“From 500 I look at, 25 will be on my second-look list. I’ll go back and have another look and take off another ten. I’ll send my list to Roll The Dice with about 15 on it and they’ll have their list. “Then we’ll get them vetted and by the time the sale starts we might be left with three or four to bid on. Then we’ve got our budgets. If it goes over then we’ll miss out.” Rogers is also looking at and purchasing yearlings for Archie Alexander. Melbourne bloodstock agent Suman Hedge said he looks for several things before purchasing a yearling. “It’s a combination of things, but first and foremost I’m looking for elite athletic qualities such as good movement and good balance. Then strength, size, and bone, plus whether they display a good temperament,” Hedge said. Hedge said a yearling’s pedigree was also to the forefront in deciding whether he would bid on a horse. Another factor for Hedge is where they were bred. “Some farms are more prolific than others. That comes into our consideration and then value comes into play. “We try to buy horses within that framework. We have a value as to what it’s worth and then we match them all together,” Hedge said. Hedge purchased dual Group 1 winner and top sire Zoustar for $140,000 at the Magic Millions Sales. “Zoustar was an extremely athletic horse who moved well.” Putting on the show for the bloodstock agents are the sales companies such as Inglis, and Melbourne director James Price said his team of ten were also essentially bloodstock agents. “There’s a team of eight to ten of us and we regard ourselves as bloodstock agents as it’s our job to check in on horses and then source and rate them for our sales,” Price said. He said fromAugust 1 they spend a lot of time at stud farms looking at yearlings and working out where they would be best placed to sell. “Our job is the management of sellers and buyers. It’s a twelve-months-of- the-year operation.” It’s at a sale such as Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale at Oaklands Junction in late February/early March where the bloodstock agents compete against each other to land the best yearlings. Then, once the yearlings are purchased, the long wait then begins to find out whether they have been on the mark, which will begin when the two-year- olds start racing the following season.
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