TBS Zero Year Old Auction

[Jon Xett]

So with hours to go before the close of the 0 year old Steward bred auction, what are your thoughts and strategy for success?

Are you a bomber? Do you swoop in with a mega bid and hope it sticks?
Are you stealthy? Do you constantly bid to have the maximum 3 bids?
Are you studious? Do you only bid on those horses you have investigated?
Are you a hitter? Do you bid on everything and anything?
Are you a shark? Do you seek out stealthy players, hit their bids quick?
Are you a none-ya? Is it none of my business and none of the above?

jX

[Keith Maidlow]

It all depends on how much cash I have (and I prefer yearling auctions to foal auctions)

Are you a bomber? Do you swoop in with a mega bid and hope it sticks? No
Are you stealthy? Do you constantly bid to have the maximum 3 bids? Sometimes
Are you studious? Do you only bid on those horses you have investigated? Mostly
Are you a hitter? Do you bid on everything and anything? Only when I can't afford the horses I really want
Are you a shark? Do you seek out stealthy players, hit their bids quick? Only in conjunction with the above
Are you a none-ya? Is it none of my business and none of the above? I'm sure there are others who probably do one of my strategies but that's a none-ya

I've researched none of the zero year old auctions since I'm a bit cash poor and working on recovering but if the none-ya strategy yields some cheap possibilities I might jump in and look at a few.

[Tammy Stawicki]

I research who I want beforehand to have an idea of a priority ranking and max bid. Then when the auction opens I place my bids on my top choices and will keep bidding on more as I get outbid until everyone goes over my max

[Mr. Lord Rich]

I change my strategy every auction.
My preference however is to monitor the bids and swoop in at the end. Gotta keep people on their toes.

Just like EBay, your bid is never safe until the auction ends.

But unlike EBAY, you still have to deal with the random draw if you bid on 3 and can only win 2.

[Ash Tarasin]

I am similar to Tammy Stawicki. Although I usually only make bids on one or two in the hopes of having an underbid go through on the ones I truly dearly want.

From time to time I stray away from my single-horse-infatuations and putting-all-my-eggs-in-one-basket-strategy to also put bids in on favourite three and four.

Thus studious somewhat stealthy? "Socks! Onwards-towards-next-auction!" - kind-of-gamer?

[Randall Allen]

I saved this in my notes that the Steward said years back and it has stuck with me.

"back when people were making wise choices about spending on Steward-breds (if the dam has been useless in several foals, and the sire has been mostly useless, why are you bidding up to $3 million? Just stop. Walk away from the auction. Hands behind your back!"

Ever since then, I won't bid large sums on horses that have been "useless" as Emily puts it.

[Keith Maidlow]

I saved this in my notes that the Steward said years back and it has stuck with me.

"back when people were making wise choices about spending on Steward-breds (if the dam has been useless in several foals, and the sire has been mostly useless, why are you bidding up to $3 million? Just stop. Walk away from the auction. Hands behind your back!"

Ever since then, I won't bid large sums on horses that have been "useless" as Emily puts it.

I look at the mare first, if she has had runners and >50% have run well and are winners of $100K or more, that's a plus. If no runners I look at race record. If I'm not impressed with either of those, consider useless.

Then I look at the sire and look for freak %, stakes % and then less than allowance %. No freaks and lots of less than allowance, consider useless.

[Tim Matthews]

I go by feel

[Jon Xett]

Great responses everyone. Thank you. I definitely need to pay more attention to the auction details. For example, I did not realize until I read Pete’s comment that the lastTBS auction and this auction that a player can win up to 2 Steward bred horses. So is it possible that a savvy player could bid on 3 horses at the end of all 3 auctions and end up with 6, count ‘em, six Steward bred horses this year 52?
I didn’t even bid in the last yearling auction.
Dang it Napoleon, make yourself a dang quesadilla. jX

[Carole Hanson]

Great responses everyone. Thank you. I definitely need to pay more attention to the auction details. For example, I did not realize until I read Pete’s comment that the lastTBS auction and this auction that a player can win up to 2 Steward bred horses. So is it possible that a savvy player could bid on 3 horses at the end of all 3 auctions and end up with 6, count ‘em, six Steward bred horses this year 52?
I didn’t even bid in the last yearling auction.
Dang it Napoleon, make yourself a dang quesadilla. jX

You can win 5 at most since you can only own 3 stewardbreds of the same age at once, so if you win 2 foals in one auction, in the next one you can only win 1.

[Burgundy Hill Farms]

I try bidding early on some really great horses...then, as my paltry bids get bypassed, I find the next level of horses to bid on and bid on them...until my paltry bids are topped.
Finally, when the auction close is near, I sort through the scraps that I can afford and pop in just in case something that looks iffy turns out to be
a freak.

[Jon Xett]

^^^^^^^^^^

This is how I feel most of the time during auctions.
Thanks for the camaraderie.

^^^^^^^^^^

jX

[Dan Kauffman]

So, I finally got my first Steward-bred in an auction ... and got to name him, to boot!

EDIT: He has a twin, but I got outbid for him.

[Amy Bahama]

I usually go by names...lame, I know.

[Erica Olson]

I love seeing the completed auction page and how many proud new owners have already named their purchases! I got Ecstatic Motion.