"She's probably got the best pedigree in Book 3, for sure. It's a really good family,” said Craig Bernick, president and COO of Glen Hill. “Get Lucky is probably one of the most important American pedigrees … She's carrying a filly, this horse has the right cross."
Atrea’s second dam is Get Lucky, a Mr. Prospector mare who won the Affectionately Handicap (G3) before producing four graded stakes winners as a broodmare.
"Those families are really hard to get into. So we just kind of targeted (her) and were sitting around for three days waiting for it to come. We're really excited about it," said Bernick.