AUCTIONEERING has been in the Botterill family for three generations, with my grandfather Jack Botterill, who decided not to follow in his father’s footsteps of training racehorses in Malton. His first auctions were held at the York Horse Repository, where horses were stabled on different floor levels, akin to a multi-storey car park. The family also conducted the selling races at many of the Yorkshire tracks, including York and Doncaster.

The Ascot Sales were established in 1954, a time when Tattersalls were still conducting sales at Glasgow Paddocks in Doncaster. The first auctions were held at the now nonexistent Ascot Royal Hotel Stables, and then moved with the racecourse stables to Winkfield Row until moving to their present site in 1977.