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Arqana, Goffs UK Teamwork Brings Market Relief

DONCASTER, UK– They say good things come to those who wait and few people in the bloodstock world have had a more anxious wait for action this spring than the European breeze-up consignors, who have seen their regular sales slots pushed back by at least two months in a world sent awry by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A collectively large sigh of relief was heard on Wednesday as first Goffs UK then Arqana posted results far exceeding most expectations. The words ‘resilience’ and ‘extraordinary’ were used freely by vendors and buyers alike in assessing the buoyant level of trade through two consecutive sales held over nine hours, with both posting improved figures on those returned during the strong and undisrupted 2019 sales season.

If Goffs UK provided a strong warm-up act throughout the morning and early afternoon, the trade really heated up right from the first lot through the ring for the Arqana Breeze-up Sale. It may have been taking place in England with horses being sold in sterling but they were the only major differences for a sale which has grown in strength and reputation year on year, and the change of venue certainly did not deter buyers. Even with travel restrictions, the international participation was felt strongly in the ring.

The level to which private sales had been conducted prior to the sale was evident in the fact that of the 165 horses originally catalogued for Arqana, only 77 horses went through the ring in Doncaster, but of those, by the close of trade 64 had found homes at an improved average price of £140,698 (compared to €129,798 in France last May) and median of £76,000 (from €75,000). The turnover from 83% sold was £8,879,700. Editor’s Note: private sales continued to take place after the close of trade; up-to-date statistics can be accessed here)

War Front Filly Puts Best Foot Forward

Kerri Radcliffe doesn’t buy a large number of horses but she tends to buy well, as previous recent purchases such as Nadal (Blame) and Away Game (Aus) (Snitzel {Aus}) testify. The Northern Irish agent has strong American connections and she secured a first on Wednesday when buying at a European sale on behalf of U.S.-based owner Larry Best of OXO Equine.

Radcliffe’s selection, a War Front filly out of Beauty Parlor (Elusive Quality) (lot 224), had of course started life on the other side of the pond in Kentucky, where she was bred by Joseph Allen, who also bred and raced her illustrious sire. At £650,000 she led the sale and will go down as another profitable pinhook by Brendan Holland of Grove Stud, who sold last year’s Arqana sale-topper for €1.1 million. Now known as Ocean Atlantique, that son of American Pharoah will on Sunday bid to become the second graduate of Grove Stud to win the G1 Prix du Jockey Club after The Grey Gatsby (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}).

“I am thrilled to say that she is for Larry Best and as far as I know this is the first horse he has bought in Europe,” Radcliffe said. “I’d say she will be going to Saratoga but I don’t know who will train her. Larry said to me ‘if ever you see something exceptional in Europe get in touch’ and she is exceptional. We bought her with one bid, I thought she would go for more.”

She added, “Well done to Goffs and Arqana for getting this sale on, and to Tattersalls last week, and to all the vendors for keeping these horses going.”

The filly, whose dam was a stakes winner in France and America and is herself out of the Group 2 winner Moon Queen (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells), was one of two daughters of War Front bought at Keeneland September last year by Holland, this one from Claiborne for $185,000. He said, “We’re surprised with how well the day has started–it’s a strong sale for sure. The fact that there’s even a sale on is fantastic but this pales into insignificance when you look outside the sales ground. We are eternally optimistic but you wouldn’t want to look too far ahead in this business.”

Bastard Is Boss

There has been no shortage of Keeneland September yearlings showing up in Deauville for the Arqana Breeze-up in recent years, and it was another from the same source who became the most expensive colt of the day at £620,000.

He, too, is bound for farflung shores, and will eventually be trained in Hong Kong by John Size after Matt Coleman outbid his business partner Anthony Stroud–who had been in action earlier in the session for Godolphin–to secure the son of Street Boss (lot 354) from Malcolm Bastard’s draft.

The consignor is a relatively rare commodity in the breeze-up sector as an Englishman in a big pool of Irish vendors and he is one of the best when it comes to the art of handling nascent talent. A major part of his Wiltshire business is pre-training for some of the major owner-breeders in the sport, and the champions Golden Horn (GB) and Too Darn Hot (GB) are just two of the many good horses to have learned the ropes with Bastard in recent years.

His modesty and dislike of the limelight are two factors which lead to Bastard’s slightly dour expression on occasion but there are few more passionate horsemen out there and even he allowed himself a smile after the colt who had been picked up as a yearling by the consignor and three partners for $120,000 left the ring with a much higher 2-year-old price tag.

“He just wanted a little bit longer than some of the others but he has always been a really nice horse with plenty of pace. He stood out at home,” he said of the colt out of the Flatter mare Undo, a full-sister to GII Super Derby winner Apart. “The trade has been unbelievable today. Racing just seems so resilient.”

Coleman added, “We have known about the horse for a while and Malcolm has a huge opinion of him. He’s a beautiful horse and he breezed great.”

Johnny Be Good

Johnny Collins was the man with the Midas touch last week at Tattersalls when turning a £72,000 Night Of Thunder (Ire) colt into a Craven-topping 575,000gns breezer, and the golden boy was back with a bang during the Arqana Sale with the sale of an Exceed And Excel colt (lot 240) to Jamie McCalmont on behalf of Coolmore for £525,000.

Collins, who bought the son of the dual winner Duquesa (Ire) (Intikhab) at Fairyhouse for €43,000, said, “There has been lots of American trade at Arqana in the past and I put him in this sale as I think Exceed And Excels work best with some sun on their backs and on fast ground. I’ve been lucky to have some good horses in the past but it doesn’t happen every year, though this year I felt they were a very good bunch and they have proved that on the track. I have to admit I have had some sleepless nights though.”

Collins may sleep a little better having sold eight horses throughout the session for £1,018,500, which put his Brown Island Stables in the top three vendors for the sale.

More O’Brien Signings

Joseph O’Brien was one of the few Irish trainers at the sale in person and he will have at least two of the higher-priced lots of the day to train. These include lot 225, a colt from Willie Browne’s Mocklershill by first-season sire Shalaa (Ire), who was knocked down at £460,000 to Bill Dwan on behalf of Chantal Regalado-Gonzalez.

Browne had bought the colt out of the listed winner Besotted (Ire) (Dutch Art {GB}) for 150,000gns from Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Sale.

O’Brien will also take charge of lot 333, the Gleneagles (Ire) half-brother to G1 Phoenix S.-placed Lottie Dod (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), who was sold by Johnny Hassett of The Bloodstock Connection for £240,000.

“I’m delighted he’s going to Joseph O’Brien; he breezed really well and if he’s as good as we think he is we’ll be hearing about him again. He’s come from a very good breeder in James Duffy,” said Hassett, who bought the colt for 42,000gns at the Tattersalls December Sale.

He added, “I felt like both sales were going to be strong. Although there wasn’t the footfall you would usually expect, there were plenty of vettings and that’s always a good sign. This initiative by Goffs and Arqana has clearly been very successful. We’re really at their mercy. We brought the horses and they have got the buyers here.”

Amo Racing Restocks

Alex Elliott bought the G3 Albany S. runner-up Setarhe (Ire) (Footstepsinthesand {GB}) for Kiavash Joorabchian’s Amo Racing as a yearling and the owner invested further in the bloodstock market on Wednesday with two expensive breezers.

Lot 234, the Shamardal half-brother to the Group 3-placed Ejtyah (GB) (Frankel {GB}), will join Setarhe at Roger Varian’s stable after Elliott went to £460,000 for the colt from the Aga Khan family of Hong Kong Vase winner Daryakana (Ire) (Selkirk).

“He’s one of the best horses I’ve ever seen in a breeze-up,” said Elliott. “He’s by Shamardal and you almost can’t buy those. The mare’s first foal is stakes-placed. He’s a May foal and he did a great breeze. I just haven’t seen that many with such a good profile.”

Vendor Mick Murphy of Longways Stables added, “The delay to the sales has been to his advantage. He came to us in December and has just kept improving. He’ll be a back-end 2-year-old. We are having a good day.”

Elliott later struck again for Amo Racing, going to £300,000 for Gaybrook Lodge Stud’s Siyouni (Fr) filly (lot 245) out of Enraptured (Ire) (Oasis Dream {GB}). She will be trained by Ralph Beckett.

The agent said, “If she gets a bit of black type we’ll be in business, and on her breeze and her physical she is certainly entitled to be decent. She is ready to go and we won’t be waiting around.”

A Kingman For Godolphin

Through agent Anthony Stroud, Sheikh Mohammed signed up one new juvenile from the Arqana Sale for his Godolphin string in lot 228, the Kingman (GB) filly already named Chloe (Ger) and out of the German Group 3 winner Calyxa GB) (Pivotal {GB}).

The May-born filly, bred by Gestut Haus Itlingen, was secured with a bid of £380,000 from the draft of Yeomanstown Stud, who bought her at Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Sale for 125,000gns.

Bell Chimes In Early

There was a fast start to the sale, thanks to the fastest breezer in the catalogue (lot 203), a colt by More Than Ready bought last year at Keeneland by Longways Stables for $130,000 and resold for £265,000.

Nick Bell, son of trainer Michael Bell, has already been involved in a decent 2-year-old this year when The Lir Jet (Ire) (Prince Of Lir {Ire}) won in his colours first-time-out at Yarmouth before being sold on to Qatar Racing and winning the G2 Norfolk S. Bell senior and junior will be hoping for a similar level of success from the half-brother to GIII winner Lord Simba (Discreet Cat), having bought him on behalf of owner Kulbir Sohe.

“His gallop was the fastest in the sale which is obviously very important, and he’s from a very good farm,” said Nick Bell. “We came here to buy one really nice horse. It’s exciting to have such a nice colt coming to the yard; he’s a horse for next year as well and hopefully he will take us to plenty of good Saturday meetings.”

Patience Pays Off For Kavanagh

A sole juvenile by first-season sire The Gurkha (Ire) (lot 276) was catalogued for the sale but he produced a decent result for Roderick Kavanagh’s one-horse Glending Stables draft when selling for £260,000 to agent Stephen Hillen.

The son of the stakes-placed Long Face (Whywhywhy) was bought from breeder Newsells Park Stud for 47,000gns as a foal then bought back for 72,000gns at Tattersalls October Book 2 when offered by the Kavanagh family’s Kildaragh Stud.

“Dad and Michael Downey bought him as a foal and it was all down to Mr Downey, who picked him out, and he’s over the moon,” said Kavanagh. “It’s been a long road with him but we loved him and he’s the best one I’ve had to do this job.”

Relief and Delight For Arqana

As the day drew to a close, Goffs auctioneer Nick Nugent likened the events that led to significant relocation and restructuring of two sales to a long and difficult foaling which eventually produced a really good foal. Few could argue with that analogy, especially not the team from Arqana, despite them having had to move from their traditional seaside home of Deauville.

“The two companies and also the vendors working together to get all the teams involved has been really good, and the vendors in particular have adapted well to a situation in which they have had to have the horses for a lot longer than usual,” said Arqana’s director of marketing Alix Choppin. “They have faced uncertainty in not knowing where and when the sales would take place but it just shows how adaptive and resilient this industry is. I think there was a light of hope after the breeze on Sunday because the breeze went really well and there were some really nice horses and everybody just suddenly felt that these were horses that people would want to buy. Everyone started to feel a little more upbeat after the breeze and the sale has just confirmed that well-produced horses consistently whet the appetite of buyers, even buyers in absentia, such as John Size, Christophe Clement and Larry Best. Certainly the confidence they have in the vendors has played a huge part.”

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Global Views: Data Transparency A Must

The delay to the breeze-up season has caused consignors and other industry participants to change their behaviour to make the best of an unfortunate situation. My Twitter feed has been filled with content from the likes of The Bloodstock Connection’s John Hassett, who has been boundless in his pursuit of engaging and educating a wider audience about the intricacies of the breeze-up industry. Across John’s vlogs, there has been recurring debate surrounding whether or not more information should be provided at breeze-up sales, including official times.

Elsewhere on Twitter, Jack Cantillon launched a novel initiative to educate a wider audience through a series of bloodstock webinars. This attracted more than 100 individuals to buy into three “Bargain Breezers”, the first of which they bought at the Tattersalls Craven Sale this week. The most pertinent point to me is that shares in this syndicate were sold on the basis that the buying would be based on “interactive data and value,” and for many of the members it is their first investment in a racehorse.

As an industry, we face a battle to attract new owners into the sport, yet there is general disregard towards changes that will aid this. There is a wealth of information that could be made available to purchasers at the breeze-up sales: official breeze times, weight, veterinary interventions pre- and post-breeze, stride length, etc. The world is not what is was 50 years ago. The current generation expects data to inform its decision-making. Jack Cantillon’s excellent initiative illustrates this perfectly–the next generation of participants will be data-driven. Keeping the information hidden is not a sustainable model.

The argument against greater transparency rests on the perceived impact it will have on clearance rates, particularly, but not exclusively where the timings of breeze-up horses are concerned. The sales companies defence is that they are protecting the interests of their vendors. As with any disruptive proposition, those who are doing well out of the current situation are likely to be the most entrenched in their views and most opposed to any new model. However, many disruptors actually increase rather than decrease the economic value of the sector which they seek to ‘disrupt.’ There are now more private cab rides in London since the inception of Uber, and Airbnb and other online hotel and holiday sites have contributed significantly to an overall growth in the tourism sector, albeit at the expense of the market share of the package holiday suppliers.

A common reference point to the negative impact of publishing official breeze times is the U.S. market, where clearance rates are significantly lower than in the UK. What is not generally considered is that the U.S. is a completely different market. It is more one-dimensional in its requirements, namely speed, whereas the European markets are driven by more multi-dimensional dynamics. Look at the breeze-up results in New Zealand, where official times are also provided. In the last three years, NZB’s Ready to Run sale has had an average clearance rate of 70%, which compares to 74% at the Tattersalls Craven Sale. Noticeably, in New Zealand many of the more expensive horses breeze relatively ‘slow’ times. Certain European sales, such as the Craven breeze-ups, focus on better quality, potentially slow-burner types, where timings might be an indicator, but they are unlikely to be the be-all-and end-all for most purchasers.

In Australia, Vicky Leonard’s Kick Sales Platform has worked with Bhima Thoroughbreds to improve transparency at the yearling sales. They provide information, be it positive or negative, that removes some detective work and makes the information readily available to potential buyers. Through their first year at the yearling sales, Bhima managed a clearance rate of 97% compared to the national average of 84%. Transparency in the sales arena should not be feared but embraced. Within the industry, those who can’t or refuse to adapt to the growing demand for transparency will lose out. The industry as a whole cannot rely on lack of information or a patronising belief that more information will somehow confuse the customer in order to survive.

The current COVID-19 crisis has sparked innovation across many sectors. The breeze-up sector has also responded admirably. As with a lot of changes adopted by necessity, many will become the new normal, driving cultural and behavioural change in the long term. If greater transparency and more information to buyers are some of these, then that will be to the long-term benefit of the industry as a whole.

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Night Of Thunder Colt Tops Craven

A colt by Night Of Thunder (Ire) from Johnny Collins’s Brown Island Stable topped Thursday’s Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale when bought by Tom Biggs of Blandford Bloodstock for 575,000gns. The colt, whose sire’s fortunes have only continued to improve since he was bought for £72,000 as a yearling, proved a smart pinhook.

Action at Park Paddocks has now moved on to the Tattersalls Ascot Breeze-Up Sale. A full report will follow.

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Breeze-Ups Back On At Last

Europe’s belated breeze-up season at last gets underway on Thursday in Newmarket, with the combined Tattersalls Craven and Ascot Breeze-Up Sales (for which the breeze took place on Monday) setting the scene ahead of the joint Goffs UK and Arqana Breeze-Up in Doncaster six days later on July 1. Osarus staged its juvenile sale online on May 27, but these will be the continent’s first live, in-person (and, crucially, in-horse) bloodstock sales since the world was brought to a standstill by COVID-19 in mid-March. The Tattersalls Guineas Breeze-Up Sale will be staged on July 8, and the Tattersalls Ireland Goresbridge Breeze-Up brings the curtain down on July 24.

The world effectively went into lockdown on the eve of Tattersalls’s planned Ascot Breeze-Up Sale in early April, and a revisit of the timeline of events surrounding the rejigging of the sector’s calendar shows just how swiftly, completely and unexpectedly COVID-19 tightened its grip. Tattersalls quickly moved to combine its Ascot and Craven sales, and those have endured no fewer than four date changes to accommodate lockdown and national health protocols as well as the racing calendar and other sales. Goffs UK and Arqana officially announced their partnership on Apr. 18 with the sale slated for Ireland, but the latest amendment on June 4 saw the sale moved to Doncaster to allow vendors and purchasers to take in the Tattersalls breeze ups and the Goffs UK/Arqana breeze ups in one country, breezes included, within the space of 10 days and avoid the risks and quarantines required for moving between countries.

Through all the headaches of the past three-plus months, the key principals of the breeze-up sector have largely set aside their personal agendas and admirably worked together to put in place a plan expected to work best for the industry as a whole. Tim Kent, managing director of Goffs UK, recalled how seamlessly the collaboration with Arqana came about.

“We came to the conclusion that it made sense to try to work together,” Kent said. “It was a conversation that I had with Nick Nugent and Henry Beeby; the three of us were talking and said, ‘maybe we should think about combining with Arqana.’ I know that Henry then put in a call to Eric Hoyeau in Arqana and when Henry suggested it to Eric, Eric started laughing and said, ‘funny, because Freddy [Powell] and I were talking about the exact same thing this morning.'”

Freddy Powell said the decision was “a bit of a no-brainer” for Arqana.

“We had 165 horses catalogued and 132 of them were based in Ireland,” he said. “At the time when we started talking [with Goffs UK] it was obvious that Ireland was the place to go because the horses were there and the pandemic was not as bad in Ireland as it was in England, but we were not expecting the Irish authorities to be as strict on quarantine as what happened later in the spring. Now that we know that most of the buyers are based in England and they’d have to quarantine when they got home from traveling anywhere in Europe, it made more sense to do it in England. And we thought it was fair to vendors and buyers to be in the same country as Tattersalls so people didn’t have to travel as much. It was pretty simple in the end because everyone wanted to work for the benefit of the industry in general. We all had the same goals.”

At the joint Goffs UK and Arqana Breeze-Up, the Goffs UK 2-year-olds are catalogued as lots one through 165, and the Arqana horses 200 through 365. They will all breeze at Doncaster on June 28 and, after two inspection days meant to allow buying parties more time to coordinate and to spread out on the sales grounds, they will all go through the ring on July 1. Tattersalls has adopted the same spacing between its breeze and sale.

“The Goffs and Arqana teams were looking for the same things, and so far it’s worked out really well,” Kent said. “We’ve come together to put together a platform and we think in a way that we’ll be better together. Someone said to me the other day that it’s kind of like the Kelloggs advert-the original and the best. The Doncaster Sale was the first one in Europe so that’s the original sale and we’ve had great success on the track. Arguably the best breeze-up sale in Europe last year was the Arqana sale, and they’ve had a huge amount of success with horses like War Of Will and Channel (Ire). Hopefully it’s a good marriage; the original and the best.”

Powell concurred. “It will be fantastic on July 1 that potential buyers will have the choice between our more two-turn horses that we are usually selling at Arqana, as well as the sharp 2-year-olds that are usually sold at Doncaster,” he said. “Normally you’d have to go to two different places to see those horses, and now they’re all in the same place.”

Goffs UK and Arqana also worked closely with Tattersalls in coordinating sale dates and health protocols to ensure a seamless transition between sales.

“We’ve all been put in very similar situations and I think above all we’ve been acutely conscious that the consignors have been put in a horrible situation from the outset,” said Tattersalls Marketing Director Jimmy George. “They have big investments tied up in these 2-year-olds and to find your well thought out business plan completely undermined by events completely outside your control is unsettling at the very least. All the sales companies were very conscious of our responsibilities to our own businesses, but equally to the people that make our businesses, and that’s the consignors on the one hand, and also to stage sales that work for the purchasers. We’ve been working closely and trying our best to accommodate all concerned and I think that’s reflected well on everybody in the industry. It’s not just been Anglo-Irish cooperation; we’ve been working very closely with our French counterparts as well to make sure everybody gets a fair crack of the whip.”

“We’re no different to so many other businesses throughout the world in the last few months,” George reflected “Everything we’ve all been used to and the conventional approach to everything went flying out the window with the spread of the pandemic, and it was pretty well on the eve of what would have been our breeze-up sale season. It fairly quickly became apparent that we wouldn’t be able to stage those sales, either the Ascot Breeze-Up Sale or the Craven Breeze-Up Sale, either in a conventional manner or on their original calendar dates. We had to move fairly quickly on that, but I don’t think we realized quite how dramatic the changes would have to be, and I don’t think we’re alone in that; I think the world was taken by surprise and we were no exception.

In addition to greater spacing between the breezes and sales, Goffs UK/Arqana and Tattersalls will adopt precautions including limiting sale attendees to pre-registered vendors and buyers and mandatory health questionnaires, medical forms and temperature checks. Social distancing on the sales grounds and the use of PPE like face masks and gloves will be enforced, and hand sanitzer will be readily available throughout the sales grounds.

For those who are unable or choose not to attend the sales, online bidding and phone bidding will be available for all sales. For Goffs UK/Arqana, the Goffs UK platform will be used for the entire sale.

“We have a new online bidding system that we’ve trialled extensively and it seems to work very well,” Kent said. “There will also be a large team from both Goffs and Arqana and we’re very willing to take telephone bids on the day. You don’t have to be in attendance to participate in the sale. We’re also going to be weighing and measuring the height of each horse prior to their breeze and that will be displayed on our website. People can get more information than they normally would from the website. We won’t be doing official times but we will be able to provide times to people who want them. Anyone who is registered with us and needs more information along those lines, we can provide that. For people that can’t attend the sale, we can also put them in touch with vets and agents who might be able to assist them. We’re hopeful that the two viewing days, which is something we’ve never had before, will enable all purchasers, whether that’s owners, agents or trainers, enough time to get all the information they need to be able to participate in the sale.”

“One of the things we have had to do is explore as many avenues as possible to make it easy for buyers to participate at sales in the event that they’re unable to attend in person,” George added. “That’s something that we at Tattersalls have worked hard on, to get the technology up and running for the Craven and Ascot Sale. Live internet bidding will be a part of all Tattersalls sales from hereon in starting with the Craven and Ascot Breeze-Up Sale and we’ll also have phone bidding very much available to purchasers who are unable to attend. We’re conscious we need to pull out all the stops to make the sales accessible.”

Kent was outspoken in his praise of the vendors and buyers in their role in coming up with a workable solution for the sales calendar.

“The vendors and purchasers have all been really keen to do everything they can to ensure we can put the sale on,” he said. “We’ve certainly had plenty of opinions from vendors about what we should or shouldn’t be doing, but they’ve all been really constructive with their views. It’s been very much a team effort between the vendors, the purchasers and ourselves to try to find the best way to sell these horses.

“Everyone wants [the sale] to happen, needs it to happen, and everyone has been doing what they can to make it happen. Let’s be honest, it’s not perfect; the perfect solution was the original sale, which [should have been] two months ago. It’s not perfect but we’re very much trying to do what’s best for everyone and hopefully this provides a solution that suits the vast majority.”

At the end of the day, it is unlikely that anyone is expecting superlatives to be attached to these sales, given the state of the global economy, but Kent said a good result would be a satisfactory clearance rate; for the breeze-up vendors to move this crop along and be in a position to re-invest at the yearling sales.

“No one is predicting we’re going to match last year’s statistics; that would be naivety in the extreme to think like that,” he said. “I think a critical thing for us will be clearance rate–I think people need to get horses sold. These guys need to get some liquidity back in to pay the bills, so if we can get horses sold that’ll be a big success for us. I think if it feels like it’s a successful sale, if horses are getting sold and vendors are happy, we’ll be happy. And we’ll be even happier when they go and prove themselves on the track.”

George noted that the mood at HQ has noticeably soared since the resumption of racing.

“Being based in Newmarket and surrounded by 70-odd trainers and people who are professionally engaged in the sport, it was remarkable to see that perceptible lift in spirits when the starting stalls clattered open for the first time since March,” he said. “To have racing back in Britain, Ireland and France-albeit behind closed doors-is the tonic the industry needed. We’ve already enjoyed some fantastic racing and we’re looking forward to plenty more. We’re back up and running, albeit slightly differently, but there’s more of a feeling of optimism around everywhere.”

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