Some years ago, I spent the night as a guest of Dan Downs in Nelson Bunker Hunt’s former Lexington, KY home. But I didn’t get much sleep because my room was lined with shelf after shelf of sale catalogs peppered with Hunt’s hand-written observations on various consignments. I browsed all night.

Sale catalogs quickly become outdated, but let them age a bit and they offer an interesting perspective on the breeding industry. The catalog for C.E. Boyd’s King Glo Dispersal, held at his ranch in Sweetwater, TX, on July 14, 1964, is filled with sons and daughters of Quarter Horse foundation sires and dams, as well as pedigrees with names such as Mare by Dogie Beasley. There’s even a photo of a fresh faced Buster Welch cutting a buffalo aboard 1962 National Cutting Horse Association Futurity champion Money’s Glo.

But the granddaddy of all horse sale catalogs had to be the 440 Ranch First Annual Sale Catalogof 1982. As it turned out, it was the first and last 440 Ranch sale, but the 3-pound catalog was a dandy. Hardbound with a metallic gold embossed cover, 750 heavy velum-like pages, and measuring  9 x 5.75 inches, it looked more like the a special edition of the Bible than an auction catalog. Scott Taylor, who helped see the catalog through production, said that the cost of printing averaged $20 per catalog. Today, if you can find one on e-Bay, prices start at $250.

Each of the 350 racebred consignments merited two pages. A three generation pedigree with performance and produce records, sire statistics and produce of dams, filled the right-hand page, while the corresponding left-hand page contained a photo (sometimes two or three photos) of the horse iteself, one of its offspring, or its sire or dam.

At least half of the more than 400 photos are in color. No other volume exists with such a rich gallery of Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds, including Jet Deck, Rocket Bar, Three Oh’s, Jackstraw, Croton Oil, Nasrullah, Johnny Dial, War Relic, Triple Chick, Easy Six, Leo, Three Bars, to name just a few.

More than half of the 440 Ranch sale horses (165 ) were consigned by 440 Ranch, although other noted breeders were included, a few of whom are still on the race scene, today. Located about 45 miles north of Dallas, in Aubrey, TX, 440 Ranch was home to five stallions, all of which owner Gail Cooper was attempting to syndicate, at the time of the sale. Two years after the sale, however, Cooper was involved in three bankruptcies related to 440 Ranch and the horses were dispersed.