A last-minute change of local Covid regulations in Ireland has led to British buyers already in the country for the Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale being unable to attend the sales complex at Fairyhouse.
The company's major sale of National Hunt store horses gets underway at 11am on Wednesday and continues through Thursday, but those who had already travelled across the Irish Sea under strict protocols which included a 'bubble' for visitors from Britain, can no longer participate in person.
Bloodstock agent Tom Malone vented his frustration on social media on Tuesday evening upon hearing the news, having already spent two days viewing the young jumping stock on the sales grounds.
He told TDN on Wednesday morning, “First of all, Tatts have done everything within their power to make sure that it goes ahead but unfortunately they are dealing with local authorities and, at the last minute, which was yesterday afternoon, they said that the English bubble does now not apply at the sales complex and if it goes ahead they would cancel everything. None of us would do that to anyone else. We are all in this industry together and we just have to work on and get it done.”
Malone said that he will now be following the sale online and liaising with Mags O'Toole on the ground at Fairyhouse. He continued, “It's frustrating. I've done all my work so it's not the end of the world for me because I have seen everything I want. But my business runs on being active on the ground, and if I am not on the ground I am definitely going to be 50% less active, because when I'm there I'll buy.
“The people who have done this don't realise the ramifications of what they have done but unfortunately it can't be changed now, and what it means for the sales coming up I don't know.”
Around 100 people had travelled from Britain to attend the sale and have been staying together in a hotel under the bubble arrangement which allows for travel between the sales ground and the hotel only.
Malone, an Irish-born former jump jockey now resident in the south-west of England added, “You come in clean with a PCR test. I've had a jab and I am doing everything I'm told to do to run my business, but out of Tatts' hands someone is ruining it for us all. But that's just where we find ourselves.
“Niamh Spiller and Mary Lanigan and all their team [at Tattersalls Ireland] have done phenomenal work late into the night making sure everyone was catered for. I feel for them. They've done everything they can.”
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