VENDORS at this week’s Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale in Doncaster faced into the two-day affair with some unease, fears about the health and strength of the marketplace to the fore.

However, the sales complex was packed with buyers, and while the final outcome resulted in the expected softening in the final figures, most participants would agree that the results were better than anticipated. Certainly, there were disappointments, especially among those selling in the lower end of the market, but trade for the best lots was strong.

This year’s catalogue was much larger than a year ago and, while the clearance rate fell four points to 82%, 24 more yearlings traded this year. The average and median prices both fell by 14%, to £39,610 and £30,000 respectively, while the final aggregate of just short of £15 million was down 8% on the 2023 sum.

A total of 27 six-figure sales across the two days was particularly satisfying, and for the upcoming sales season it was encouraging to note that a quartet of yearlings bettered the top price achieved 12 months ago.

Car parks full

It was a relieved Goffs UK’s managing director Tim Kent, who commented: “We’re perfectly satisfied with the trade that we’ve witnessed across two solid days at the Premier Sale. The car parks have been full since Sunday morning, and there was plenty of traffic through the yards in advance of the sale, so we were hopeful of a good trade, but there was an understandable nervousness before we started.

“However, the nerves were quickly settled when the sale started strongly and it has continued in a similar vein from start to finish, which was a pleasant surprise for vendors, purchasers, and the sales company representatives! The top of the market was particularly strong with 27 horses selling for £100,000 or more, whilst four yearlings sold for more than last year’s top price of £200,000, with the £350,000 top price being the third highest in the sale’s history – a fantastic result for the Moyfinn Stud team.

“Whilst we are proud of the 82% clearance rate, it would be remiss of us not to acknowledge the continued selectivity within the market, and this was evidenced by some yearlings who didn’t ‘tick all the boxes’ being sold for a price which would have been unimaginable in the past. However, when you consider that there are a huge number of factors that determine the success of a sale, many of which are out of our control, I think we will look back on Premier at the end of the sales season and reflect on a very satisfactory two days in Doncaster.

“Buyers this week are all eligible for Harry’s Half Million, which was run for the first time at York last week and had a prize fund of over £625,000. It has been great to hear so many people saying that they are buying with next year’s race in mind and we look forward to seeing these horses on the racecourse.”

THE best sales result in Paul Giles’ long history of selling horses was achieved when Lot 334 stepped into the sale ring at Doncaster on Wednesday.

This was an April 3rd-born son of Tasleet and the once-raced Dutch Art mare, Dutch Monument.

Consigned from his Moyfinn Stud in Longworth, Co Meath, the bay colt’s prospects were boosted significantly when, at York the previous week, his half-brother Cool Hoof Luke, a son of Showcasing’s son Advertise, won the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes. At the same meeting, Showcasing’s son Tasleet sired Bradsell, winner of the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes, and the stars were aligning at the right time for Giles. When the gavel finally fell, it was for £350,000, the third-highest price ever at this sale, and Amanda Skiffington was announced as the purchaser. She was acting for owner Fiona Carmichael.

Oliver St Lawrence made a determined attempt to secure the colt, without success, and Carmichael revealed that her new purchase will be trained by Ed Bethell. Skiffington said: “He was just the most lovely individual, He had the pedigree too. I happen to love Dutch Art mares. My whole team loved him, in fact. We had hoped to pay less, obviously, but those updates meant that was never going to happen.”

The sale-topper was bred by Giles with his nephew Patrick from a broodmare band of five. The sale represented a massive return on the 15,000gns that Moyfinn Stud paid for the colt’s dam Dutch Monument while carrying the Tasleet colt. Speaking after the sale, a delighted Paul Giles said, “That sort of money was what I dreamed of; it’s not what I expected. You have to pinch yourself a bit. I’ve been in horses all my life in one way or another and I’ve never had anything like that.”

ONE of the most interesting aspects of the sales season is always the performance of the yearlings on offer by sires with their first crop for sale. One of them was Tally-Ho Stud’s Starman, a son of Dutch Art, and his career highlight was achieved when winning the Group 1 July Cup at four. He was unraced himself at two.

Oliver St Lawrence gained compensation for losing out on the sale’s top lot on Wednesday when purchasing the day’s second highest-priced lot for £220,000. Tom Hassett’s Monksland Stables consigned the half-brother to this year’s two-year-old Assertively, a winner and listed-placed in France, and the colt enjoyed an important update when his only other sibling, the three-year-old Southern Meteor, got off the mark in France since the catalogue was published.

Some 25 yearlings by Starman sold over the two days, averaging €52,360, and he had a trio of six-figure lots, all of which were sold by Tally-Ho. On Wednesday, his daughter out of the Group 3 runner-up Lady Aria, a daughter of Kodiac, sold to Dan Creighton of Creighton Schwartz Bloodstock for £185,000.

The filly, who is out of a half-sister to Windsor Castle Stakes runner-up Union Rose, will be trained by Karl Burke for Fenerbahce footballer Ryan Kent. Creighton said: “We came here to try to buy a horse for Royal Ascot next year. She ticked a lot of boxes on pedigree, it’s a very fast family with a load of two-year-olds. I’ve been impressed by the Starman’s that I’ve seen here and she stood out.”

The enormous contribution to the sale made by Tally-Ho and their stallions cannot be emphasised enough. The farm sold stock to the value of £1,610,000, and that was almost a million more than the next largest consignor, Lynn Lodge Stud, who narrowly denied both Barton Stud and Jamie Railton for that position.

The top 10 vendors by turnover were equally divided between Irish and British vendors, Yeomanstown, Moyfinn and Manister House Studs being the others from Ireland.

Highflyer Bloodstock and Rebel Racing’s Phil Cunningham led the buyers’ table, spending over £1 million on 10 yearlings. Doncaster regulars Peter and Ross Doyle were next, with their 11 buys averaging £68,727 apiece. A total of 231 different buying entities bought lots over the two days of trading.

SARAH Fanning, a well-known face on the sale circuit and wife of jockey Joe Fanning, had a sale to remember. She sold six yearlings for £444,000, but leading the group, by some distance, was her Havana Grey filly who topped the trade on the opening day of the sale at £240,000, having been bred when the sire stood for £6,000.

The January-born grey, who is the first foal out of the winning Showcasing mare Twist Of Hay, was knocked down to Avenue Bloodstock’s Mark McStay on behalf of Ira Gumberg’s Skara Glen Stables, outbidding trainer Paddy Twomey. “She was a gorgeous filly, she’s got the Queen Mary Stakes written all over her,” McStay said, and he also revealed that she will be trained by Donnacha O’Brien.

“Havana Grey is a great sire who’s done fantastically well with the likes of Vandeek, Jasour and Elite Status, and his fillies are really good too. Doncaster is renowned for selling very sharp, fast two-year-olds and this filly looks like another one.”

”Heart pounding”

The sale was memorable for the filly’s breeders, Muriel Knox and her son Josh. They, like Moyfinn Stud, breed from a band of just five broodmares, and they are based in North Yorkshire. “My heart was pounding,” commented a delighted Muriel Knox. “This is our best result in 30 years of breeding by a long, long way. It’s a victory for the smaller breeder! We’ll spend the money on improvements on the farm. It’s made life a lot easier.”

Sarah Fanning’s only other offering on the first day, a filly from the first crop of A’Ali, sold to Stroud Coleman for £130,000 on behalf of Shaikh Duaij Al Khalifa who raced the sire. She is the latest chapter in the success story for her Exceed And Excel dam Walaaa, who was bought for €14,000 and produced a listed winner as her second foal.

Standing at Newsells Park Stud, A’Ali is a graduate of the Premier Yearling Sale, costing £35,000, and he resold for £135,000 at the venue’s breeze-up sale. The Tally-Ho Stud-bred son of Society Rock won four Group 2 races, notably the Norfolk Stakes, Prix Robert Papin and Flying Childers Stakes at two, and began his stallion career at a covering fee of £7,500. This week his eight yearlings sold for an average of £57,125.

His best of the week was Lynn Lodge Stud’s star of the two days, a half-brother to the listed winner and Group 3 Molecomb Stakes second Rocket Rodney. He cost Stroud Coleman £150,000, a healthy return on his 68,000gns foal price.

THERE was a groundhog day feeling early on in the first day of selling when a son of Mehmas out of Red Box was sold by Houghton Bloodstock for £240,000, as his half-brother Redemption Time topped the 2021 renewal of the sale at £220,000. He is a dual winner since.

The buyer on this occasion was Highflyer Bloodstock’s Anthony Bromley, signing for Phil Cunningham of Rebel Racing. Trainer Richard Spencer joined Bromley in the ring, and they relegated Billy Jackson Stops and George Scott to the role of underbidders. Bromley and Cunningham were just starting a spending spree that saw them spend over £1 million.

Little wonder really, as last year at the same venue Bromley purchased for Cunningham listed winner Yah Mo Be There, five-length debut scorer Righthere Rightnow, and the useful The Man.

The colt was consigned by Houghton Bloodstock on behalf of Cheveley Park Stud. “He ticked all the boxes, was reared by good breeders in Cheveley Park Stud and is a real Donny type of horse,” reported Bromley. “We bought him to try to win the Harry’s Half Million next year. We definitely had to give more than I expected. I wouldn’t normally spend that much money on flat yearlings but I’m excited to get this one.”

Reflecting on trade, Bromley added: “The top of the market is very strong as we’re all on the same horses. I think the upper quartile will look robust in the final analysis.” Bromley’s other purchases for Cunningham included Yeomanstown Stud’s Dark Angel full-brother to stakes-placed Wings Of A Dove for £170,000 and Whitsbury Manor Stud’s Sergei Prokofiev colt out of the winning Dandy Man mare Shrara for £140,000.

The Sergei Prokofiev colt represented a huge pinhooking coup for Whitsbury Manor Stud, who stand the sire, as they gave just 16,000gns for him as a foal. Ed Harper said: “His biggest selling point was definitely his temperament: he never missed a show, every one was perfect, which is rare. Usually, they have an afternoon when they go off it, but not this fellow.”

That’s a real trait of the Sergei Prokofiev’s: they tend to be very easy to do. I couldn’t be happier.”