How to Read a Catalog Page

All catalog pages have certain structural similarities. The horses appear in the catalog and through the sales ring in Hip Number order, beginning with Hip No. 1. Each horse actually wears this number on one of its hips. To orient yourself to the page layout, glance from top to bottom. The majority of the information on each catalog page in the sale of yearlings, 2-year-olds, and horses still in training pertains to the dam's (or mother's) side of the family—1st dam, 2nd dam, 3rd dam, etc. The first dam is the (mother) of the horse being sold, the 2nd is the granddam (grandmother) and the 3rd is the next generation. This is called the female family.

Sample Catalog Page Click a heading to learn more.
Barn Assignment and Hip Assignment: This tells us that Hip No. 1 is housed in a stall in Barn 14. Back to Top
Color/Sex and Foaling Date: Hip No. 1 is a Bay Filly, who was born April 20, 1999. From this, we know she hasn't been named yet. Back to Top
Three-Cross Pedigree: The first three generations of the horse being sold appear in light-faced type. In the far left column, the name or the color and sex of the horse being sold appears. The second column contains the names Affirmed (above) and Tell Me Sumthing (below). Affirmed is the father or the sire of the filly being sold, while Tell Me Sumthing is the filly's mother or dam. The year 1983 in parentheses tells us the year Tell Me Sumthing was foaled. The third column lists four names—Exclusive Native and Won't Tell You, who are the sire and dam of Affirmed; and Summing and Tell Meno Lies, the sire and dam of Tell Me Sumthing. The next column tells us the father and mother of the each of the four horses in column three. Back to Top
The Sire Blurb: A sire blurb of seven lines follows the three-cross (3X) pedigree. It contains information about the sire of the horse being sold, or, in this case, Affirmed. His year of birth is given first with a synopsis of his race record, including honors he may have earned (Horse of the Year twice, Triple Crown winner), and then highlights of his career as a stallion. From his record, we can glean that he has sired 407 winners from 567 starters, including 72 stakes winners and eight champions. A stallion that is not siring stakes winners, which are winners of the better quality races, is considered a failure as a stallion. If the sire is a young stallion with no foals or only a few foals racing, the sire blurb concentrates on his race record. Back to Top
The Female Family: The section on the female family begins with a recapitulation of the record of the 1st dam, Tell Me Sumthing, whose sire is Summing. He is the broodmare sire. First, her race record is given: She won four times at ages 3 and 4 and earned $53,789. Then her produce record follows: She has had eight foals in addition to the one being sold, and four of them were winners at the time the catalog was published. Any updates will be announced when the filly enters the sales ring. Of her foals, three are broken out below her, each indented one time. They are Star of Zilzal, Star Carnival and Ayanuli, followed in parentheses by their sex (colt, filly or if they've been neutered, gelding) and the name of their sire. Star of Zilzal and Star Carnival are in bold-faced type, upper and lower-cased letters. This means they are stakes-placed since they finished second or third in at least one stakes race. Stakes winners and stakes-placed horses are listed before other foals almost always. The names of stakes winners will appear in bold-face and all upper-cased letters. Ayanuli is mentioned next because she is a current performer, her record tells us she has placed in a race at 3 this year. Under the 2nd dam, Tell Meno Lies, and after her race record, three horses are indented once—Green Forest, Green Paradise and Honest and True, with double lines between them. These lines tell us that these are sons and daughters of the 2nd dam. Because they are in upper-cased, bold-faced letters, we know they are stakes winners. Green Forest won five of 10 races in France where he was a champion. He won four races with the symbol G1 appearing after the race names. The most prestigious stakes races are categorized as G1, G2 or G3. From this, we know Green Forest competed successfully at the G1 level, the highest quality of races that exist. The symbol G1 stands for Group 1 in Europe and Grade 1 in the U.S. Green Paradise, listed next, won three races in France, including the Prix Perth-G3 (or Group 3). Honest and True is listed third, because her two victories in stakes races were not in graded events, though she did run third in the Fantasy Stakes-G1 and Kentucky Oaks-G1. The great majority of stakes races do not earn graded or group status. Beneath Honest and True and indented twice are the names of four of her offspring—Epitome, Farfurr, Tai True and Truly Do. The single lines linking Epitome to Farfurr and Farfurr to Tai True indicate a different generation from the horses with double lines joining them. It's an easy way to keep the generations straight. You'll notice Epitome's race record and produce record are in paragraph form to avoid confusion and so that we know Faltaat and Danjur are her foals. The last three lines tell us that the filly to be sold has been vaccinated against influenza, that she's been nominated to the Breeders' Cup races, and that she was foaled in Kentucky. Back to Top