Frank's Way

In an interesting twist at this year's Adena Springs sale of 2-year-olds in training, Frank Stronach gave away three new catalogs. Personaly, it was really a bummer because I wasn't eligible to win; you had to buy a horse. There were some that sold for $3,500, but even they were beyond my budget.

 But the people who took home the big prizes sure were happy. They included Hall of Fame trainer LeRoy Jolley.

Buyers of Hips Nos. 1-45 were put in the drawing for the first car; buyers of Hip Nos. 46-90 for the second; buyers of Hip Nos. 91-136 for the third. The winner of the first car, bought one horse for $25,000, but sources indicated he also was the underbidder on some high dollar 2-year-olds later in the auction. A Cadillac is a nice bonus for a winning shopper and maybe it helped sell more horses in the long run.

I don't always agree with Stronach about everything he does, but I have to give him credit for sticking with his "no breeze" policy for this sale. Because of it, he doesn't get as much money as he could for his horses, but having less stress on them is good for the animals. It has to have been tempting from a financial standpoint to change the policy.

Trainer Cam Gambolati and Ol Memorial Stable have become regular sale customers because the horses don't work, so there has been some payoff in the long run for Stronach.