IN a normal year, Royal Ascot is holiday time for the hard-working breeze-up consignors. It is the equivalent of what the Listowel’s ‘Harvest’ Festival is to the farmers of Kerry and beyond. A time to relax after months of hard work.

But this is no normal year.

If you told a breeze-up consignor in January that they were going to have one two-year-old not yet sold in their yard by the time runners jump from the stalls in the Queen Anne, they’d tell you it would be a small disaster. This year, most consignors are still looking at the majority of the stock they bought last autumn, with time and potential value ticking away.

That is the content of a nightmare for any player in the sector but context is needed. John Cullinan points out that there are always people worse off. More significantly, he says the breeze-up sector is a lot further down the line than it was five or 10 years ago. Yes, that makes everyone selling more exposed this year, but the product is still a quality one.

In the shorter term, Cullinan says there is now light at the end of what has been a dark tunnel.

“There was a time, maybe April and into May, when we didn’t even know if we were going to have sales on,” the man from Horse Park Stud, Co Wicklo, recalls. “No one really knew what was happening or what to do with their horses. That was a worrying time, the uncertainty of the whole situation.

“But once we got the positive news that racing was back and then the sales companies committed to sales dates, we were back with a plan again so that was very welcome. The harrowing spring is now behind us and we’re now looking forward to the sales in the next couple of weeks.”

The light that shines from the end of the tunnel is largely cast through the extensive work done by the sales companies who have amalgamated their own sales and those of other companies. The Tattersalls Craven and Ascot Sales have combined and will take place on Thursday (June 25th), while a week later Goffs and Arqana have come together for one sale at Doncaster (June 28th - July 1st).

Cullinan’s Horse Park Stud and his business partner Roger Marley’s Church Farm, will be well represented at both sales again. The pair have been working as a team for 12 years now, ever since a plan was hatched after a few drinks in an Indian restaurant in Newmarket. Probably nine out of every 10 plans made at a bar die hard but Cullinan and Marley’s business partnership has stood the test of time, and that is a solid measure in the high risk breeze-up game.

One of the first yearlings they bought and breezed was a colt from the first progeny of Kodiac. He was sold on for a profit and went on to be Elleval, who was trained by David Marnane, and earned well in excess of €600,000 in an excellent career.

John Cullinan of Horse Park Stud at the sales \ Tattersalls

Numbers game

Since then, the pair have combined with the likes of Brando, Mehmas, Fox Champion and Guildsman. Their system works efficiently and effectively, as by combining financial and capital resources, the final product is better, the risk is spread and the chance of finding the golden goose increases.

“It’s a numbers game really,” Cullinan explains. “If you are dependent on a couple, it’s tough going. You need numbers to give yourself a chance of making it pay. That is where the partnerships help.

“Myself and Roger’s system works well – it’s a combination of factors. The yearlings come straight here after the sales. We do all the breaking and pre-training, and then turn them out to give them a break. We get them back in and sorted out, clipped, back cantering, all the dirty work.

“Then they go over to Roger in Yorkshire where they have to step up and gallop. That suits Roger. He has easier access to the gallops and jockeys in Malton than I would have. So we do the first half and he does the second half, and then we join up at the sales.

“Two years ago we made the decision to cut back on what we bought and that carried through to this year, with the attention towards quality now. We bought 16 or 17, which was topped up by a couple of unsold foal-to-yearling pinhooks, one or two homebreds and one or two outside horses that we can breeze.

So all in all we had about 25 to sell which is about the normal quota for us. That has been whittled down to 17 or 18 for various different situations – we managed to sell a couple privately, one or two have gone into training for their owners and another two or three have been let off because they weren’t going to be good enough.

“Actually the break has suited a good few of them, the fillies especially. The hot weather and spring grass really helped them and in many ways the delay has helped them because Roger thinks they would have been backward going into the sales on their original dates.”

Top class sprinter Brando is a graduate of Church Farm and Horse Park Stud \ Healy Racing

Tough environment

That said, Cullinan is under no illusions the next few weeks could be tough with potentially limited access to overseas buyers, the majority of which will not be able to travel to the sales. Whether those global players can still have an influence at the breeze-ups, bidding through local agents or online, remains to be seen.

Other potential factors counting against the breeze-up consignors are the general economic uncertainty and the fact that owners still can’t attend the races in Britain and Ireland, which puts a limit to one of the main attractions of buying a readymade two-year-old.

But the breeze-up sector is a progressive one, and it has been for the last few years. Cullinan says the European breeze-up product is rock-solid and continues to increase in quality.

He explains: “Breeze-up horses have been increasing in profile. We’ve had classic winners and Group 1 winners as a group over the last number of years. That has attracted attention and I think some of the preconceived ideas about the limitations about breeze-up horses have now been cast aside.

“There is a definite positive vibe in the market for breeze-up horses now that there might not always have been. Admittedly, the clearance rates have been tricky as well, due to an oversupply but they have improved recently.

“Of course, we also have to be realistic this year, the big sales are in England in the next two weeks and it’s going to be a challenge given overseas buyers have limited access with all the travel restrictions.When we get back to Fairyhouse for the Goresbridge Sale, maybe things might have improved in this regard. You have to be optimistic. We believe there are some very smart horses there.

“Last autumn was one of the toughest sale seasons to be buying in and the breeze-up guys were able to hold their own and buy nice horses. I believe that this year’s crop of breeze-up horses for sale is probably the best there has ever been and there has to be serious value out there, given the situation we’re in.”

Mehmas, seen here winning the July Stakes, is now standing as a stallion \ Healy Racing

BUCA

Through the formation of the Breeze-Up Consignors Association (BUCA), Cullinan has played his own part in correcting the misconceptions about the breeze-up horse. It was Mark Dwyer who had the idea, and Cullinan and Brendan Holland who went about implementing it. The association has been a huge positive for the progress of the sector.

“We were all conscious of a certain amount of negativity in the attitude towards breeze-up horses,” Cullinan explains. The purpose (of setting up the association) was to try and educate people about the positives of buying breeze-up horses and also to advise people about some of the misconceptions that were out there.

“The first thing we did before we started an advertising campaign was to do our own research into the misconceptions that were out there, which we knew were largely incorrect. We appointed James Willoughby and Jason Hathorn, who did some excellent research and the outcome of their findings made us very confident in firing up the campaign on advertising, knowing that the facts we were basing our advertising on could be upheld.

“The research showed that breeze-up horses are more durable, that they could run more often at two and have more longevity in their career in general. At that time, the perception was that they were just one-trick ponies, just two-year-olds who had no longevity. People were saying they are only five- or six-furlong horses and they were burned out even by the time that they got to the breeze-up sales.

“That couldn’t have been further from the truth and the reality is that we’ve had a St Leger one-two in Harbour Law and Ventura Storm. We had The Grey Gatsby. Trip To Paris won the Gold Cup. This year we have Ocean Atlantique, favourite for the Prix du Jockey Club and Ete Indian, one of the favourites for the Kentucky Derby.

“That is what we set out to improve and we think we did that with success. The sector has been recently examined again by Fiona Dowling, who did a BHA-sponsored thesis on the subject, which was published back in January in London and her work again upheld the facts which we had discovered five years ago when the Breeze-Up Consignors Association was established.

“That was the purpose of doing it, we felt that some people were sometimes making negative remarks and while everyone is entitled to their opinion, it needs to be based on facts. If it is not based on fact, then it needs to be corrected and challenged.”

As fellow breeze-up consignor Johnny Hassett said in The Big Interview on these pages last month, necessity is the mother of invention, and that has led to many breeze-up consignors moving their business online. The sector, with data and figures at its core, is surely readymade for online sales.

“It looks like online marketing is the way of the world nowadays,” Cullinan admits “I would be a luddite when it comes to digital marketing but we’ve learned that there is a place for it.

“Maybe people had more time to invest in the online side of their business with the way things have gone. It certainly looks like the people who had the wherewithal and the foresight to get websites up and running, videos of horses and so on, has allowed them to steal a march on the rest of the consignors. I think you will see increased activity in that department over the coming years.”

The full effect of the movement to market horses online will be more effectively analysed after the sales in the coming weeks. Cullinan says: “I have no doubt that buyers from America and other countries will be watching with keen interest, particularly those that have already been to European breeze-up sales.

“The fact that European breezers have had some recent success in the US, I’m sure there are going to be new fans of our product. However, whether they are going to be in a position to buy from afar, I’m not sure.

“Great inroads had been made into the American market in the last couple of years. We have quite a big profile in America thanks to the likes of Gronkowski and War Of Will, Ete Indian, Vitalogy – all good graduates of Irish breeze-ups. The European breeze-up product is attractive to Americans. We have a zero tolerance to drugs, which is a big positive for them, and the increase in the relevance of turf racing over there also helps.”

High hopes

All will be revealed soon because it’s about to get very busy. Among the Church Farm and Horse Park Stud entries, Cullinan has high hopes for a very sharp Kodiac filly (lot 4) and a Night Of Thunder filly (lot 19) in the Craven Sale. There is also a No Nay Never filly in the Arqana Sale (lot 233), who “could be a bit special.”

The hope is that they can all go on to make him proud, regardless of what price they make. One of Cullinan’s biggest highlights is Music Show, who he sold on for relatively small money, but whom he took great pleasure in for her exploits on the track.

“That is the biggest thing we get out of the game,” Cullinan says. “Yes, we all want to make a few quid and balance the books, but the biggest thrill is when you see a horse you had something to do with go and achieve big things on the track.

“This year is going to be a great year for people to buy breezers because when you think about it, there has been six or seven months of training gone into them already. Some of them should be ready to rock and roll straight away.

“Given the type of horses the breeze-up sector are buying, there is plenty with a long career ahead of them that are waiting to be bought.

“We’re only halfway through this season and there is plenty of racing for them afterwards.”