Rockingham Ranch and David A. Bernsen LLC’s Stormy Liberal wrapped up his 2018 campaign with a successful defense of his title in the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1) and earned the Eclipse Award as 2018’s Champion Male Turf Horse.  It was the fourth straight stakes win for the now 7-year-old son of Stormy Atlantic, purchased for $100,000 out of the Wavertree Stables consignment at the 2014 OBS June Sale after turning in an Under Tack eighth in :10 2/5. Trained by Peter Miller, he has captured eight stakes races, compiled a 31-12-9-1 career record and earned $1,938,930 to date.

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By Meredith Daughert , June 14, 2018

MarketWatch Interview: Ciaran Dunne

With the Ocala Breeders’ Sales June 2-year-olds in training sale in full swing, Ciaran Dunne of Wavertree Stables finds himself in a unique position as a consignor of two colts from the last crop of Scat Daddy. While the progeny of the late stallion, who sired Triple Crown winner Justify, have shown themselves to be a commodity both at home and abroad, Justify’s accomplishment adds another layer to the desire to possess a Scat Daddy as the final offspring are offered through the ring. BloodHorse MarketWatch spoke with Dunne about the market at OBS June, how this sale differs from those earlier in the year, and his expectations for the Scat Daddys on offer June 13-15. 

MarketWatch: What sets the OBS June 2-year-olds in training sale apart from those earlier in the year?

Ciaran Dunne: Nobody sets out to takes horses to the June sale. We all just end up here, be it for horses who may have had setbacks through the winter that you needed to give time to, horses that went to a previous sale that you didn’t get sold, or there is always a scattering of people who were going to race and then got cold feet. So I don’t think that we have a strategy as such that says, “We are going to take X amount to the June sale this year.” But, actually, it has been a successful sale for us through the years because some of those later-developing horses who come here and show up, we’ve always found that there are plenty of buyers here for them. Like anything, it’s next to impossible to hide a good horse. So there is usually a good market here.

MW: As the last 2-year-old sale of the year, do you find that consignors are more competitive to get their product sold?

CD: I don’t think there is more pressure. There is probably less pressure, because it’s almost like the October sale at Fasig-Tipton. If horses show up here, it’s usually because people want to sell them and because they don’t want to race. From a consignor’s perspective, you aren’t dealing with large reserves, and we came here to sell, so we’re going to put them in a number to make sure that we can get that done.

It can be a little easier to get them ready because they are more mature, and so they kind of take care of themselves. And I think that any time that you can go a quarter (mile), horses show themselves a little better because they’ve had more time to get into a rhythm and they level out. Earlier in the year, it’s harder—at least I find it to be harder—to have them go a quarter, because they have to be fit enough to do it.

MW: With the catalog almost 22% larger this year, how do you make what you’re offering stand out?

CD: I think that, given what we do, it’s a performance-based sale, so it’s very easy. They all get an equal shot to go work and show what they’re made of and what they can do. That’s what sets them apart. The positive to it is that, yes, there are a lot of horses in here, but probably there are less good horses. So if you have a horse that shows itself well and performs well, it’s easy for them to stand out. We have a couple horses here that were in the (Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale). They were nice horses in Miami, they just weren’t as good as the horses that were around them. Whereas here, they stand out a bit more because of the company they keep.

MW: What is your opinion on the market during the June sale? More or less polarized?

CD: It’s funny. I think that the stronger April gets, the more those middle- to lower-end buyers get pushed into June, so it actually strengthens the June market. I think April is more polarized. We’ve seen this week, the traffic through here, we were looking for certain faces in April but were like, “Well, we don’t see any of those guys here.” They’re here this week.

I think April has gotten so strong they’ve decided that they can’t compete, so they stay away. I think that’s been a big help on the lower to the middle end of things, and regarding the top end, the good ones … everybody finds them.

MW: You are consigning two of four Scat Daddy colts on offer at this sale. Have you re-evaluated their potential value based on Justify ‘s Triple Crown win?

CD: You would hope that it would add a little to their value. I’m not sure it really does. Everybody knew about Scat Daddy before this weekend. I think that my horse (Hip 742) is a really nice horse, and he’s not been to another sale. I think he’s shown himself well, and he’s gone over well, so we have pretty good expectations for him coming in here. I think that being by the same sire as a Triple Crown winner sure won’t hurt. Having a Triple Crown winner in general should give the whole business a bit of a boost.

MW: Do you find buyers trend toward sire power? Or is it strictly about performance?

CD: I think that, first of all, it’s about performance. If you can combine performance and add sire power like a Scat Daddy to that, then that makes a huge difference. It’s a whole lot easier to sell a Scat Daddy that breezes well than another horse by another stallion that breezes well. If they don’t breeze any good, then it doesn’t matter who they are by.

By Ron Mitchell ,  September 8, 2018

Diversity of offerings lures yearling-to-juvenile speculators.

There is a good reason pinhookers gravitate to the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

For the most part, horses bought out of the marathon auction have proven profitable for those adventurous speculators buying yearlings to resell as 2-year-olds in training.

According to figures compiled by BloodHorse MarketWatch, the 485 yearlings purchased at Keeneland’s sale last year who were resold as juveniles this year nearly doubled their initial price. As a group, the Keeneland yearlings were bought for an aggregate $33,314,400, for an average price of $68,689 and a $50,000 median. When those same horses were sold as 2-year-olds, they grossed $64,336,287, a gain of 93.1%, not taking into account expenses from the time of purchase until resell. The resale average was $132,652, with a median of $70,000.

“This is where it happens,” said Wavertree Stables’ Ciaran Dunne as he inspected horses at Keeneland on a humid, overcast morning Sept. 8, two days prior to the start of the auction. “The meat and potatoes of what we do is Keeneland September. With the other (yearling) sales, you fill in around the edges.”

Dunne, who shops all the major yearling sales in search of horses on behalf of his partnership groups, said the critical mass of so many horses on offer—4,538 are cataloged for this year’s Sept. 10-23 auction (with a dark day Sept. 14)—provides diversity in all price and quality ranges.

“The beauty of Keeneland September is that with so many horses, (buyers) get spread around, so you have more opportunities, as opposed to boutique sales where people don’t miss any,” said Dunne, who like other pinhookers is always looking for value. “That (boutique sales concept) obviously doesn’t work for us when we’re trying to sneak in here and slide one out. In those smaller sales, you don’t have that opportunity.”

While the vast number of horses cataloged at Keeneland can appear daunting, Dunne said it actually plays into the hands of pinhookers who have a proven system.

“We have been in business for 20 years, and if we hadn’t done well at Keeneland September, we wouldn’t have been in business that long.”

By Ron Mitchell,  June 8, 2016

The under tack show for the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s 2-year-olds in training and horses of racing age sale continued with seven horses sharing the fastest time of the day of :10 for an eighth of a mile and three going a quarter mile in :21 1/5. For full story click here.

By Ron Mitchell,   April 20, 2016

Trainer Linda Rice went to $440,000 to acquire a Speightstown filly from the Wavertree Stables consignment during the April 20 second day of the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s April sale of 2-year-olds in training.. For full story click here.