June 15, 2016: Welcome Super Buddy!
Updates:
Our search for another quality horse was an exhaustive exercise requiring a combination of patience, luck, negotiating skills, intelligence gathering and fortitude. There are a plethora of venues in which to acquire a racehorse and each present a situational risk/reward quotient to be evaluated for any horse under consideration. Amongst the more common venues are claiming, auction sales or purchasing privately.
Royal Thoroughbreds is very excited to announce and welcome Super Buddy, a 2 year old colt by Super Saver. The road traveled to acquire this gray colt was an exciting adventure full of fits and starts, intense research, film and several near purchases before landing on this promising colt. Our search centered on older horses but we maintained an open mind in order to purchase the best possible horse for our program. Thus, we carefully examined value, upside potential, breeding and racing venues within our overall evaluation. As we were unable to acquire an older horse in a timely manner for Emerald Downs, our search and potential racing venues were expanded.
Before acquiring Super Buddy, we had previously agreed to purchase a well conditioned 4 year old gelding back in April, only to be surprisingly informed that he was no longer for sale. In another case, we penned a formal Agreement to purchase a regally-bred 4 year old colt; however, he failed our veterinary examination and voided the Agreement, We set out to claim another young and proven colt with stallion potential; however, he scratched on race day. Finally, we made a compelling offer for an improving 4 year old filly but her owners were unwilling to sell.
It so happens that Super Buddy was entered in the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2 Year Old in Training Sale in Maryland on May 23-24; however, live bids for the colt fell short of his reserve price, thus making him available following the sale. Every Sale brings different buyers and personalities and some horses will not meet its reserve based on the fickleness of the buyers. In Auction terms, this is called RNA (Reserve Not Attained) and 25 to 35% of all sales horses will end up RNA.
Royal Victory was initially informed of Super Buddy by a well-respected bloodstock agent whom we have previous experience. Following our meticulous examination, including his 1/8 mile trial under tack, visual conformation inspection, pedigree evaluation, veterinary examination and expert opinion, we made a private offer for the horse. Super Buddy is by Super Saver, winner of the 2010 Kentucky Derby and amongst the leading sires with just three racing crops. His current stud fee was raised to $65,000 this year based on his previous success. Super Buddy’s first Dam, Kosmo’s Buddy (by Outlfanker) and is a Stakes winning mare on turf.
Super Buddy is now a resident of Belmont Park in New York and will train and eventually race under the watchful care of Jimmy Toner at Belmont and/or Saratoga. We chose to keep him in New York as he was already in Maryland. The East coast offers more variety of turf course and more attractive purses and enables us to leverage our East Coast connections. He is eligible to race in a few restricted Maryland-bred races later in the year; just a five hour trip from his stable in Belmont. You can read more about Super Buddy on the Horses Page.