Carrie Brogden of highly successful Machmer Hall fame is a self-described horse addict and she is not shy when it comes to admitting it.Still, the straight shooter with the commercial breeding business outside of Paris, Kentucky, every fall has to make some decisions when it comes to reducing the farm's stock. It is just the way it goes as October rolls around.“I am the ultimate horse sale junkie, just ask my husband Craig, who would be thrilled if we had 30 elite mares on a 250-acre farm,” said Brogden. “But we can't survive like that. I am a horse trader at heart, and in order to buy, you have to sell.”The Brogdens are once again selling this fall, which is an annual event where they take a select group who already in-foal and send them to the marketplace. Brogden used to use Facebook for her open mares, then send the pregnant ones through a brick and mortar sale. Everything has changed with the advent of Fasig-Tipton's Digital platform, which opened bidding on Thursday, Oct. 2 and will close the auction in stages by Wednesday, Oct. 8.“With the brick and mortar sales everything costs so much and they have to be sales prepped,” Brogden said. “They have to be stressed when they ship to the sale and back. With these less expensive mares the digital sales make sense.“I love the idea of a pregnant mare going from her herd group to her new herd group,” she said. “Seeing a horse on a video, the mares can be appraised by their page. If they are carrying their ninth foal, even if she's a half to American Pharoah or Justify, it's about her production or lack thereof, and that makes it easier to buy and sell.”The Brogdens have 116 mares at Machmer and roughly 16 runners who are on the track. For the Fasig-Tipton Digital sale this time around they are offering 11 mares who are all pregnant except for one–Lady Bellamy (Maclean's Music) (Hip 384).“She [Lady Bellamy] foaled late and was not in-foal on our June cover, but there's nothing wrong with her,” Brogden said. “She throws big, strong foals. Anyone can look at her sales history. So it's just one of those things where she's the only open horse we have.”According to Brogden, Machmer likes to support the stallions that they own shares in, so anytime the opportunity arises to sell a mare who is in-foal to say Upstart, Tacitus or Seize the Grey, then they will make the move.“Bashful [Hip 231] by Orb is in-foal to Seize the Grey and we bought her privately off of Fox Hill Farm,” she said. “She doesn't owe us a penny since we've already sold a Nyquist out of her for $380,000 last year.”Picking the next great commercially viable stallion is a challenge though, but Brogden says she is pretty interested in Aloha West and how everything will turn out for him.“We have a share in Aloha West,” she said. “I should've listened when they told me to take a share in Oscar Performance like 15 times. That's the way it goes.”Brogden also does not mince words when she says how tough it can be to sell pregnant mares. It continues to be a roll of the dice for her and those who take them home.Singsong (Unbridled's Song)–entered as hip 284–is a case in point.“She is in-foal to Tiz the Law and carrying a full-sibling to the yearling colt that we just sold to Marette Farrell's client for $130,000 in September,” said Brodgen. “If that horse becomes a graded stakes winner, then did we lose? The way I look at it is that I am happy for the people that buy our mares and sell them. They will come back.”Now that Machmer Hall is upping its racing game more and more, Carrie Brogden says trading takes on an even more prominent role.“It's part of this terrible addiction that I personally have,” she said. “I can completely admit to it now that we're 25 years in. Luckily, it's been a very successful operation and these Fasig-Tipton digital sales make it incredibly easy when it's time for a reduction like this one.”Click here for the October digital sale catalogue.The post Brogden’s Machmer Hall Offers Annual Mare Reduction During Fasig-Tipton Digital Sale appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.