B. Wayne Hughes, a major buyer of yearlings and 2-year-olds at public auction, is looking to add more young horses to his racing stable even though he owns a broodmare band. This year, the owner of Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky said he is sending all the "40 or so" yearlings of 2007 he has bred to various yearling auctions.
Hughes has sold yearlings before, but he didn't offer all of them in a single crop at public auction in the past.
"Our plan right now is to do this every year," said Hughes, who was interviewed Saturday while looking at horses at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July select yearling auction.. "There are a couple of reasons why. One, we breed to a lot of our own stallions, and we would like to spread their yearlings around a little bit in the market to promote them. The other is we felt that if we were going to be selling, we should offer everything to the public and let them choose. It's more difficult to sell anything unless you're willing to sell everything."