THE first sale of my year was the Doncaster January Sale the week before last. It had a horses-in-training section followed by National Hunt foals and breeding stock.

Due to a gale in Dublin most flights were grounded the day before, regardless of airline, and there was a real danger that the multitude of Irish buyers would not get there. Our 8am flight eventually took off at 3pm so it effectively became an eight hour flight – much the same as flying to Dubai or New York. There was an outside good chance that we would be the first Dublin flight to East Midlands to suffer from jet lag.

No group of people however are less likely to have a go at Ryanair than future National Hunt store vendors and racing enthusiasts. Ryanair sponsor Grade 1 races at Leopardstown, Cheltenham and Punchestown and the O’Learys are among the very best supporters of the store and horses-in- training markets.

As always at such sales, there are varying levels of expertise among vendors. One lady, from the north of England, had a foal that not even the most benevolent could describe as well-fed, well-bred or well-prepared. Before I could even introduce myself, she told me, “We raise them the way nature intended – he was out until just over a week ago. He’s not full of corn either like some of them here,” I am not sure that the same could be said for the vendor or the auctioneer especially after my dinner the night before.

Coordinating the buyers is very much the role of DBS Director George Stanners, who had organised a dinner for many of the visiting buyers in the Earl of Doncaster Hotel. It did not have the desired effect on everybody. One guest at the dinner met Henry Beeby the next day and, instead of acknowledging the company’s efforts, immediately stated how disappointed he was not to have been given a cup of tea at Gowran on the previous Thursday, when we sponsored the Goffs Thyestes Chase. His disappointment had not in any way been negated by the well-attended “three meat, all you can eat (and drink) carvery dinner” (with Yorkshire puddings the size of cushions). Perhaps he is an agoraphobic teetotal vegetarian.

MINTY

At that dinner I had sat down beside one of the best known agents in the business, David Minton. He is better known as Minty, though I do not know if he was the inspiration for the EastEnders character of the same name.

When I started in the business over 30 years ago Minty was already at the top of the profession, but I had never realised just how he had got started. Hailing from Shropshire, Minton’s first involvement was in 1967 when he led up a homebred three-year-old for his grandfather at the old Ascot sales, which were then held in Windsor Forest. He was bought by Tim Molony for 1,500 guineas and was then resold a year later in the same ring as a winner for 3,500 guineas to Fred Winter. By then he was named Pendil and he would become one of the great chasers of the 1970s, winning two King George VI Chases at Kempton.

After a few stints with Newmarket studs and racing stables, in October 1970 a 20-year-old Minton joined the Curragh Bloodstock Agency, whose key players included Peter McKeever and Johnny Harrington. The following year he was asked by Tony Jarvis, a vet and family friend in his native Shropshire, to find a buyer for a horse that had won on the flat at three and four despite being well over 17 hands in height.

Minty put him up to several leading trainers including Fulke Walwyn, Tom Jones and Fred Winter but they would not have anything by the sprint sire Goldhill. He did get Fred and Mercy Rimell however, who lived closer to Shropshire, to go and see the horse and they bought him for £12,000. He was named Comedy Of Errors.

At the same time Gavin Pritchard-Gordon was a young trainer in Newmarket. He wanted to keep a horse named King Pele in his yard, but the owner wanted it sold in 1972. Minty helped put together a syndicate to retain the horse for £2,500. With 24 shareholders nobody was unduly impoverished by their involvement.

CHELTENHAM 1973

It was at the Cheltenham Festival in 1973 that these three horses were to define the direction of Minton’s career. On the first day King Pele won the second division of the Gloucester Hurdle (the equivalent of today’s Supreme Novices). Incredibly this was the first ever winning ride at the festival for David Nicholson, who had already embarked on a training career at nearby Condicote. Equally remarkable was the fact that this victory came just eight days after King Pele’s wining debut over hurdles.

On the second day Comedy of Errors recorded the first of his two Champion Hurdle wins under jockey Bill Smith and so Minty must have been looking forward to Thursday when Pendil was sent off the odd-on favourite in the Gold Cup. Pendil, ridden by Richard Pitman took the lead with two to jump, and commentator Peter O’Sullevan was calling him the winner before the last. However he began to weaken up the hill and The Dikler got up on the line to win in a photo finish.

Minton and Pritchard Gordon both stayed that year with the Nicholsons and to this day continue to stay with David’s widow Dinah. Since that week in 1973 Minty has not missed a single day of the festival. His hopes for the 2016 festival include the hugely popular Sprinter Sacre and Altior, whom he purchased with Nicky Henderson at the 2013 Goffs Land Rover Sale.