Dubai: The New Breeze-Up Frontier

Never afraid to explore different avenues, Goffs brings an international flair to this year's breeze-up circuit with the launch of a 2-year-old sale in Dubai.

Hosted by the Dubai Racing Club (DRC) in association with the sales company at Meydan racecourse during Dubai World Cup week on March 23, the Goffs Dubai Breeze-Up Sale represents an audacious move that involves the shipment of 69 horses to Dubai from Europe. This is done with the aspiration that exposure of the European breeze-up product to an international audience will be rewarded with enthusiastic trade.

The European breeze-up scene, of course, is basking in the afterglow of an outstanding season on the track highlighted by the unbeaten champion 2-year-old Native Trail (Fr) (Oasis Dream {GB}), G1 Middle Park S. and G1 Prix Morny winner Perfect Power (Ire) (Ardad {Ire}), and top stayer Trueshan (Fr) (Planteur {Ire}).

In addition, there remains a steady presence by graduates in the Middle East, particularly in Dubai, where the likes of Al Tariq (Fr) (Oasis Dream {GB}), Haqeeqy (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}), Midnight Sands (Speightstown) and Summer Romance (Ire) (Kingman {GB}) have each won stakes races in the past 14 months. Indeed, rarely does a meeting pass in Dubai without the European breeze-up circuit being represented by a winner. Take for example the meeting on March 25 at Meydan, at which the progressive Summer Front colt Summer Is Tomorrow, purchased for £120,000 by Tadhg O'Shea and Michael Burke from MC Thoroughbreds at the Arqana Breeze-up Sale, ran out the wide-margin winner of the Al Karama S. Two days later at Jebel Ali, Al Habash (Arrogate), sold by Star Bloodstock for 130,000gns to Ed Sackville at the Tattersalls Craven Sale, broke his maiden for Bhupat Seemar.

However, it's not all about Dubai. European breezers are also racing with distinction in Saudi Arabia, a good example being Street Boy (Street Boss), a Tattersalls Craven graduate who won his first two races just months after his purchase last year. Factor in additional potential interest from Bahrain, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, North America and Europe and it's easy to understand the hopes of Goffs to establish this sale as a high-flying event on the sales calendar.

“It's hugely exciting,” says Tom Taaffe, Dubai Sale co-ordinator. “It appears to have caught the imagination.

“Henry Beeby [Goffs CEO] has always given me an open hand to explore different avenues for Goffs. It was suggested to me a few years ago that this was something that might work, so we followed it up back then, put some work into it and ended up by putting a proposal together.”

Nothing came of those early efforts but the groundwork had been laid, and so when the idea was revisited last year upon the interest of Sheikh Rashid bin Dalmook Al Maktoum, chairman of the Dubai Racing Club, the sales house didn't need much encouragement to set the wheels in motion.

“Sheikh Rashid rang me to ask if we could look at it again,” says Taaffe. “So I travelled out to Dubai, had various meetings, and we pulled it all together. The contract was signed on the day of the Prix Morny [Aug. 22] and we were able to announce it later that evening.”

The timing of the announcement ensured that the Goffs UK Premier Sale, held that week in Doncaster, was awash with Dubai breeze-up chatter. It also ensured that the breeze-up community had plenty of time to digest the idea ahead of the sales season, in particular the Kentucky yearling sales, an area of the market that is traditionally attacked by European pinhookers.

And attack it they did. With the idea in mind that plenty of Dubai's racing is staged on dirt, the catalogue features 30 American-breds, among them those by top Kentucky sires such as Into Mischief, Curlin, Gun Runner, Kitten's Joy, More Than Ready, Speightstown and Uncle Mo. Justify is also among the first-crop sires represented. 

The other half of the catalogue understandably offers a more European slant and is similarly impressive, boasting representation from Dubawi (Ire), Frankel (GB), Kingman (GB), Kodiac (GB), Lope De Vega (Ire) and Oasis Dream (GB). Also of interest is a colt by top Japanese sire Daiwa Major (Jpn) (Sunday Silence) bred by Coolmore out of champion Peeping Fawn (Ire) (Danehill) (Lot 31).

“At the outset, we were hoping to produce a catalogue that was half and half–half turf and half dirt,” says Taaffe. “Dirt and turf both work well in all those countries. 

“There is always going to be a bit of scepticism when something new is launched and we respect that. But the consignors, who are a seasoned, hardy bunch of guys and extremely professional, have really backed this and given us some of their best horses. We started off with over 200 entries and we have ended up with an excellent group of horses–I think people will be amazed at the quality on offer.”

The catalogue consists of 72 lots but three are reserves, meaning that 69 will go under the hammer from 34 British- and Irish-based individual consignors.

Willie Browne's Mocklershill is numerically the strongest with nine, among them the aforementioned Daiwa Major colt and a Kingman colt out of Listed winner Snowy Winter (Elusive Quality) (Lot 48).

Church Farm and Horse Park Stud send through a Frankel half-brother to G3 winner Lily's Angel (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) (Lot 30) while Malcolm Bastard breezes a Dubawi daughter of Listed winner Joyful Hope (GB) (Shamardal) (Lot 24), herself a sister to champion Crackerjack King (Ire) (Shamardal). Mark Grant's trio includes a Dark Angel (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) colt who is closely related to champion Tarnawa (Ire) (Shamardal) (Lot 57).

Those with American Grade I connections include two from Meadowview Stables in a Maclean's Music half-brother to Grade I winners Majestic Harbor (Rockport Harbor) and Danza (Street Boss) (Lot 8) and a Mendelssohn colt out of the Grade I-placed Maybellene (Lookin At Lucky) (lot 28). 

The trio catalogued by American Pharoah are also unsurprisingly well-related, among them Grangecoor Farm's colt out of G3 UAE Oaks heroine Polar River (Congrats) (Lot 36), herself a half-sister to another UAE Oaks winner (and former European breezer) in Down On Da Bayou (Super Saver).

Justify is represented by a filly out of G2 Pocahontas S. winner Dothraki Queen (Pure Prize) from Aguiar Bloodstock (Lot 13) and a colt out of Listed winner Sarrocchi (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) (Lot 44) from Diego Dias.

When it comes to sire power, Micky Cleere's MC Thoroughbreds draft also takes the eye as vendor of a colt by Gun Runner (Lot 1) and a filly by Into Mischief (Lot 67), both sires who are carrying all before them in the U.S. Cleere, who will breeze the horses himself, went shopping last year with this sale in mind.

“It's exciting and something to look forward to,” he says. “It's nice to bring the horses to these buyers for a change. We had this sale in mind when we were buying last year, certainly when it came to the Gun Runner–that was the plan when we looked at him.”

The Gun Runner colt is out of Grade II winner Bank Audit (Wild Event) while the Into Mischief filly is out of Grade III scorer Ageless (Successful Appeal). The draft is rounded out by a Raven's Pass (Elusive Quality) colt from a black-type American family (Lot 5).

Gun Runner looks a serious sire,” says Cleere. “And this colt is the only one by him in the catalogue. He's a good-sized colt and a good mover. Donal Keane was out looking at Keeneland for us and we liked this horse but he didn't sell in the ring, so we followed him down and got it done. And I'm glad we did as he's a lovely horse.

“The Into Mischief filly is very strong and she's fast. She's generous in her work and improving with every week. And the Raven's Pass is a good solid horse who is also very genuine.”

American influences also make up the draft belonging to Brendan Holland's Grove Stud, which offers a colt by Hard Spun (Lot 3) and a filly by Speightstown (Lot 54).

“Goffs and Tom Taaffe have worked extremely hard to make this sale happen and hard to promote it,” he says. “I've got two nice horses–both are good-sized, good-looking, square horses by respectable sires. Hopefully they'll come up the track with a bit of style.”

The Hard Spun colt, who cost $80,000 as a Keeneland September yearling, is a three-parts brother to Hawthorne Derby winner Mohs (Hard Spun) while the Speightstown filly, who cost $50,000, is the second foal out of the winning Union Rags mare Surprising Twist.

“We were looking to get three tiers of horses,” says Taaffe. “We have catalogued some upper-league horses. Then there are ones which will be more affordable and a solid middle group in between. And I'm confident some of those middle-market horses will pull up into the upper league.”

So how will it work?

“Sheikh Mohammed's vision is incredible and he has been very generous,” says Taaffe. “A lot of it is at his own cost, the staff expenses and the plane taking the horses out for example. So it's very important from Goffs' perspective that we have a catalogue with the right horses, and that was one of the reasons for having the horses vetted beforehand [chosen entries were only confirmed once they had passed a vetting examination during the early weeks of February].

“They fly in on 17 March on a temporary quarantine pass. The jet goes out of London Stansted with the British-based horses and flies into Shannon to collect the Irish horses. They will load up straight away and then go straight on to Dubai. 

“They should all be in their stables in Dubai by 9.30 p.m. that night. Then they spend two days in the NOFA quarantine facility at the track. They have excellent facilities; they'll be able to make use of a hacking track and lunge rings among other things. Then on the Sunday morning, they will be able to use the training track if they want and again in the evening as well. And they can repeat that again on the Monday. For those wanting to watch them train, they'll all be wearing cloths carrying their lot numbers.”

Prospective purchasers will be able to view the horses on Sunday between 4 and 8 p.m. and again on Monday within the same time slot. The breeze takes place from 7:45 a.m. onwards on Tuesday, Mar. 22 on Meydan's Tapeta training track and, in a departure from the norm, horses will be required to turn in a gentle two-furlong breeze, allowing them to be judged for their movement rather than by the clock.

“It's early in the year and a lot of these horses won't be running until November at the earliest,” says Taaffe. “They'll have to be let down afterwards and acclimatise for a few months before going into pre-training. So there'll be no timing and no stride pattern figures, it'll be all about allowing prospective purchasers to see that the horses can move well.

“When it comes to selling them, the horses will come up to the receiving barns at the track and we'll have five walking in the parade ring at the time of the sale while one is being sold in the winner's enclosure.”

The sale kicks off at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Mar. 23 and the bidding will be conducted in Emirati Dirham.

While the expectation is that many will be bought to race in Dubai, Goffs have received intentions of interest from buyers based worldwide. Indeed, given that the horses are coming in on a temporary quarantine pass, it's not inconceivable that several will make the return trip to Europe.

“We've had interest from Europe, Australia, Japan and Turkey, alongside all the Gulf Cooperation Council countries,” says Taaffe. “The Saudi Arabian race programme in particular is becoming a lot larger [the Saudi Jockey Club will host 90 meetings at the King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh this season, up from 64 in 2020-21]. There is another racetrack near Mecca called Taif that they're looking to make more use of during the summer months. So they'll be racing 12 months of the year and they need horses to fill that programme.”

He adds: “It's exciting. The whole team at Goffs have put a lot of hard work into it. Nick Nugent [Goffs executive director] has worked hard with me on the logistics. 

“We're delighted in the way it's been embraced and supported worldwide. If you have proper horses and proper people, then you will have a proper sale. 

“We're very pleased with the catalogue and I'm confident that the consignors will be well rewarded. But this sale will also be judged on what happens afterwards on the track. We want to be selling good horses and also sustainable horses that run year after year, that is the ethos behind it.”

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New Dubai World Cup Breeze-Up Sale to Be Conducted By Goffs

The new Dubai World Cup Breeze-Up Sale in association with Goffs will be conducted by the Irish sales company on Mar. 24, 2022, the Dubai Racing Club (DRC) announced on Sunday.

Held during Dubai World Cup week, the sale will have a maximum size of 69 2-year-olds that will be sourced from vendors by Goffs which will appeal to both local and international buyers. All lots will undergo a full veterinary examination prior to departure to ensure full transparency and buyer confidence.

Sheikh Rashid bin Dalmook Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Racing Club said, “The UAE, Dubai and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum have long been great supporters of the sport. Therefore, we are excited to host the Middle East's first breeze-up sale, and also the first ever online sale to be conducted in the Gulf and Middle East region to enhance our owners' exposure to high quality horses. We are partnering with a world-renowned auction house and together we are taking steps towards creating a bright future for the sport in the UAE.

“As far as the potential horses are concerned, they look like a very exciting bunch of young horses who will hopefully bring plenty of success for their new owners. In addition, Dubai World Cup week is a meeting point for leading owners and bloodstock professionals from Europe, the USA, Australasia and Asia and as such we are hoping for strong trade at the inaugural Dubai World Cup Breeze-up Sale.”

Added Goffs Group Chief Executive Henry Beeby, “We are extremely grateful to the Dubai Racing Club for the confidence they have shown in the Goffs service by entrusting this prestigious sale to us. We look forward to working with Sheikh Rashid bin Dalmook, the Chairman of Dubai Racing Club and his team to deliver a world class event a day before the eve of the world's most prestigious race. We have a long and successful track record in the breeze-up sphere having held Europe's first breeze-up sale at Doncaster back in 1977 which also proved the source of the first European Classic winner from a breeze-up in Speciosa (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}) who won the English 1000 Guineas. It will be a privilege to conduct a sale of this stature in Dubai at the invitation of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed.”

All of the juveniles will undergo quarantine in Dubai prior to the sale and gallop on the dirt track at Meydan on Mar. 23, 2022. There will be no official times for 2-year-olds, but instead they will be galloped on the bridle. Nominations for the sale will be open in due course, with stable visits taking place following the yearling sales season. The visits will be led by Nick Nugent and Tom Taaffe, the latter of whom brokered the deal on behalf of Goffs.

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Competitive Bidding as OBS June Opens

OCALA, FL – The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's June Sale of

2-Year-Olds continued the trend of strong results at this spring's juvenile sales with a day of competitive bidding Wednesday in Central Florida. Gary Young made the session's highest bid, going to $425,000 to acquire a filly by Practical Joke on behalf of owner Amr Zedan.

A total of 176 horses sold Wednesday for a gross of $7,268,400. The average was $41,298 and the median was $20,000. All figures were up from, not just the pandemic-delayed 2020 June sale, but also from the auction's 2019 renewal.

During the first session of the 2020 sale, 163 head sold for $5,037,800. The session average was $30,907 and the median was $13,000. In the first session of the 2019 June sale, 204 horses sold for $6,119,500 for an average of $29,998 and a median of $17,500.

Eighteen horses sold for six figures during Wednesday's session.

“I think the sales all year have been really strong, from March to Maryland, to here, everywhere has been really strong,” said Jimmy Gladwell, who sold the session topper through his son and daughter-in-law's Top Line Sales. “I think it's a reflection of what the market is. There is a lot of money out there and a shortage of horses. Everybody always says quality sells, but it's more so this year. The market has been really deep this year.”

Young said Wednesday's results confirm the evolution of the June sale

“I think the June sale is getting better,” Young said. “People don't find it necessary to gear these horses up as early as they used to. Like with this filly here today, if you bring the right product to this sale, you will get paid.”

The June sale continues through Friday with sessions beginning daily at 10:30 a.m.

Zedan Goes Back to the Top Line Well

Amr Zedan, who purchased subsequent Grade I winner Princess Noor (Not This Time) from the Top Line Sales consignment for $1.35 million at last year's OBS Spring sale, went back to the Gladwells' consignment to acquire a filly from the first crop of Practical Joke (hip 258) for a session-topping $425,000 at OBS Wednesday. Zedan's Racing Manager Gary Young made the winning bid on the chestnut, who worked a quarter-mile in a bullet :21 1/5 during last week's under-tack preview.

“I thought her breeze was unbelievable,” Young said. “She went in :10, :21, :33 and :45 1/5. The first part of the breeze was conducted with a pretty good tail wind, but the last the part of the breeze, when she started up the backstretch, there was a pretty strong headwind hitting her in the face. And she still went from :33 to :45 1/5 from the three-quarters pole to the five-eighths pole. And they needed a pony to pull her up.”

The filly is out of stakes-placed Devious d'Oro, a half-sister to graded winner Devious Intent (Dixie Union), and is bred on the same cross as recent 'TDN Rising Star' Wit.

“I went to the barn and she is a nice, big filly,” Young said. “I think she acts and looks like she'll be a really good 3-year-old. We are planning on running her as a 2-year-old, but she looks like a 3-year-old-type filly. She looks like she'll run long.”

He continued, “We had good luck with these people when we bought Princess Noor off them last year. Time will tell, but I thought she was the best horse in the sale.”

The filly was bred by White Fox Farm and was purchased by Jimmy and Martha Gladwell for $45,000 at last year's Keeneland September sale.

“The filly was really backwards when we bought her,” Jimmy Gladwell said. “She came from a farm that was selling everything. We looked at her and she was a big stretchy raw-boned filly who was backwards. When I went in to bid on her, I had to outbid my good friend David Ingordo and you always like to see buyers like that as the underbidders.”

The filly was originally entered at the April sale, but was withdrawn due to a throat infection.

“We really always believed in the filly all year–every morning I would tease in the viewing stand that this is my Oaks filly,” Gladwell said. “We didn't think she presented herself well [at April], so we took her home. We gave her a couple little works and brought her over here and she was just fabulous.”

Gladwell gave credit to his assistant trainer and daughter Nellie Breeden for preparing the filly and his son and daughter-in-law, Jimbo and Torie Gladwell, with presenting her at auction.

Of Wednesday's result, he said, “It's more than we really expected. The filly had worked so well and galloped out so well. But it's the June sale and you just never know what's going to happen.”

Jimbo and Torey Gladwell have enjoyed plenty of success with progeny of Practical Joke this spring. Top Line Sales sold a filly by Coolmore's first-crop sire for a sale-topping $750,000 at the OBS March sale and another filly by the sire for $500,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale.

Young signed the $1.7-million ticket to acquire a colt by Gun Runner on behalf of Zedan at the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale in March. Asked for an update on the juvenile, now named Taiba, Young said, “He is in training at Santa Anita with [Bob] Baffert. We'll probably look at a race at Del Mar for him. He is working well. He is not all there mentally, as far as focus, but he's been working with older horses. So we are very happy with him and we are looking forward to when the light comes on. We think we will have a very nice horse.”

Uncle Mo Filly to Lanni

Bloodstock agent Donato Lanni made a final bid of $375,000 to secure a filly by Uncle Mo (hip 149) on behalf of an undisclosed client Wednesday at OBS.

“She's a big, strong filly,” Lanni said of the dark bay juvenile. “It looked like they gave her the time to get here. That's the good thing about June. There are horses here who look like they were given time if they weren't ready for an earlier sale. And I love that about the June sale. This filly wasn't pushed into a sale and they gave her the time. She's a cool filly.”

Consigned by Julie Davies, the dark bay filly is out of multiple stakes winner and multiple graded placed Brooklynsway (Giant Gizmo). She worked a furlong in :10 1/5 during last week's under-tack show.

Bred by Town & Country Horse Farms and Gary Broad, she was purchased by the latter for $180,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton February sale and RNA'd for $190,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Selected Yearlings Showcase in September.

Lanni agreed there was still demand for horses as the juvenile sales season nears its conclusion.

“There are people here. It's great to see,” he said. “There was a time that people thought June was just a get-rid-of sale. But there are some good horses who came out of this sale over the last five years plus.”

Maclean's Music Colt Sets Early Tempo

A colt by Maclean's Music (hip 101) led the way early during Wednesday's opening session of the OBS June sale when bloodstock agent Lauren Carlisle, bidding over the phone, outlasted agent Steve Young, bidding out back, to take home the juvenile for $350,000. Out of Artillery Punch (Kitten's Joy), the bay worked a furlong last week in :10 1/5. He was consigned by Jesse Hoppel's Coastal Equine.

Carlisle, who purchased the colt on behalf of the Webber family's  B.C.W.T. Ltd., had been following the colt since March before finally being able to acquire him Wednesday.

“Jesse showed me this horse on the farm back in March when I was there for the March sale,” Carlisle said. “He was catalogued for March and was scratched. So I went out to the farm to see him and I loved him in March. Then in April, I went back to the farm and I tried to buy the horse privately off the farm. And that wasn't an option, so I have been waiting for the opportunity to buy this horse since March. I've been a huge fan of his since the first day I saw him. I put it in my mind that he was our horse this whole time and we just had to go and seize the opportunity and that's what we did.”

Carlisle, who is not at the June sale, did her bidding on the phone through OBS's Wes Peterson.

“For this sale, there was only one horse in the catalogue for me,” Carlisle said.

Hoppel purchased the colt for $120,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton October sale, less than a year after he was bought back for just $6,000 at Keeneland November.

“I really felt like I had to have that horse as a yearling and I stretched farther than I typically do,” Hoppel said. “But he turned out to be the right kind. Sometimes that doesn't always work out.”

While the bay colt was making his first trip through the sales ring this year Wednesday, he had originally been entered in the OBS March sale.

“He was entered in the March sale and maybe we got ahead of ourselves a little bit,” Hoppel said. “The horse got a little shinny on us and we put him off to a later sale. It turned out. We couldn't be happier with it.”

The delay allowed Hoppel to sell after a weekend in which the colt's sire Maclean's Music was represented by Drain the Clock and Jackie's Warrior, the one-two in the GI Woody Stephens S., as well as Estilo Talentoso, who won the GIII Bed o'Roses S.

“I designed that,” Hoppel said of the update with a laugh. “I knew that was coming all along. I want to thank Woody Stephens.”

Carlisle admitted Maclean's Music's exploits this past weekend had her concerned about how much hip 101 would end up costing her.

“I was scared,” she said. “I was pretty freaked out about how much he was going to cost, to be honest. But I wasn't going to get outbid. I was buying the horse. It's been going since March and I couldn't get away from him.”

Hoppel said the horse would have attracted buyers wherever he ended up.

“He is a great individual,” Hoppel said. “I had a lot of horses in training this year, not only sale horses, but horses for end-users going to the races and he stood out among them. Anywhere I brought that horse he was going to be a standout.”

He continued, “He's a really impressive horse, not only on the Poly, but on the dirt as well. I would arguably say he was better on our surface at home than he was on this artificial surface. So I think for the people that Lauren is buying for, they are looking for a dirt horse, and maybe he's a Saturday afternoon horse. I don't know. Time will tell.”

Wednesday's pinhooking success was just the latest strong result for Hoppel this spring.

“Our sales season has been phenomenal,” he said. “For my customers, for my partnerships, for my pinhooking. We've just had an unreal year. Last year, the market was down and we bought in as hard as we ever had. And fortunately the market came in the right direction. We've reaped the rewards from that. In every sale, we've had some great successes. We are just having a great season. I am just really scared to go into the yearling market. We sold in a strong market. Now we have to buy in it. It's going to be tough. But that's the way it goes.”

Classic Empire Filly to West Point

West Point Thoroughbreds' Terry Finley signed the ticket at $300,000 to acquire a filly from the first crop of champion Classic Empire (hip 245) from the consignment of Gabriel Dixon Wednesday in Ocala. The filly is out of Decoder (War Front), a full-sister to Data Link and will be trained by that Grade I winner's conditioner Shug McGaughey.

“The female side of this family is pretty close to legendary,” West Point's Jeff Lifson said. “It's all Phipps and Claiborne and Stuart Janney–all those folks who have been such an important part of our game. And they know how to breed.”

The bay filly worked a furlong last week in :10 1/5.

“The filly had an incredible stride length and was still a little bit immature and still did what she did on the racetrack,” Lifson said. “We know Gabriel well. He's one of those great mom-and-pop type of operations who do the right thing with their horses. Collectively that's a really strong set of signals that you've got to have this filly.”

West Point Thoroughbreds has been active throughout the 2-year-old sales this spring, most notably purchasing the $1.5-million sale topper at last month's Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale.

“I think this year, we piggybacked off what we saw in the pandemic year, which was a lot of pent-up demand,” Lifson said. “I don't think it's a surprise to anyone that a lot of people who are racing are dying to go watch their horses and spend time with them. And that includes our partners. We may have been a little bit stronger at the 2-year-old sales this year than in years past, just in terms of numbers and maybe a few higher-priced horses, but it's all driven from the partners, from the people who really write the checks and support all of this.”

McGaughey trains the promising First Captain (Curlin)–who was tabbed a 'TDN Rising Star' following a May 29 allowance score–for West Point and partners.

Hip 245, bred by Classic Empire's breeders Steve and Brandi Nicholson, was purchased by Dixon for $22,000 at last year's Keeneland September sale.

“I just liked her frame and her walk,” Dixon said of the filly's appeal last fall. “She was a little bit immature through her knees at the time and I could see why people might not like her, but I forgave her for that. I had a very good hunch that she would outgrow that problem and she did come Christmas time. She just had a little bit of epiphysitis in her knees. So she grew out of that and she just matured and did everything well over the winter. She just went from strength to strength.”

Dixon said the filly had originally been targeted at the OBS April sale.

“Bringing her here did her more favors just by giving her the extra time,” he said. “I had her in the April sale originally, but I scratched her out of there. In hindsight, the extra time, the extra few months, really helped her. She is a very nice filly and her mind is fantastic. I think the Classic Empires will be a force to be reckoned with in the second half of the year. They are big horses and I think they'll mature and I can see them, especially this one, being successful later in the year.”

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Breeze-Up Sector Hopes For Positive Reboot

NEWMARKET, UK–Business as usual? Hardly. But at least things don't feel quite as unnervingly unusual as last year.

At the best of times, breeze-up pinhookers have a precarious window of opportunity. After a long winter of preparation, their horses get a few, fleeting seconds between those timing lasers–and if for any reason they misfire then very few prospectors nowadays, whatever they may claim, will give them the benefit of the doubt. And, unlike with foals and yearlings, there is no second chance. All you can do is put the horse into training yourself, and hope to sell off the track.

On the one hand, then, it was especially hard on this sector that it should have been the first exposed to the terrifying economic uncertainties that accompanied the outbreak of the pandemic this time last year. On the other, you could argue that the resilience and adaptability routinely demanded of its practitioners made them more eligible than anybody, once the time came for the industry to send someone back up that ladder and over the parapet.

The belated resumption of the breeze-up calendar, then, was not just an exercise in damage limitation in terms of their own profit and loss. It also became a gesture of perseverance on behalf of horsemen everywhere. They would absorb the shock and, so long as they could still afford it, they would be back in the autumn to restock.

In the event, that actually proved a somewhat more expensive process than they might have imagined in the summer. But the confidence that had returned to much of the market, by the time of the yearling sales, at least entitles consignors to return to Newmarket on Tuesday with some hope of due reward for their exposure last year.

For all the Covid protocols still to be observed, the Tattersalls Craven Sale is not only restored to its customary slot–having last year been staged the week after Royal Ascot–but coincides with the latest easing in national restrictions. Just to be here, renewing such familiar rituals, heightens a sense that things may finally be getting back onto an even keel.

Yes, the calendar remains in a state of flux, not least given the contrasting Covid picture in France and Ireland. Yet those present for the breeze show were nonetheless heartened to renew one of the most timeless spectacles anywhere on the Turf: the silhouette of a young Thoroughbred pulling up against the horizon of the Rowley Mile. Pandemic or no pandemic, the skylarks remained delirious as ever; and the slow clouds, hanging high in the East Anglian sky, alternated the lingering chill of winter with samples of brighter days ahead.

True, the number of spectators appeared down on years past, but then this is hardly the only environment where remote retail has matured in consumer trust over the past year. Besides, we know how many people nowadays view even breeze videos through a prism of evidence gleaned by their timers, stride-counters and all the rest. Quite how many buyers are still incorporating old-fashioned horsemanship into their shortlisting is another matter. As always, it was fascinating to observe the observers: which agents, for instance, didn't bother to make a single note all morning; and which, equally, sited themselves to pick up any “straws in the wind” as the horses were eased.

Tattersalls, for their part, have assisted the regrouping process by introducing a twin bonus scheme, worth £125,000 to any graduate of the sale who can first win a juvenile race at Royal Ascot; and another £125,000 to any who can first win one of the 15 European Group 1 races open to 2-year-olds. (This would be split in a ratio of £100,000 and £25,000 to owner and vendor, respectively.) Consignors are complimenting Tattersalls on looking to their laurels, regarding this sale, with Doncaster having made such an effective play for the precocious types likely to be ready for Ascot, and Arqana muscling in on pedigrees that might take a little longer but also reach a little higher.

As ever, of course, it all boils down to flesh and blood and the associated roll of the dice. Few consignors ever get a pleasant surprise at the breeze show, and there were the usual cases of stage fright and/or soreness reported here. But at least those are familiar challenges. By the time this sale was eventually staged last year, with many horses sold to regular clientele off the home gallops, a catalogue of 154 had shrunk to 84 in the ring. Of these, 70 sold for a 61,000gns median and 94,993gns average, down from 85,000gns and 121,682gns, respectively the previous year–and from sale records of 110,000gns and 144,082gns in 2017. Yet it was a relief just to get the cycle renewed in some form.

Overall, the salvaged calendar contrived what was generally considered an acceptable return in the circumstances. Many had feared real carnage.

“It was all little bit nervous, to say the least,” recalls Brendan Holland of Grove Stud. “Would there be a marketplace at all? And if so, how would it happen? And not only was there a marketplace, but an amazing increase of about 20% in the amount of individual buyers.”

The clearance rate was strong, too, though it must be said that would prove a trend in every sector, suggestive of a “fire sale” mentality.

“For sure, there was a higher-than-normal level of pragmatism in the valuation of stock,” concedes Holland wryly. “And possibly there was an element, in the increased number of purchasers, of people seeking value as a result. But ultimately it was about the success the horses have had on the track. Even in an uncertain year, that over-rode everything. There was bigger participation than you'd ever have imagined, and that was because the track end is what it's all about. The breeze-up horses are performing consistently at a higher and higher level every year.

“It's so important for the overall health of the industry that our particular part held up, because we're such important investors in the yearling market–and of course that feeds into the foal market, feeds into the mare market. I'm also a yearling seller, so a healthy breeze-up market was as important for me in that way as it was as a breeze-up seller. They're all links in the same chain and thankfully it held up.”

Holland found Book 2 of the October Sale as strong as ever, but did feel that restocking was slightly less expensive elsewhere.

“The other sales, worldwide, were all back a little bit,” he says. “Back by acceptable margins, but still back: it was a little bit easier to buy. Because I think people in the autumn were still in that pragmatic mood, with their valuations, and there was still uncertainty.”

His biggest concern, as an Irish consignor, is that the business has jumped straight from the frying pan of Covid into the fire of Brexit.

“And that, to me, is much more challenging even than Covid,” he argues. “It has different and long-term implications, for the economy and for the ability to do business. Covid will pass. Brexit's not going to pass. You couldn't describe the headaches it's causing, in unnecessary paperwork and cost.”

Routines that Holland has been following for 20 years have suddenly become complicated and expensive.

“I had the Department of Agriculture checking my horses coming here,” he says. “Then we had another check for Doncaster. Because I'm now exporting to a 'third country' outside the E.U., by law they have to check all these horses before they can travel. Brexit is adding costs not just to the British economy but to other economies as well, and there's no gain: only extra cost, extra bureaucracy. People give out about E.U. bureaucracy but it's been replaced by even more.”

But if the goalposts keep moving, then you can fall back on one constant.

“Your job is to produce nice horses,” Holland stresses. “That's what keeps you in business. Your job is not to forecast trade, economies, currency differences. You can't start thinking about things that you have no control over. Producing the horses is what will get you out, in good times and bad.”

Holland himself has started the cycle with familiar challenges. Only three of his original six entries made the journey, thanks to untimely setbacks. One will make another sale, but the other pair will have to go into training. But it's precisely because such experiences are so familiar that this sector has its reputation not only for resilience and adaptability, but also for world-class horsemanship.

“This is an extremely tough way to make a living for many reasons,” Holland reflects. “First of all because you're dealing with something so unpredictable, in livestock. But also because of who you're competing against. When most people go to work in the morning, they're not competing against the best in the world. But we are: every sale we go to, Europe and America. So you just have to make the most of your good luck, and hope that you have a proper card somewhere in your deck. Because some years you won't–and you will always have the other kind!

“It wasn't just our industry that faced challenges last year. It was the whole world. So you just had to be accommodating, had to be flexible. And yes, I'd say we are flexible by nature anyway. When you work with animals, you're being challenged daily, never mind annually. So it was a big deal, but we coped.”

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