A horse offered at a serious bloodstock auction, whether at Tattersalls in Newmarket, Arqana in Deauville, Keeneland in Kentucky, or Magic Millions in Australia, is catalogued with a thoroughness that few other categories of asset receive. The catalogue is, in its way, a perfect specimen of an asset register: complete, public, durable, and indexed.

Each lot description includes the horse's name, sex, age, sire, dam, dam's sire, breeder, and consignor. The pedigree is given for several generations; the foal's date of birth is given precisely; the breeder's farm is identified; the consignor's name appears in the entry; where the horse has raced or is from a racing family, the relevant prize-money record is included.

The buyer is identified, in most cases, in the published results. The auction houses publish their results promptly, with buyer names, prices, and the lot numbers. The named buyer may be the principal, a syndicate, a bloodstock agent acting for a principal, or a trainer's name on behalf of an undisclosed client. Each of these has its own implications for who is identifiable.

The catalogue persists. Printed copies are held by the auction house, by every serious participant in the trade, and by the libraries of the racing authorities. The digital versions are searchable indefinitely. A horse offered for sale in 2003 carries its 2003 catalogue entry, with its breeder and consignor, into every subsequent reference to it in 2026 and beyond.

The work in this category is largely strategic. The catalogue cannot be unwritten; the published results cannot be retracted. What can be considered is the choice of buyer of record, the structure of any partnership, and the framing of subsequent commentary, so that the assembled record is consistent with the principal's preferences rather than left entirely to the conventions of the trade.