By Barry Weisbord
In 45 years, I've seen a lot of exhilarating, moving things in the horse business, but I've never seen anything like Saturday night.
Mark “Snake” Thompson was barely an acquaintance of mine, but the promotion in the TDN for the benefit to raise money for his medical expenses piqued my interest. The fact that some prominent, local consignors were holding the event made it, in my mind, worth checking out. The atmosphere that was created on short notice and with no budget was beyond remarkable. There was barely room to walk into the middle section of McCarthy's. The auction had started when I arrived, and the energy and noise made it hard to know what was being auctioned off, blocking out the melodious notes of Terence Collier, but that didn't deter the crowd from the most spirited bidding imaginable.
In a little over an hour, the Lexington sales community, propelled by its Irish members, embraced the cause and raised over $140,000 for one of their special citizens.
It is moments like these that remind you why we are privileged to work in this special industry. I certainly felt privileged to be there Saturday night.
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