Pedigree Query

I know this is a dumb question, but here goes anyway.

When I pick up my DRF for general interest I usually start by scanning horses entered by looking at the sire, stud fee, auction price if any, breeder, current owner and trainer, seeing if anything jumps out. Obviously this is an area of fireworks at a Saratoga MSW with 6 figure auction buys going head to head. But something I think I've noticed is that when you look at the vast majority of filler races on cards all over the country, you see so many that are owned by what appear to be different entities than the breeder and that weren't bought at auction. ie, they don't appear (at least to me) to be homebreds or auction buys.
My question: Is there really that much private purchasing going on, or are most of these horses really homebreds and the owners and breeders are one and the same with partnerships and different entity names obscuring the relationships to the casual viewer?
By just looking at the anecdotal numbers it looks like there's this vast hidden private purchase market... Which is kind of cool, because it would reinforce how much of an "it's who you know" industry this really is....Am I out to lunch??? Each case is different I know... so this is just a general observation.

As an example there are lots of Stronach breds around, that are owned by different people and no auction #'s listed. Either they were claimed way back when and it just isn't captured in the form, or somehow the horse changed hands privately... Are there that many backstretch "I want to unload this horse" private deals happening. (I personally don't see that many private deals going on, but then maybe I'm not deep inside enough)

KH

Yes and no. Breeders very often make up partnerships for the horse (the breeder puts up the horse and others put up the money); but yes there are an awful lot of backside deals. Trainers have bought babies out of my field. There are backside deals going on all the time for both horses on their way up, and on their way down.

The really big name stables will get out from under anything that doesn't show promise; they have sheer numbers on their side in terms of available stock. For big breeders, two year olds are like sharks' teeth. If one drops out, there is immediately another to take its place, and the supply is endless.

If you are talking about older horses(3 and up) and these are what you are calling "filler" races-probably claiming or allowance. Then most likely they were claimed sometime.
There are private purchases of horses but I would say this would be a smaller percantage then horses that were bought at a sale or bred.

my gelding was claimed 15 times in his career, a few times by the same others, or people who were once part of the partnership that owned him. He never stepped hoof in a sales ring.. He was just a popular money making claim.