Mt. Brilliant consigning again

There was plenty to get excited about when Mt. Brilliant Farm returned with its own consignment at this year’s Keeneland September yearling sale.

It had been four years since the easy conversation of owner Greg Goodman had been heard as a seller in the Keeneland barns. In the meantime, his breeding program had added 2016 Belmont Stakes winner Creator to its honor roll, so he had plenty to talk about.

Then there were the horses under his shed row. He had the auction’s only two Galileo yearlings in Book 2, followed by a half-sister to Creator in Book 3.

Finally, and most importantly for some, the return of Mt. Brilliant Farm to the Keeneland September sale meant the return of the ice cream machine under the cream-andblue awnings of Barn 15. Most consignments offer some kind of snack for waiting patrons, but the vanilla treat dispenser was one that made a particular impression with buyers.

“That would be the first thing people would say,” Goodman said. “We’ve sold good horses, a lot of graded stakes winners and stakes winners over the years, but the first thing people said to me was, ‘Are you bringing the ice cream machine?’”

While the ice cream machine is a fun conversation starter, Goodman was the first to point out that the horses have to stand out on their own accord to pass muster on the sale grounds, and he has plenty of experience helping his stock do just that.

Goodman and wife Becky purchased Mt. Brilliant Farm in 1995 and consigned their own horses bred on the Lexington, Ky., property for 15 years before handing the responsibilities to consignors Lane’s End and Gainesway in 2013.

“When we stopped doing it, I felt like there was an advantage to selling with the bigger consignors,” Goodman said. “We only really sell at [Keeneland September], we sell our own horses, and I always felt like the consignors know the buyers, they know the vets, and we have difficulty with that … There are things that since we’re not at every sale that we don’t know.”

During the farm’s period away from consigning, Goodman would divide his stock between Lane’s End and Gainesway through a big-board-style draft, hosted in the early summer before yearling season. With the first pick of the 2014 draft, Gainesway chose the Tapit colt Creator, who sold for $440,000 at that year’s Keeneland September sale before becoming a multiple Grade 1 winner.

Goodman was already floating the idea of getting back in the consignment game when Creator was at the height of his powers. Goodman’s son Hutton had become more involved with the farm’s operations, and works as Mt. Brilliant’s racing manager. Perhaps most of all, Goodman just missed being out there.

“My son came and started working with us on the farm, so I thought it would be good for him to get back into it,” Goodman said. “I love selling our own horses. I like being out here. It’s exciting to put a horse through the ring, so we just decided to start doing it ourselves.

“You get the whole feel of it when you do it yourself. When other people are selling your horses, you kind of sit at your office and hear what happens instead of being part of it, and we just like being part of it.”

Through the halfway point of the Keeneland September sale, Mt. Brilliant has sold seven of the 11 horses it offered for a total of $1,465,000.

Leading the way for the slate of yearlings was a Distorted Humor colt who sold to Oliver St. Lawrence as agent to owner Fawzi Nass for $450,000. The colt, from the family of Kentucky Oaks winner Secret Status and Chilean champion Maria Candela, will be sent to England to begin his racing career.

“We really liked him,” Goodman said. “We had a lot of people on him, so we just put a couple-hundred-thousand-dollar reserve on him and let them take him the rest of the way. Coming in here, we thought he would bring $300,000 or $400,000, but to get $450,000 was really good for this time of year.”