Horsemen seek breeze-show data points beyond time trial

It’s no revelation to say a horse’s economic fate at a 2-year-olds in training auction relies heavily on his or her performance during the pre-sale under-tack show. An underwhelming breeze can torpedo a prospect with even the most ironclad page, while a bullet time can boost one with a less-commercial pedigree.

The breeze show is, of course, not the first time the horses set foot over the surface. Consignors typically bring them to the grounds about a week prior to their time trials to acclimate to the surroundings and tune up on the track. While the horses are not extended as much during this training as during their breeze show efforts, some horsemen still find data to collect from their morning exercises.

Bloodstock agent Dennis O’Neill said he often has someone keeping track of the horses on his radar before he arrives. For the Barretts sales at Del Mar, he will make the trip himself to watch the young horses in the mornings.

“If they’re getting hot and bothered in the mornings, that’s a big no-no, especially when you’ve got to see them every day at the barn, so you know going in that they’re going to be nervous horses,” he said. “We don’t like that.”

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Just how much can be taken from the pre-breeze activity varies from person to person.

Peter Bradley of Bradley Thoroughbreds said there can be something gleaned from a juvenile’s pre-breeze tune-up drill, but the day-to-day gallops in between do not give him much to work with.

“People want to see speed,” he said. “For better or for worse, that’s what this market is. It’s performance. You see them perform by how they go down the lane. Not that they have to be the fastest, but how they use themselves, how they gallop out, and how they come back afterward.”

How much time a sale horse gets over the breeze show surface in preparation can vary, depending on the consignor and the sale.

Randy Hartley of consignor Hartley/De Renzo Thoroughbreds said he’ll send horses to the sale grounds seven to eight days before the breeze show, regardless of whether it’s an Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. auction near his base, or one farther from home. Other consignors might adjust the number of days they keep the horses on the grounds depending on the expenses.

“A lot of people haul their horses over to OBS to gallop them and truck them out again, and that just makes me too nervous,” he said. “You put them on the trailer and they’re jumping. Usually, I give myself enough time to gallop and prep on it. If they don’t go right and you need to come back and do something else, you’ve got a little leeway.”

Consignor Niall Brennan said it was important to take stock of the horses on the track prior to the breeze show, especially now that horses have only one public timed workout for a sale, which leaves little room for error. He added that having information on a horse before the breeze is valuable if the horse underperforms when the clock is running, but showed potential leading up to the day.

“When you go back to the days when they had two breeze shows, people were there and got to see a lot of these horses,” he said. “Today, with just one breeze show, many people just come in for that one breeze show or just get the video and come in the day of the sale. But, really, trying to think about these 2-year-olds, the amount of information you can have at your disposal, you’re going to narrow it down to one 10-second video?”