The Horse Trader

In the brilliantly lighted auction ring at New York's Saratoga race track one night last week stood a handsome bay colt. Among the overflow crowd of 1,600 at the open-air pavilion moved white-jacketed "spotters," alert for the telltale gestures--a casual nod, a lifted finger--that signifies a bid. The first horse went quickly. "Sold for $30,000," boomed Auctioneer Milton Dance Jr., rapping his gavel for emphasis. By the time Auctioneer Dance's gavel had fallen for the 48th and last time. $319,500 worth of horseflesh--all paid for in cash--had changed hands.

Social Fixture. A Saratoga fixture since 1917, the annual yearling sale is a major social event for the horsy set draws many foreign breeders and such urbane U.S. turfmen as Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, C. V. Whitney and George D. Widener. But among the pavilion crowd last week were also trainers, curious tourists and nervous $2 bettors hungry for a potential thoroughbred of their own. Clutching handbooks that detailed the bloodlines of each horse, they prowled the cluster of well-maintained barns, while grooms obligingly paraded the 267 sleek yearlings for inspection. Most drew only a cursory glance. But others--the offspring of such favored sires as Hyperion, Polynesian and Nantallah--attracted knots of peering, prodding admirers. They were looking, explained Humphrey Finney, whose firm conducts the sale on a 5% commission, "for real vigor, for an impression of smartness and alertness, for the heart and the will to win."

Such a horse is hard to find. Occasionally, the auctioneer knocks down a real bargain: Sherluck, winner of this year's $148,650 Belmont Stakes, sold as a yearling at Saratoga in 1959 for $10,500. At the same sale, fleet-footed Globemaster, best U.S. three-year-old, was purchased by Pittsburgh Coalman Leonard Sasso for $80,000, has repaid Sasso with $300.000 in prize money. With a few such exceptions, buying yearlings--which are a year away from any track--is a risky proposition. Training injuries and illness are common among thoroughbreds, and even a well-blooded yearling, says one longtime owner, has "no better than a 1-in-2 chance of ever getting out of the gate, a 1-in-10 chance of ever winning, and a 1-in-1,000 chance of winning an important stake."

The buyer's risk is only slightly greater than the seller's, who, before bringing his yearling to market, has invested anywhere from $3,000 to $15,000. While many horses go for impressive sums--up to $130,000--many more bring $5,000 or less.

Eye for Horseflesh. Bringing buyer and seller together is the job of white-haired Humphrey Finney, 58. who rules Fasig-Tipton Co., an $8,500,000-a-year horse-trading enterprise that extends from Saratoga to stud farms in England. France, Australia and South America. After 24 years as an auctioneer and "pitchman." British-born Finney knows as much as any man about the cash value of good horseflesh--and about the strange habits of the bidder. Finney scornfully tolerates parvenus whose extravagantly high offers make no horse sense, pointedly admonishes bidders when he thinks the offers are too low.

Slowed down by two heart attacks, Finney has surrendered charge of the Saratoga sale to his son John, 27. But he is never far from the auction ring, and proved again last week that he has lost none of his eye. When the first day's auction was over, Horse Trader Finney found that he had estimated total receipts on 49 horses within $10,000 of the actual figure: $238,000.

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