THIS week’s Goffs Premier Yearling Sale provided an uplifting success story for breeders and consignors as they entered what many fear will be a challenging few months.

Trade was topped by Amanda Skiffington’s £350,000 purchase of a Tasleet colt from Moyfinn Stud, bred by Paul Giles and nephew Patrick from a broodmare band of just five.

Giles, who turns 73 next week, has been involved in horses all his life and described Thursday’s sale as the best result he has ever achieved.

“Oh, by a mile,” he said from his Co Meath base on Friday. “I have sold horses for other people, for I think the highest is around 200,000, but I have never, ever, had above 42,000 for my own.”

Even more impressive was the fact that Giles had bought the dam carrying the sales topper for just 15,000gns, her value notably increasing when her son Cool Hoof Luke landed the Gimcrack Stakes while her yearling made his trip to Doncaster.

On what went through his mind while the Tasleet colt graced the ring, Giles said, “I didn’t want to let myself get too excited, I tried to keep my emotions out of it.” The same couldn’t be said for his nephew Patrick, an electrician based in Spain, who was kept abreast of proceedings over the phone.

“He wasn’t able to speak. His brother, James, that was with me at the sales tried to talk to him, and he had to tell him to go off and get a drink and collect himself and take it easy for a few minutes.”

Giles began his career buying ‘three-year-old half-breds’, who he showed and sold at the horse show. He progressed to pinhooking national hunt foals, before breeding flat horses. “I gradually moved up the line along that way and kept it going, hoping that someday the likes of this would happen.”

Giles understands how his achievement will give hope to others going through a tough period. “Definitely. That’s why we’re all in it. Every year you see somebody getting a big result and that’s what keeps that business going.”

Sweet success for Hassett family

Another Irish operation to enjoy a memorable sale was the Hassett family’s Monksland Stables, who sold a homebred colt from the first crop of Starman to Oliver St Lawrence for £220,000.

“We were thrilled,” Hassett said of the result. “We weren’t expecting it at all, so it came as a great surprise.” The handsome chesnut was bred at a covering fee of €17,500, out of a mare bred by Tom Hassett and bought back unraced at a cost of 30,000gns.

The memorable result spurred on Monksland Stables as they experienced a greater challenge with the rest of their consignment, the remaining quartet selling for between £8,000 and £25,000. “Anyone with the right stock got well-paid for it, but the middle market didn’t seem to exist there at all,” Hassett reported.

“You have to take the highs and the lows in this game,” she reflected. “We’ve had plenty of tough days, but it makes it all the sweeter when it does work out.

“It’s never plain sailing, so you just have to take what comes with it. It’s not an easy game and if it was, everyone would be at it. You just have to accept the fate of it.”

The right price for the right horse

Eddie O’Leary, whose Lynn Lodge Stud sat second in the consignors table with 11 sold for £676,000, gave a similar account of trade. “I was happy with how they sold. It was probably a bit selective, but there was plenty of action if you had a nice horse.”

Goffs noted their emphasis on the individual when releasing the 460-strong catalogue, and buyers concurred, which Tom Whelan experienced when his Church View Stables sold a Profitable colt for £75,000.

“Profitable wouldn’t be flavour of the month,” Whelan admits. “But our colt stood up an exceptional individual, and there were plenty of people there to bid on him. There were plenty of people to buy him for 20 grand, and obviously all the way up to 75. And there were plenty of people at the 40 to 45 grand mark, too.”

Strength in depth was the case throughout, Whelan added, “There seemed to be a bit more of a middle market; you seemed to be able to sell a horse at 30 to 50, which hasn’t been the case for a while, I think.”

His overall impression was positive. “It was a decent sale, considering the feelings everyone had going over. I was very happy with how we got on. Look, there were a lot of unsold horses, but you’re gonna get that everywhere, and maybe some of the horses didn’t deserve to sell, or they were priced too high, I don’t know.”

On whether any buyers were absent, Whelan noted “There were a lot of people not there, but I think that’s been the case for a while now. I can’t recall showing a horse to an Irish trainer and there was a notable absence of Newmarket trainers. There were some agents who weren’t there, but I’m sure they were represented.”

Looking on the bright side

The Premier Yearling Sale does face a challenge in being the first of many yearling sales, a point made by Tally-Ho Stud’s Roger O’Callaghan. “There are people missing from every sale; there’s a sale every week, you can’t be at every one of them.”

While O’Callaghan did note that Brexit is harming sales at the lower end of the market, he had plenty to be happy about, with Tally-Ho Stud having sold every single one of their 25 yearlings and ending the sale as leading consignor.

The Westmeath farm was also responsible for the sale’s two leading sires, Starman and Mehmas. On strong demand for Starman’s first yearlings, which included a trio of six-figure lots, O’Callaghan commented, “David Ward, Ed Walker and Ed Sackville have been a great help in supporting Starman. Their faith looks like being justified at this stage.”

“It was a great sale,” was O’Callaghan’s final reflection. “I was absolutely delighted for Paul Giles, it was a once in a lifetime result. It shows it can be done, you just have to keep taking a chance and perseverance pays off.”