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Lexington, Ky - The Keeneland sales ring, with its bright lights and auctioneers’ hum, can be intimidating place for anybody, and the horses are no exception.
Somehow, no matter how many frightened hooves and impatient teeth come their way, Cordell Anderson and the other ring handlers manage to keep the horses inside the ropes and relaxed enough to pose for the webstream cameras, all without so much as wrinkling their trademark green coats.
“You get some tough ones in there sometimes,” said Anderson, who has been working in the ring for twenty-three years. “I don’t find it hard. I get some tough ones that get kind of jumpy.”
He has his techniques for getting a horse’s attention, though they may not be obvious to the untrained eye. While he will usually circle a horse counter-clockwise in the ring to show it off to buyers, he changes direction with a panicked entry. If they’re overwhelmed by the environment, he’ll direct them to the side of the auctioneers’ stand so they can look around for a few seconds. He keeps a light hold on the shank, directing the horse’s body with a quiet push against the shoulder. Well-behaved entries get a reassuring pat after the hammer falls.
“Some of the mares are really bad. They don’t want to have anything to do with this … they don’t come off the farm a lot. The babies, they’re young, but the mares have been to the races, so they get a little tough … they want to be out there at the farm.”
One such mare dances into the ring during a weekend session, eyes bulging as she absorbs the scene. The mare settles beneath the auctioneers’ stand, but when she hears the tap of the hammer just above her head, she becomes unhinged. She wheels her hindquarters and half-rears, turning her head and offering dance into the front row of seats outside the ring. The audience goes silent and tense as auctioneer Ryan Mahan stops his warble, but Anderson and his partner in the ring remain calm. They give the mare a moment to compose herself before delicately helping her out the back door.
“I’ve had them rear up. I’ve had one weanling, the one side of him got down in the bushes [which surround the ring], but he got back up.”
Surprisingly enough, he says the stallion prospects are relatively easy to handle since they are usually fresh off the track, where they’ve been worked with daily.
Ring handlers typically work in pairs, which keeps the flow of horses going in and out the doors on either side of the auctioneers’ stand, and also provides them some help if a nervous horse gets spooky coming in or out.
Like many others who keep the sales running, Anderson travels the auction circuit through the U.S. and Canada during much of the year, and picks up work at the racetrack with trainer Kenny McPeek as needed. Showing horses in the ring is his preferred job, however.
“I love the racetrack. But I love the sales, I guess, the most.”
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Keeneland November’s sixth session closed with significantly stronger numbers than last year’s as the average price jumped 24.1 percent to $40,529, and the median 28 percent to $32,000. Gross sales, which totaled $10,740,300 were up too, by 21.3 percent from 2011’s day six. RNA percentage for the day was 22.1 percent, up two percent from last year.
Sunday’s sale brought the total sales for 2012 to $124,586,900, with an overall average of $103,650 and median of $50,000. With last year’s dispersal horses removed from the 2011 figures, the overall sale is strong as of the sixth session, with the average price rising 3.4 percent and the median remaining unchanged. RNA percentage for the entire sale is up to 26.7 percent, from 2011’s 21.2 percent.
The session’s topper was the final horse of the day, two-year-old colt Moro Tap. Sold as Hip 2053, Moro Tap is by sought-after sire of champions Tapit, out of Silver Ghost mare Ghost Dancing, who is sister to stakes winner Hidden Ransom. He made his first start October 12 at Calder Racecourse in Florida, where he finished a promising second.
Trainer Mike Maker signed the sales ticket for Terry Raymond and Sky Chai Racing, the latter of which was part owner of 2012 Kentucky Derby (G1) starter Hansen.
“Obviously we’re a big fan of Tapits,” said Maker, who also trained Tapits' son Hansen. “Physically [the two] are complete opposites. Hansen probably would have cleared out this ring a couple times, and this guy handled everything with ease.”
Raymond is no newcomer to Thoroughbred ownership but says he is still waiting for his big stakes running star to come along. The former owner of a sportswear company lives in Indiana, where he works in real estate.
Moro Tap will stay in Kentucky for the moment, but will eventually ship to Florida.