Feast & Famine

TATTERSALLS FEBRUARY SALE

There were plenty of notable events during the sales year but they came after a low-key start when Tattersalls’ first sale of 2024, the February Sale, showed a slight increase in average and median but from a significantly smaller catalogue (with 273 lots offered, compared to the 356 of 12 months previously) and a reduced clearance rate (83% to 73%). Overall, this saw the aggregate dropping from 4,414,800 guineas to 2,863,000 guineas. the principal inference was that there was less money around.

TATTERSALLS CALDWELL DISPERSAL

Tattersalls Ireland held a notable one-off boutique sale in the first week of February to disperse the Caldwell Construction string of Andy and Gemma Brown. With some top-class jumpers included, trade was frenzied, the 29 lots fetching an aggregate of €5,290,000. Four horses each fetched in excess of half a million euros. The top price was Caldwell Potter at €740,000, bought by Highflyer Bloodstock for a syndicate of established clients of Paul Nicholls’ stable.

BREEZE-UP SALES

Tattersalls found that the results of its two major breeze-up sales in the spring followed the trend set by its February Sale, with less money changing hands. Turnover dropped from 15,357,500 to 14,585,500 guineas at the Craven Sale and from 5,942,500 to 4,943,500 guineas at the Guineas Sale. While the average increased at the former, this was helped by a reduction in both the size of the catalogue (180 lots, down from 202 in 2023) and the clearance rate (76% to 72%).

Also helping the average was a continuation of the ‘feast or famine’ feel which has become the norm at sales nowadays, largely thanks to Sheikh Mohammed, who bought the top three lots for a total of 2,600,000 guineas. Topping the bill was a colt that gave bidders the last chance to try to buy an untried son of Galileo (not that one can call a breeze-up horse untried). Consigned by Glending Stables, this colt, who had been picked up for 125,000 guineas at Tattersalls’ December Yearling Sale less than five months previously, fetched a million. Now named Royal Officer, he is still a maiden but has lost his testicles and gained a BHA rating (76).

The price which Sheikh Mohammed paid for Royal Officer was dwarfed the following month at Arqana, where he gave €2,300,000 for a son of Justify, sold by Norman Williamson’s Oak Tree Farm (which had previously supplied Native Trail, Godolphin’s champion two-year-old of 2021, bought for 210,000 guineas at the Craven Breeze-Up Sale). Previously picked up for $150,000 as a yearling in Keeneland, this colt, given the name Ruling Court, started his career well enough with an impressive victory at Sandown in July before finishing third behind The Lion In Winter as favourite in the Acomb.

SUMMER SALES

Boutique sales are more a feature of the NH world but they do appear on the flat scene too. The Goffs London Sale on the eve of Royal Ascot is a standout and this year it contained a particularly memorable moment when Sparkling Plenty was offered for sale having won the Prix de Diane the previous day! Initially she appeared to have been bought back for £8,100,000 but 50% of her was sold subsequently to Al Shaqab for £5,000,000. Truly remarkable stuff – and emphatic confirmation that her owner/breeder Jean-Pierre-Joseph Dubois was very wise not to let her go when the bidding for her reached €600,000 at Arqana’s Deauville August yearling sale in 2022. The next major sale in the calendar is one of the longest established: Tattersalls’ July Sale. As it contains a cross-section of pretty much every kind of horse, this tends to be a useful barometer. This year trade was unequivocally down. This added to the impression that, notwithstanding that business in the top tiers is extremely strong, at the lower levels there is less money around than there used to be. The aggregate made this clear: 13,904,200 guineas, down from 16,986,000 guineas 12 months previously.

YEARLING SALES

The yearling sales’ season kicked off with Arqana’s principal sale in the third week of August in Deauville followed by Goffs UK’s Premier Sale at Doncaster. Thereafter both purchasers and consignors hardly had time to draw breath until the middle of October.

The trade in yearlings at present can be summed up simply: a significant downturn has been masked by demand for the most obvious lots.

In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, Radio Rentals tycoon David Robinson was the Sheikh Mohammed of his day. One of his better horses was Breeders Dream, a son of Tudor Melody for whom he paid 30,000 guineas as a yearling in 1969. Breeders Dream was a good horse but is best remembered for his name, given to him by a sardonic Robinson to describe the situation when a yearling grabbed not only his attention but also that of whoever happens to be the other most significant buyer of the time.

In 2024, there were quite a few yearlings for whom the name would fit perfectly, thanks to the clashes of the two current titans of the buyers’ brigade, Sheikh Mohammed and Kia Joorabchian. Overall, trade in yearlings was patchy at best and the situation will not improve until the overproduction issue is seriously addressed. However, Sheikh Mohammed and Joorabchian attacked the top tier of yearlings with such determination that the figures went through the roof, particularly in Book One of Tattersalls October Sale. It is very debatable whether trickle-down economics ever really applies in the real world but in the October Sale they did to some extent. Figures for Book Two were significantly up on 2023, thanks to so many would-be major players having found themselves unable to buy in Book One. Book Three started off fairly solid before tailing off, with nothing whatsoever left to trickle down to Book Four, in which trade was dire.

Sheikh Mohammed’s desire for success seems insatiable even after all these years, reminding us how massively in his debt so many consignors are. It is remarkable that a man who owns such a colossal broodmare band should still be buying yearlings and breeze-up horses on this scale. Joorabchian, a relative newcomer, clearly shares Sheikh Mohammed’s ambition. Having digested the evidence of Europe’s biggest races of 2024, the gist of which is that the big races are dominated by owner-bred horses, the boss of Amo Racing concluded that there are only two ways to become a serious competitor. One - building up a broodmare band to rival those of the likes of Coolmore, Godolphin, Juddmonte, the Aga Khan Studs, Shadwell - takes decades. The quicker option is to buy a significant proportion of the best-credentialled yearlings that are put on the market.

The convergence of Sheikh Mohammed and Kia Joorabchian was thus a dream come true for several breeders. Their most notable battleground was Book One of Tattersalls October Sale, after the two had both been busy at the Orby the previous week where Sheikh Mohammed spent €5,270,000 for seven lots at Goffs Orby Sale Book One including the headline €2m for a son of Frankel from Denis Brosnan’s Croom House Stud. Between the big two, they bought the top eight lots at Tatts’ October Sale, four each. Amo picked up the two top lots (a Frankel filly for 4,400,000 guineas and a Wootton Bassett colt for 4,300,000 guineas). Book One’s turnover (including private sales) of 129,648,000 guineas was over 32 million guineas up on the 2023 figure. The tenth most expensive yearling in Book One (a daughter of Sea The Stars for whom Sheikh Mohammed paid 1,600,000 guineas) would have been the joint-second most expensive in 2023. Which is all very exciting, except that for normal people, and in particular normal breeders, the situation is deteriorating badly, as the figures for the lower-profile sales make very clear.

HORSES-IN-TRAINING SALES

The figures for horses-in-training sales which attract overseas buyers continue to make the sport look healthier than it is. Demand for second-hand horses not sought by the export market remains poor but those bought for export to the major racing nations, particularly Australia, continue to command high prices. The Group 1-placed three-year-old Delius was the prime example, changing hands at Tattersalls for 1,300,000 guineas to join Gai Waterhouse’s stable in Sydney. The top lots also included horses heading Down Under to Chris Waller, Ciaron Maher and Henry Dwyer.

Middle Eastern purchasers also remain a major factor at Tattersalls’ Autumn Sale, at which this year there was an interesting flashback to the days when NH owners and trainers were leading buyers. Too Bossy For Us, a winning three-year-old son of Golden Horn, was the joint-ninth most expensive horse in the sale, bought out of Kevin Phillipart de Foy’s stable by Harold Kirk for 330,000 guineas to join Willie Mullins.

NATIONAL HUNT SALES

Trade in national hunt stores has shown a downturn, but that is as much the result of the continuing trend of the major owners towards buying ready-made horses as an indication of any decline in the sport’s health. Lightly raced horses with strong form, whether bought at the boutique sales or privately, remain stunningly expensive, as Caldwell Potter illustrated.

We seemed already to have had at least a year’s worth of sale-ring drama by the time that the Irish Racing Yearbook went to press during November. However, in retrospect we could have ended the bloodstock report contained in the book with the observation that, “You ain’t seen nothing yet”!

Goffs’ November Sale, Tattersalls’ December Sale in Newmarket and Arqana’s December Sale in Deauville each brought its company’s mainstream sale calendar to a close and each ensured that 2024 ended with a whimper, not with a roar.

It has to be said that, notwithstanding the big-budget fireworks of each auction, the ‘feast-or-famine' nature of the current bloodstock scene was at least as pronounced at these auctions as during the ones earlier in the year. At each many vendors went home dismayed as the oversupply of horses meant that demand for the seemingly lesser prospects was pitiful. But for the more obvious ones, demand seems to become ever more intense.

Sheikh Mohammed, despite breeding so many high-class horses himself, remains a major player at the sales and, buying through Anthony Stroud, Godolphin bought the top lot at Goffs November Foal Sale, a Sea The Stars colt consigned by Baroda Stud who fetched 1,000,000 euros. The oddity of this transaction was that Godolphin had sold this foal in utero at this sale 12 months previously when her dam Ambivalent, a Group One winner of the Pretty Polly Stakes in 2013, was off-loaded from the Maktoum herd for 925,000 euros, in foal to Sea The Stars.

While Sheikh Mohammed bought the top lot, there were plenty of other bidders, both long-established and up-and-coming, keen to put their money on the line. Goffs’ CEO Henry Beeby outlined the situation succinctly in his closing statement. “We have witnessed a sale of true strength and depth that was, at times, simply extraordinary ...

“There are so many factors that contributed to the week’s success, not least the huge numbers of young pinhookers looking to invest, which is a unique aspect of Goffs November as we enjoy the patronage of so many generations ...

“Another key point is the diversity of buyers so clearly illustrated by 18 different buyers signing for the top 20 lots and 54 individual entities investing in six-figure foals.”

The subsequent breeding stock sale returned solid figures for the most cherished offerings, notwithstanding that there was nothing to rival the stand-out draft of the 2023 sale. Last year, of course, saw abnormal figures thanks to the Niarchos dispersal, which saw the Group One-winning half-sisters Alpha Centauri and Alpine Star each fetching 6,000,000 euros and Coolmore buying the top four lots (all Niarchos mares) for an aggregate of 19,000,000 euros.

GOFFS NOVEMBER FOAL SALE

Year	Avarage	Median	Top Lot €
2021	34,948	22,000	550,000
2022	39,979	24,000	550,000
2023	36,420	24,000	700,000
2024	48,633	28,000	1,000,000

GOFFS NOVEMBER BREEDING STOCK SALE

Year	Avarage	Median	Top Lot €
2021	43,809	17,000	825,000
2022	55,398	24,000	790,000
2023	124,623	18,000	6,000,000
2024	51,114	22,000	725,000

Strong though the trade for foals at Goffs November had been, Tattersalls December took things to a level even higher.

Before the four days of foals, of course, was the opening day of yearlings. The figures were well up on previous years at this session, with the headlines being made by the most expensive yearling ever sold at a Tattersalls December Sale, Clara Stud’s Dark Angel filly out of the winning Pivotal mare Entreat, whose previous foals include Golden Horde (a Group One winner at Royal Ascot in 2020) and Camille Pissarro, successful in the Group One winner of the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere on ‘Arc Day’ in October.

TATTERSALLS DECEMBER YEARLING SALE

Year	Avarage	Median	TOP LOT (GNS)
2021	34, 948	27,000	240,000
2022	34,627	22,000	260,000
2023	37,616	20,000	200,000
2024	51,957	30,000	900,000

During the rest of that first week of the December Sale, four days of foal sales provided one stunning moment after another. The foal to make the most headlines was Whitsbury Manor Stud’s full-sister, by Frankel out of Suelita, to the 2023 2,000 Guineas hero Chaldean. She fetched 2,500,000 when bought by Kia Joorabchian’s Amo Racing. Joorabchian had been the key player at the very top level of the autumn’s main yearling sales but it became clear that that spree had not satisfied his desire to give himself a chance of being competitive at the top level in future seasons. He bought three of the top five lots during Tattersalls’ foal sale, with Coolmore snapping up the other two members (a colt by Sea The Stars and a filly by Frankel) of this elite group.

Other notable investors in the top tier of the sale included Juddmonte (who had bought Suelita’s sale-topping foal in 2022, a Kingman colt who fetched 1,000,000 and who, named Kassaya, won one of her three starts as a two-year-old in 2024 when trained by Andrew Balding) and Godolphin. The former operation picked up a son of Sea The Stars who became the sale’s seventh most expensive foal when changing hands for 700,000 guineas. Godolphin’s biggest purchase, a colt by Camelot, was the eighth dearest foal in the sale, costing 650,000 guineas.

The strength of the December Foal Sale is best summed up by the fact that the turnover on its supposedly best day, the Friday, was 30,906,000 guineas, total higher than the aggregate for all four days in 2023.

TATTERSALLS DECEMBER FOAL SALE

Year	Avarage	Median	Turnover	TOP LOT (GNS)
2021	42,645	25,000	31,301,500	1,800,000
2022	47,386	26,000	35,255,050	1,000,000
2023	44,608	21,000	29,842,902	575,000
2024	67,563	30,000	43,504,000	2,500,000

Kia Joorabchian maintained his high profile during the second week of the December Sale when fillies and mares took centre stage. He paid 4,800,000 guineas for the top lot, Irish Oaks heroine You Got To Me, who looks likely to remain in Ralph Beckett's stable.

Joorabchian was merely one of several major investors who underpinned the strength of the market. We found ourselves in the remarkable position of seeing all of the top ten lots in the mares' sale fetch a seven-figure sum. Of these ten, John Stewart's Resolute Racing bought three, while Yulong (bidding as Willingham, having bought an established stud and pre-training property in Willingham, near Newmarket) picked up one, after investing heavily in the yearlings' and foals' sessions.

Yulong have yet to make anything like the impact in Europe which it has made in Australia but seems keen to change that. Its main second-week purchase, though, Oaks fifth Caught U Looking, will head Down Under, aiming to follow in the footsteps of Cox Plate heroine Via Sistina, whom it recruited at the 2023 December Sale for 2,700,000 guineas. Even at that hefty price Via Sistina was, in retrospect, a bargain, notwithstanding that she had been even better bought originally by Stephen Hillen out of Book Three of the October Sale in 2019, when she changed hands for 5,000 guineas.

Coolmore also made a splash in the mares' section, picking up the admirable sprinting filly Believing for 3,000,000 guineas. A less well-established but equally enthusiastic participant in the top level of the action was John Stewart, whose Resolute Racing paid 3,200,000 guineas for recent Prix Marcel Boussac heroine Vertical Blue, who obviously ranks as a leading hope for Classic glory in 2025.

As is always the case, the December Sale ended with a salutary reality check because trading invariably falls off a cliff on the final day (Thursday). That day's average and median were 5,512 guineas and 3,500 guineas, and would have been even lower than that had there not been so many withdrawals and unsold lots on a day when the catalogue contained 125 lots but only 59 horses were sold.

TATTERSALLS DECEMBER FILLIES' & MARES' SALE

Year	Avarage	Median	Turnover	TOP LOTS (GNS)
2021	79,204	26,000	62,412,700	2,200,000
2022	117,147	32,000	80,831,200	5,400,000
2023	107,544	30,000	67,752,800	4,500,000
2024	124,539	38,000	83,821,650	4,800,000

Following immediately on from Tattersalls, Arqana's December Sale also provided plentiful opportunities for people to spend large sums of money, opportunities which several big spenders were happy to grab with both hands. Coolmore's representative M V Magnier, having been busy in Newmarket, laid out 5,000,000 euros (the highest price ever paid at Arqana) to buy the top lot Sparkling Plenty, who had won the Prix de Diane in the summer. She is off to the USA where she will be covered by Justify. Her racing career, though, may not be over as the plan may include giving her a run or two in-foal at the spring meeting at Keeneland. She was, incidentally, not the only seven-figure purchase of the day by Magnier who signed for Tamfana's 11-year-old dam Tres Magnifique, carrying a full-brother or sister the Sun Chariot heroine, at 1,400,000 euros.

John Stewart, paying his first visit to Deauville, continued to remind us that he intends to become an ever more significant player in the big races by paying 1,600,000 euros for the Cotai Glory filly Excellent Truth, a Group Three-winning three-year-old in 2023 and a Group One-placed listed winner in 2024.

It has been on the back (or front, depending on how dependent on Maktoum patronage one has become) of many people's minds for some time that Sheikh Mohammed's largesse is not going to last forever. The extravagance throughout the autumn of several more recent arrivals at the top table, of whom John Stewart is merely one, will have done something to quieten any fears that the market will suffer too badly from withdrawal symptoms if/when Godolphin is no longer around to sign so many of the big cheques.

ARQANA DECEMBER SALE

Year	Avarage	Median	Turnover	TOP LOTS €
2021	60,400	15,000	41,495,000	3,000,000
2022	76,844	17,250	56,711,000	3,200,000
2023	70,564	20,000	47,137,000	4,025,000
2024	85,769	26,000	55,149,500	5,000,000