"my God, Are These People Spending Real Money?"

Before the final session of last week's sale, the one that included hip No. 308, it was reported to Keeneland President J.E. (Ted) Bassett III that the Maktoum party already had their bags in the lobby of their hotel and seemed to be ready to make an early exit. "Our hearts kind of sank," said Bassett, who remembered how abruptly the market had dropped two years ago when the Arabs pulled out before the final session. However, to the relief of both Bassett and Johnson, the Maktoum group was still around when it finally came time for No. 308 to be sold. It took all of 45 seconds for the bidding, which began at $1 million, to reach $4.3 million and break the record. That caused a ripple of excitement among the jaded millionaires in the pavilion, and when the price soared past $5 million a few seconds later and didn't stop, there was a quaver in the voice of substitute auctioneer Scott Caldwell that reflected the building tension. Now only Sangster and Sheik Mohammed remained in the bidding. As the bidding went past $6 million, then $7 million, even Johnson became slack-jawed. He said, "I thought, 'My God, are these people spending real money?' It was amazing."

Up and up the numbers went, past $8 million and on toward $9 million. "I don't know if I can say that," said Caldwell when it came time to ask for the $9 million bid. After the bid, Caldwell's father, regular auctioneer Tom Caldwell, broke the tension by taking the microphone, looking at Bassett and saying of the electronic toteboard, "Ted, would you like to come up and cut out another digit?" The toteboard only goes to $9,999,999 and so it didn't have enough digits when Sangster made a bid of $10 million. In any case, this time Sheik Mohammed wasn't going to be outbid by his nemesis. He quickly upped the ante to $10.2 million, and after Sangster consulted with his advisers, it was Sangster who dropped out. As Sheik Mohammed's bloodstock agent, Col. Richard Warden, was nervously signing the sales slip—"You'll find 10 cents extra a gallon on your petrol for this," he said—the sheik watched the colt being led from the pavilion and, without pausing for a comment to the press, strode out through the cheering audience to where a limousine was waiting to take him to the nearby airport and his private 727.

Back in the pavilion, Sangster said, "We had the colt pegged for $5.8 million. That's what we talked about coming over." Then why go to $10 million? "Because we wanted him," said Sangster, who added that the record sale would be "good for the industry." No one knew for sure why Sheik Mohammed went so high. One breeder suggested that the Arabs' success with high-priced yearlings like Shareef Dancer may have convinced them they may now safely pay astronomical sums for young horses without looking foolish.

Others weren't so certain. In an interview with the Herald-Leader, manager John Williams of Spendthrift Farm said, "There should be room for realistic return on the investment. The only way there could be a return is if this horse were to win the American Triple Crown or the Arc de Triomphe." But if No. 308 does do that, or follows in the hoofsteps of The Minstrel or Shareef Dancer, then he might be syndicated for more than twice what he cost. Therein lies the gamble that is irresistible for the wealthy who play the horse market as others play the stock market.

For the 301 yearlings sold, Keeneland averaged a resounding $501,495, a 48% increase over the record of $337,734 set last year. Even eliminating the 83 yearlings bought by various Arabs, Sangster and Niarchos for a total of $77,635,000, the average still was $336,307, thanks in part to vigorous spending by Americans. Some Texans known as the Oak Cliff Breeders, Inc. spent $2.6 million for a Mr. Prospector colt, setting a Keeneland record for U.S. citizens. And Allen Paulson of Savannah, who runs a company that manufactures jets, spent $2.5 million for a Northern Dancer filly, tying the amount that the sheik had shelled out for another Northern Dancer filly.

After the $10.2 million sale, Johnson returned to his barn to watch Sheik Mohammed's men load No. 308 into a truck and whisk him off. The other colt in the Crescent Farm consignment had sold for a measly $100,000. "Still gives me a heck of an average, though, doesn't it?" Johnson said. As a coal man, he was pleased at taking so much Arab oil money, "just so long as people don't blame me if the price of oil goes up."

And what of the price of blue-blood yearlings? Can it keep going up? Almost before the ink was dry on the $10.2 million sales slip, some insiders were predicting that the record would last only until next year, when more Arabs would be coming to Kentucky to play the game that has been dominated by Sangster and Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid.

Johnson disagreed. "I don't mean to be bragging," he said, "but I think this record will sit there a while. I think we've given 'em something to shoot at for a long time."