THE SCORE Anyone involved with thoroughbreds will tell you that they provide a continuous learning curve and the first to admit that there is always something more to discover is Suman Hedge. “I am definitely not as overly opinionated as I used to be!” he laughed, “the horses are always here to make fools of us.” Which is the reasoning behind a change in approach to buying horses. In the past Suman spent considerable time researching a catalogue before heading out to the sales whilst now he just glances at the pages, preferring to have an open mind before seeing the animals in the flesh. “I had my biases against certain stallions and certain families and because of that I was not going to the sales with an open mind,” he said. “I was more likely to make sweeping observations whereas now I find myself to be more broadminded, looking at every horse as an individual with no preconceptions.” It is after inspection that Suman now spends the most time on catalogue research, seeing which horses he likes before studying the pedigrees and the statistics. A recent convert to I-pad catalogues, Suman admits that at first he preferred the hard copy. “The first couple of years using the iPad I thought ‘this is just not me’ but then I got used to it and now I see the advantages.” “In regards to keeping information on spreadsheets and keeping in contact with clients by email it is all a lot easier. Plus I just ran out of space for all the catalogues and I don’t keep any now - all of my notes are recorded and retained on the iPad so that I can go back later and see what my thoughts were.”
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KIRSTEN MANNING
Which is a great tool, Suman checking in years later to see what he didn’t like about a horse that exceeded expectations or what he did like about a disappointment; learning from each achievement and from each mistake. “I like to review my notes, to brush up on things and make the necessary adjustments. Making a mistake can make you feel a bit stupid but it is the nature of the game; at the sales we see the external but not the internal; a horse’s heart, its lung capacity, its brain, its will to win. There are so many unknowns but that’s the beauty of the sport!” Learning much during his time working with trainer John O’Shea, Suman uses a numerical system to rate the horses he inspects (every horse in the catalogue) with 5 being the average - “the majority of horses.” “If a horse is 4 or below it means we really didn’t like it, a 6 is buyable and every now and then there is a 7 or an 8, the real stand-outs in the catalogue.” “But we tend to get blown away in the ring with those horses as everyone likes them, they are the obvious ones. We have had more luck however securing those sort of horses at the weanling sales.” It is essential, Suman noted, to follow through on the careers of horses he purchases, black-booking each horse to take note of their perfomances. Sometimes there is great pride when things go well, other times disappointment when they do not but “that is the nature of the game.”
