DESPITE most buyers and consignors saying they’re not governed by the clock at the breeze-up sales, everyone is keen to see who made it to the top of the list. There are certain vendors who regularly feature in the top 10 and, though he’s hugely well-respected, Malcolm Bastard is not one of them.

In fact, his top graduates include Libertarian, who famously did the slowest breeze at the 2012 Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale, where he sold for 40,000gns. Clearly, the Dante Stakes winner wasn’t bred to excel over two furlongs (what horse is?), but the pre-trainer and breeze-up consignor is generally known for his patient approach.

So, when his name appeared beside the number one spot at Monday’s breeze for the Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale, everyone knew that the Havana Grey colt in question was something special. And when Willie Browne’s Acclamation colt sold for a record sum of 1.4 million guineas on Tuesday evening, everyone wondered what that meant for Bastard’s star.

Those that clock smart times must match up physically, and it was clear that Bastard’s colt had done just that when the Amo Racing and Godolphin teams clashed in the ring. Kia Joorabchian had the final say at 1,750,000gns, reversing the roles of bidder and underbidder on the previous night’s record holder.

Preparation is key

Alex Elliott explained that the Acclamation colt’s price prepared them to dig deep on Wednesday, as did the popularity of Bastard’s colt. “There was a queue at his door! We all had to get an allotted time to see the horse,” he said with a laugh.

“Malcolm has been doing this a long time, and he is brilliant at his job and pre-trains some of the best horses in Europe. This horse was produced beautifully, and, to do what he did for Malcolm, when he does not particularly train them for a speed time, tells you have a good horse.”

Despite the price being the highest he’s achieved in 37 years consigning, Malcolm Bastard appeared calm after the sale. When asked how his heart behaved, he replied: “It was steady, it takes a lot to excite me!”

The bay never gave him cause for concern, either. “He has been very straightforward,” he explained. “He has been pre-trained and has only been away twice to have a spin, just to see what he was like in a different environment. He is easy to train, and that is how it is with Havana Greys, they are pacey, quality, and have good minds, you can feed them and train them.”

Bought by Harlequin Direct as a foal for 55,000gns, the record-breaker has the pedigree of a self-made millionaire. The only blacktype performer in his first three dams is a listed-placed horse, and Grade/Group 1 form doesn’t appear until the fifth dam. That said, he’s out of a 98-rated nine-time winner, who had Marsha behind her when winning a valuable sprint handicap.

With not one, but two, record prices achieved over the two evenings, it was unsurprising that both the turnover of 18,804,000gns and average price of 158,017gns were all-time highs for the Craven, too.

Trade was strong across the board, increasing the clearance rate from 72% to 83% over a 12-month period. The median price rose by 25% to 100,000gns.

WHEN the breeze-up sales boomed, the list of vendors grew. Some stayed, some failed, but Willie Browne’s Mocklershill has stood the test of time. Since 1978, he’s earned great respect and compiled an impressive honour roll.

Plus, he’s a very popular fella, which was clear from all those congratulating him after setting a new record price on Tuesday evening, beating the previous high he himself set in 2014. “I can’t believe it!” he said after his Acclamation colt was knocked down to Godolphin for 1.4 million guineas.

“He is a special horse. He has hardly been in his stable since he was here; he has had 13 or 14 vets. I believed he would sell well, but I thought he might make 500,000gns or 600,000gns.”

Even more impressive was the price Browne paid for the May-born bay - €70,000 at the Goffs Orby Sale from Corduff Stud – breeders of Acclamation’s best son, Romantic Warrior. On when he first realised the colt’s potential, Browne said: “When we first started doing a bit of work, straightaway he started to stand out. He is also so sound, so easy to train, he has a great mind. I do believe he is a very special horse.”

Anthony Stroud, who provided the winning bid while standing alongside David Loder, seemed equally surprised by the price, but was clearly just as impressed by the record-breaker.

“He did a very good breeze, a very good gallop out,” he commented. “He’s a lovely horse and it just shows you how vibrant the breeze-up sales are; this wasn’t just two people bidding, I think there were about four or five. It just shows you the appetite to buy horses at this sale.”

Hey, big spender

The Acclamation colt was Godolphin’s second purchase in the first hour of trade, and their final acquisition of the sale. They made an early impression when going to 650,000gns for a Havana Grey colt from Con Marnane’s Bansha House Stables.

“We’ve bought a lot of good horses off Con and he sells a lot of very good horses,” Stroud noted. “Of course, it’s a great deal of money; it was more than we expected to pay, but the cream comes to the top in this market.”

It marked a successful switch to Plan B for Marnane, who was joined ringside by daughters Amy and Olivia, both key cogs in the family business. Amy had bought the bay as a weanling at the Goffs February Sale for €46,000, but retained him at 50,000gns at the Tattersalls Somerville Sale.

On what brought about such a transformation, Con Marnane joked: “We fed him! He turned into an absolutely smashing horse. We had him here [as a yearling] but couldn’t raffle him, even though he was a gorgeous horse.”

The colt was further proof of the importance of a smart breeze, as well as the appeal of Havana Grey. No group winner appears under the first three dams on his page, while his dam is yet to produce a winner, from two runners.

Sire power

Anthony Stroud’s love of Havana Grey is understandable, having bought his best son Vandeek at the 2023 Craven Sale. The brilliant two-year-old was owned by KHK Racing, for whom Stroud purchased a Havana Grey filly for 375,000gns on Tuesday.

The price represented a sizeable return for Shane and Alex Power of Tradewinds Stud, who had bought the grey at Tattersalls Book 1 for 51,000gns. She was sold by Castledillon Stud, whose Timmy Hillman kept a third for breezing.

On the highest-priced horse they’ve sold, Shane Power commented: “From a very early stage, she looked tailormade for this sale – an early type who would win a race and hopefully go on to Royal Ascot.

“Havana Grey is just phenomenal. We’ve two of them this year and neither of them have missed a day’s work; they just eat, sleep, gallop. They’re just an easy sell to anyone.”

The result was a relief, too, Power explained: “It’s great to get a result like this at the first sale of the season, because she’ll carry some of the lesser ones. The process of getting to the breeze-ups is very enjoyable, but the sales themselves can be ruthless, as everyone knows.

“If you don’t stack up on the data analysis, it can be a very lonely place, so it’s a big relief to get one on the board early on. Hopefully, everything else just falls into place now.”

AFTER Joey Logan’s main National Hunt clients Andy and Gemma Brown left racing, it was expected that he might have a lower profile at the sales, but instead he turned his attention to buying flat yearlings to resell at the breeze-up sales. He made his intentions known when investing significant sums, with the four offered under his Grangeclare banner at the Craven Sale standing him approximately 536,000gns. He was richly rewarded with a turnover of 1,450,000gns, topped by a colt from the first crop of St Mark’s Basilica at 650,000gns.

After the 200,000gns pinhook was knocked down to Kia Joorabchian’s Amo Racing, Logan said: “We’re over the moon, we didn’t expect that to be honest. He breezed very well and vetted well and every time he came out, he showed very well. Alex [Butler] and all the team at home have done a brilliant job.

On switching codes, he continued: “Obviously, we’re big in National Hunt, but we’re going to try mix it a bit. It’s a great buzz to be selling any good horses, and hopefully he’ll go on to be very good on the racetrack.”

When asked if he was now ‘a flat man’, he replied with a smile: “I’m on the fence.”

Rockfield off to a flier

St Mark’s Basilica’s only other lot through the ring also proved popular, bringing 320,000gns from Avenue Bloodstock’s Mark McStay, who co-signed with Patrick O’Brien. The half-sister to Grade 1 runner-up Al Qudra will be trained by Fozzy Stack, who trained her dam to win a listed sprint for Michael O’Flynn, Mrs John Magnier and Mrs Paul Shanahan.

The bay was consigned by O’Flynn’s Rockfield Farm, a newcomer to the breeze-up scene thanks to O’Flynn’s new partnership with Darragh Lordan, who previously operated as Innishannon Valley Stud. Lordan’s previous graduates are headlined by dual stakes winner and Gimcrack Stakes second Marshman.

On his purchase, McStay commented: “She’s a lovely filly with arguably one of the best pedigrees in the book, by a very exciting sire in St Mark’s Basilica. She’s not the only one of his offspring who’s lit up the ring this week.

“She looks like a filly that could take you to some special places. Everyone here is dreaming of top hats and tails, and she looks the sort that could take you there. Time is not my God by any manner or means, but they need to clock and she did clock.”

IN high-pressure situations like the Craven, it’s safe to say that emotions run high with bidders and vendors alike – distress, disappointment, relief, elation or a rollercoaster of all combined.

One wonders how auctioneer Ollie Fowlston felt when selling two colts totalling 1,050,000gns to the new owners of Dullingham Park Stud, where he was managing director until recently.

The Newmarket farm was sold by Steve Parkin to Zhang Yuesheng’s Yulong Investments, which has undergone its own reshuffle following the departure of Vin Cox.

Ben Hyde was the newly-nominated bidder on Wednesday afternoon and, after securing a Too Darn Hot colt from Johnny Collins’ Brown Island Stables for 550,000gns, hotfooted it down the back stairs to take up a new position two lots later, purchasing a Mehmas colt from Tally-Ho Stud for 500,000gns.

Yulong’s European representative Paul Curran later revealed that Jessica Harrington would train the Too Darn Hot colt, while a trainer was yet to be decided for their second purchase.

“Mr Zhang came here looking to pick up one or two, and we’ve bought two nice, precocious types, which was the plan,” Curran continued. “We’ve got a lot of two-year-olds this year, but not many of them are precocious.”

Tally-Ho Stud are known for supporting their own stallions and this particular Mehmas colt repaid them in spades. He was bought at the Goffs November Foal Sale for €50,000 before his half-sister by Phoenix Of Spain had even debuted and a month later, she bolted up, before making it four from four in a listed race. He contributed to Mehmas’ average price of 181,667gns.

Sire on fire

Futurity Trophy winner and classic hope Hotazhell graced the catalogue cover and his sire’s progeny were in high demand this week.

Eddie Linehan had sourced the poster boy from breeder Blue Diamond Stud at Book 2, the same formula followed by Johnny Collins with his colt, for whom he paid 90,000gns.

Linehan stretched 5,000gns further for another Too Darn Hot colt at the same sale, and was rewarded with 280,000gns for the colt on Tuesday. Highflyer Bloodstock’s Anthony Bromley and trainer Alan King signed the docket, their budget stretched beyond its usual size due to the exploits of top breeze-up graduate Trueshan.

Anna Calder also reaped the rewards, as her Leamore Horses operation sold a son of the Dalham Hall Stud stallion for 500,000gns to Jamie McCalmont. Similarly, he had been sourced at Book 2 for 90,000gns by Blandford Bloodstock, with Calder later explaining that he was owned in partnership with New Zealand syndicate Go Racing.

McCalmont paid tribute to those providing the goods, saying: “You have to give a lot of credit to the people who are purchasing and producing these horses. It is a risky business, fair play to them when they get a home run as there are plenty of bad days. It is proper high-end poker.”

Try and try again

Blandford Bloodstock’s Richard Brown filled the role of underbidder, as he had on a number of choice lots. The agent enjoyed a change of luck on Wednesday afternoon when securing back-to-back lots for a combined 590,000gns.

“It’s been a frustrating two days, but we’ve remained very disciplined with our values,” Brown admitted. “We’ve been patient and I think we’ve got two smashing colts.” It was a Starspangledbanner colt from Mark Grant Racing that got Brown off the mark in the ring, at a cost of 230,000gns.

“The Starspangledbanner was as good-looking horse as was here,” Brown said of Grant’s €95,000 pinhook from the Goffs Orby Sale. “He might not be a whizz bang two-year-old but he did a very good breeze, is very good-looking and we’re delighted to get him. Tom Biggs, who I work very closely with, bought Bradsell off Mark, so we’re returning to a proven source.”

Brown followed a proven formula when going to 360,000gns for a Starman colt from Tally-Ho Stud, from whom he’d previously bought the likes of Ardad, Dream Ahead, Perfect Power and Powerful Glory.

“Starman has made a great start,” Brown remarked. “I’ve had very little to do with them so far but watching his first runners, you’d have to be impressed, because while it’s still very early and there’s still plenty of water to go under the bridge, it looks to me like they’ve got a bit of class.”

Starman’s first lot through the ring, a filly from Tally-Ho Stud, had brought 260,000gns from Highflyer’s Anthony Bromley and Phil Cunningham.

Blandford Bloodstock later paid 360,000gns for a Havana Grey from Roger Marley’s Church Farm Stables, marking an impressive return on his yearling price of 62,000gns. His new owners will be hoping the bay will be the best his dam has produced, given she has yet to produce a winner, from five foals of racing age.