After graduation, I became the administrative assistant to the general manager/executive vice-president of the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association. My duties included legislative, statistical and pedigree research, various duties with CTBA Sales, and special projects, including the organization of CTBA annual meetings, CTBA Sales functions, symposiums, regional membership meetings, and the acquisition and implementation of a computer system. In January, 1981, I began working as a bloodstock agent for California Thoroughbred Consultants, the largest auction-sale consignor in California. I was actively involved with private and auction sales (both buying and selling), pinhooking yearlings, appraisals (including bank appraisals for clients, including Allen Paulson), seasons and share work, and insurance. At one point, I was managing the insurance on horses valued at over $12 million. During the four years that I spent with California Thoroughbred Consultants, we sold more than 1,000 horses at public auction. In 1986, Andy Havens and I formed Berkey-Havens Bloodstock Services, Inc. Over the next three years, Berkey-Havens sold more than 700 horses at public auction, including the prestigious Three Rings Ranch and Los Cerritos dispersals. The transition from Berkey-Havens to Berkey Bloodstock Services, Inc., occurred in October, 1988. Since that time I have purchased or sold more than 800 horses privately or at public auction, including the $250,000 sale-topper at the 1990 Del Mar select yearling sale. In 1993, I began selling horses at Kentucky auctions, the first California agent to do so on a regular basis. In 2011 I began consigning horses to the Kentucky sales in partnership with Columbiana Farm. Since then we have sold several graded stakes horses and one session topper (Hot Springs who sold for $750,000 and is now a stakes winner). In addition to auction-sale work, I was the American representative for Silky Green, Inc., a Japanese bloodstock company that annually ranked as one of the leading buyers at public auction in the U.S. In addition to working with Silky Green at auctions, I assisted them in planning the breedings for their American mares. I continue to handle insurance for my clients; purchase and sell stallion seasons and shares; and provide appraisals for lawsuits, partnership dissolutions an estate settlements. I am proud of my accomplishments over the years but am most gratified by the continued support of my clients most of which have been with me for over 20 years.
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