Just wondering what tips are out there for buying at the end-of-season 2yo auction?

For SO4, I just used to buy everything over £400k and you would pretty much be guaranteed a decent horse each time. So far in SO5, I have found the quality of auction horses a lot more hit and miss and with the prices being substantially higher, its not quite as easy to buy them all.

Nope, a lot more unpredictable than SO4, probably best to bide your time and breed your own superstars in my experience.

Well I just kinda started the game as well but I agree with GS63, it's much better to breed your own horses, I have my first homebred 2 year old who already is a 4 time group 1 winner from 5 starts. The other 2 year olds (ones that I bought) were never able to do that.

However I have a rule for myself that if the horse goes for more than $800k (meant to be pounds sign but my keyboard doesn't allow me to work it for some reason) than I am buying it if I like it, i.e. distance I breed and stuff like that There is no set rule, just experiment and make up your own

Hope I could help!

The other option is to look out for horses that have won G1's in the weekly auctions, they sometimes do pop up, and have more certainty with their performance and in their blood lines too.

Thanks got feedback.

At what point do you know you've got a duff horse?

I used to sell without racing if their max potential was less than around 70%. But then I've read horses continue to improve until 4-5yo.

When it's form looks like an 0800 telephone number.

you have to buy 2yos when you are starting out
i would also recommend going to the weekly aution you get an odd group winner there
and if you hit lucky you could find a superstar

but after your breeding op kicks in you never need to buy a horse again

i don't even breed with gamebreds anymore as they are usually sub standard compared to homebreds