How to read a sales catalogue
However strong or weak the pedigree of each horse, his or her lineage will be summed up in one page of the catalogue. Being conversant with the format is, therefore, important.
Each page contains as much information as possible. The bulk of this is a condensed version of the horse's pedigree, but it also contains details of the horse's sex, colour and birth date, as well as his vendor and where he will be stabled on the sales complex, to assist in pre-sale inspection.
In the case of breeze-up sales, the colour of the cap that will be worn by the jockey during the 'breeze' will also be displayed.
The usual format for displaying the pedigree is that the horse's first three generations are shown in the style of a family tree. Underneath this are listed the credentials of the horse's first three dams (ie his/her mother, his/her mother's mother, and his/her mother's mother's mother) with as much supporting information as possible as to how they have fared on the racecourse and at stud. Information on the top half of each horse's pedigree is not generally provided as the credentials of stallions tend to be much better known than broodmares, but each catalogue also contains a glossary of the achievements, as racehorse and sire, of each stallion represented.
To make each page easy to read, the usual convention is that winners are highlighted in capital letters, while 'Stakes' performers (ie horses who have shown form in better class races, which in Europe means Group or Listed races) are printed in bold type: lower case bold for Stakes-placed horses, upper case bold for Stakes winners. The bold type is referred to within the racing industry as 'black type'.
