Where's Bruno

The Keeneland Sale has started, and, naturally, I’ve gotten a few calls and inquiries about my whereabouts.

People seem genuinely concerned.

“Are you at Keeneland?”

No.

I am at my palatial estate along the border of Lexington and Frankfort, enjoying the kind of lifestyle that can only be achieved by consistently avoiding Book 1, Book 2, Book 3 and Book 4. Seriously Y'all.

But no, I am not at Keeneland, yet.

And I try to explain this to people every year: I am not a Book 1, 2, 3, or 4 kind of bloodstock agent.

Bloodstock agent is a funny word, I buy for myself and my partners, that's it. I don't buy horses for other people. I am an end user, literally.

Hell, I’m A last book kind of guy end user.

Nah, not procrastination, its about dollars and sense.

I fancy myself the Dollar General of Bloodstock Agents.

I like doing something with nothing. We have had experience with that, we made Racingwithbruno from nothing.

There is a certain satisfaction in finding a diamond in the rough. Taking something everybody else looked at and said, “Nah,” and figuring out a way to make it work.

Now, admittedly, it does appear to be somewhat easier to turn something into nothing than it is to turn nothing into something. We have been there and done that, to be frank.

I can't do it alone, I have a good vet, his nickname is that of a James Bond villain "Dr No". I am an expert on being told No. From my vet and from my partners.

I was told 'NO' by two partners in 2016, when I purchased Ms Locust Point as a yearling for $17K, they bellowed "I don't want cheap horses", later when she became a $1.8 million dollar horse there were crickets, not a sound was uttered.

Funny, really, when I am ridiculed for buying a horse in a thrifty manner, the horse has always become something, the list is Bridget Maloney, Bo Cruz, MsLocust Point, a couple of $10K weanlings or yearlings with turned into six figures yearling or 2yo purchases. We don't buy more than 2 or 3 a year, if that, in 2022 bought 6, and we got Bo Cruz, winner of the Commonwealth at Keeneland, Grade 3, and a six figure yearling pinhook for $25K original purchase. None since 2022 at auction, as we moved to our own breeding program, I have since learned to not listen to the noise, to follow our own beat of a snare. I am confident in what I know and what I can find.

See the Mission City Girl yearling we bought in the Fasig Tipton Digital sale in July.

But hey, that’s just how the world works.

And I got few bargains I am looking at.

Especially around here.

Million-dollar horses grow on trees in Kentucky and you know some people live for it, I can't climb that tree.

You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting somebody who bought a seven-figure yearling 'round here when you get to Keeneland. And every year, right around this time, you can see the fireworks at Keeneland from where i live and a few live cats.

And that's really the funny thing about the horse business.

We spend millions trying to buy something that we hope will become extraordinary.

Meanwhile, some of us are out here trying to take something nobody wants, spend considerably less money on it, and make it into something useful like wonder bread.

The common denominator for expensive horses is that catalog page. Its like crack cocaine for some. They can't do anything without the catalog page looking like a christmas tree with all the trimmings.

We ain't that. Catalog page is the third thing, not the first thing, nor second thing, on the list and purely made for sanitational read.

That's where I live and proudly we have beaten quite a few million dollar babies in the last 5 years with our Dollar General purchases

That's my jam, got my clients, got my people, who think like me, making something out of nothin, yet we have about a 17 to 19 win % over the past decade. That's having the right recipe and beating the big boys is definitely up there.

Currently we have Banksy's, earned over $200K as our homebred is pointing for Stakes later this fall, but for the sales I may be a later book dude.

God bless those who are. 

But every now and then, when you find that diamond in the rough without having to break the piggy bank, there is no better feeling in the world.

I'll be out there looking at horses but I won't get serious for a week or so.

And, I ain't ready to start swinging dead cats, yet, I love cats......