The Fort Worth Stockyards Longhorn Auction kicked off Friday night with a world record holding steer fetching a record price.
"He was ready this morning. He woke up ready," Joe Sedlacek said about his 10-year old steer named Bluegrass. "We eat, breathe, die longhorns; so this is what we're all about."
"Bluegrass" was lot 1 in the auction, and fetched the highest price at $48,000.
"You're buying yard art. You're buying a conversation piece," Sedlacek said about his beloved steer. "Bluegrass is going to leave his mark in history here today."
"This is how Fort Worth started," said auction producer Lorinda Valentine. "This is what made it. Why it became 'Cowtown.' Why it was the place cowboys wanted to be."
Valentine and her husband produced the last auction in 1993.
"It's emotional," she said of the longhorns' homecoming more than 20 years in the making.
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"It'll be the premier longhorn auction of the year, the decade," said Valentine's business partner, Bill Hudson. "You'll have billionaires in the room and you'll have people barely making it. You'll have cowboys who love longhorns just as much as the richest guys who love longhorns, sitting next to each other, making friends."
The historic and nostalgic venue is sparking interest in the auction. Many of the longhorns that will be sold are considered "elite."
"There's only 14 90-inch cows in the world," Hudson said, talking about the length of the longhorns' horns. "Four of them are going to sell (here) this weekend."
One of those elite cows "Bluegrass."
"You're not going to find another Bluegrass. He's definitely one-of-a-kind," said owner Joe Sedlacek. "He's 121-and-one-sixteenth (inches), tip-to-tip."
That means Bluegrass' horns span more than 10 feet, enough to be a 3-time world record holder.
Now "Bluegrass" is heading for a new home. "To mark his place in history he needs this," Sedlacek said. "He's going on to bigger and better things."
The Fort Worth Stockyards Longhorn Auction continues Saturday morning.
