The trip to Canada had finally come to an end. During the flight to Lexington, Kentucky, where the auction was being held, I studied the online auction catalog I had just downloaded with Matoba.
Whether for the club or personally, the plan this time was to buy yearlings rather than broodmares.
That saved us quite a bit of effort during the initial screening process.
Even so, without having seen conformation photos or having access to X-rays and endoscopic throat information, all we could do was make the bare minimum evaluation based on the pedigree information in the auction catalog.
"How about this Uncle Mo offspring? That distant cross with Danzig seems like it could work well."
"That may be true... but this is Uncle Mo's final crop, and the quality of his offspring has already declined noticeably over the past few years."
"A Justice offspring..."
"Hmm... It looks like this one failed to sell at the Keeneland November Sale. There might be something about its conformation that raises concerns."
"A Military Mule offspring, huh—but the dam line is a bit..."
Even after the plane crossed national and state borders and reached our destination of Lexington, I still had not found anything particularly noteworthy in the pedigrees before me.
But—
Back in Japan, the Keeneland November Sale was, after all, something akin to the Shadai line or the Hokkaido Horse Sale.
As for the subsequent Winter Mixed Sale, while it could not be considered exactly equivalent, its positioning did bear some resemblance to the Summer Sale, and even the later September Sale and October Sale.
Keeping expectations low—that was the mindset I had brought with me on this trip.
As the plane taxied down the runway, I caught sight of snowflakes drifting past the window from the corner of my eye.