NEWMARKET, UK–Much like the trainers who brought members of the preceding crop up the road to the Rowley Mile a couple of weeks ago, rehearsing for this weekend's Classics, consignors at the third juvenile auction of the European sales calendar have returned here with a much better sense of where they stand.
When they arrived for the Craven Sale, they could only hope for signs of stability after the chaos of last year, when they had been the very first to be soaked by the Covid tsunami. And that is exactly what they appeared to find, with trade measuring up respectably not just against the 2020 sale, which was only salvaged after Royal Ascot, but also against those years when the breeze-ups had been enjoying a sustained bull run.
But if they duly proceeded to Doncaster last week with cautious optimism, nobody could have anticipated the thunderous performance of the Goffs UK Breeze-Up Sale. With records tumbling across all indices, the entire bloodstock industry had to stop what it was doing and stare agog. Could it be that those patrons of our sport whose affluence has survived the pandemic are straining at the leash to enjoy the freedoms that may soon be restored?
There will be corresponding curiosity, then, about trade at the Tattersalls Guineas Breeze-Up Sale, which follows a horses-in-training session on Friday morning.
What has been especially encouraging, at both juvenile auctions to date, is a notably robust median. While the top lots were less sensational than in recent years, nor were there the usual complaints about polarisation. And within that context there were still some authentic home runs, none more heart-warming than the one pulled off by Katie McGivern of Derryconnor Stud in realizing £180,000 for a Kodiac (GB) filly she had picked up for just £13,000 at the transferred Fairyhouse sale last year.
This was a “touch” that gratified the whole community, coming just weeks after McGivern barely survived a horrible accident at her Wexford base.
On the eve of the Guineas Sale, where she offers four lots, McGivern reflected on a spring she will never forget. With a rueful smile she recounted how she had decided that it would be imprudent to continue riding out, while raising children aged just two and three–and had therefore been merely leading a horse when catching a kick in the face.
“It was terrifying,” she admitted. “Because when they were airlifting me to Dublin it was like, this could be it. Nobody knew the extent of it. At that point, I have to say the horses were very much at the bottom of my agenda. But now the injury, I can deal with 100%. It's all positive. I'm here, and bone can heal. I shattered my eye-socket, nose and cheekbone, and they've put five plates in my face. But everything is healing the way it should be. My eye muscle is a little bit damaged at the minute, and they'll reassess six months down the line and see what they can do. But look, I'm happy to be here with one eye never mind two. And the kids love mammy now, because I'm a pirate with my eye-patch: that makes me the bee's knees.”
She merits the same description professionally, as well, for instance having brought an Acclamation (GB) filly to this sale five years ago and sold her to Blandford Bloodstock for 260,000gns. Given the name Daban (Ire), she finished third in the G1 1000 Guineas after winning the G3 Nell Gwyn S.
Now McGivern hopes that her Kodiac filly, who has joined Robert Cowell, can similarly excel.
“I think the reason I got her so cheap was not just that she was small but she also has this one white leg,” she recalled. “Because of her size, it was almost like that leg was all people could see, and I'd say that did put them off. But she was very correct, and the ratings were very good under the first dam. So she was a no-brainer for me, once she vetted fine. I only did that because I didn't want to think I was getting her cheap because she had scoped bad or something. As it was, I couldn't believe I got her for 13 grand.
“Her homework was always very good. She mightn't be very big but she had a huge stride and floated across the ground. So I wasn't surprised when she did the fastest time of the sale. Of course, you still need luck on the day: you don't want any wind against you, or the jockey to go too early or too late. But everything worked out. I kept saying, 'If she makes 60, it's a great day's work, and pat yourself on the back.' But to go on to 100, 120, and then to keep going, it was what you dream about.”
McGivern stressed her gratitude to everyone who has helped to prepare not just this filly but the whole 2021 draft, while she was recuperating from her ordeal. Principal among these were partner Tom Hore, and mother Joanna Morgan.
“Tom's a vet down in Wexford and my mother trained many a good horse,” she said. “So thankfully, between a vet and an ex-trainer, I knew I could rest up and get better and have no worry. I knew what was going on at the yard every day. But no, I couldn't have seen it out without them.”
If this particular transaction was a conspicuous tonic, after such a difficult time personally, then it was also a measure of the renewed optimism now coursing through the whole sector.
“Already at the Craven there was a depth they haven't had in years,” McGivern reflected. “There was always that worry, going to the Craven: those middle-range horses. And it was just brilliant. I hope this sale will be the same, but so far you really have to say 'hats off' to the sales companies for everything they've been doing.”
And, again, if McGivern particularly deserved a boost then the same was true of the breeze-up sector overall after enduring so much tension and uncertainty this time last year.
“The expense is huge so to add another three months, with nothing back in between, was frightening for everyone,” McGivern said. “You were investing more but didn't know whether you would get to the sales, or whether you would sell if you did. So this has been very encouraging for everyone.”
As was the case at Doncaster, this sale has inserted a viewing day between the breeze show and the auction. Different people had different impressions of the resulting atmosphere around the sales grounds on Thursday: it was certainly extremely quiet, in pleasant spring sunshine, but whether you should further describe it as relaxed or torpid is difficult to say.
“I think it works very well,” McGivern said. “Obviously there's more expense but in a big catalogue like this, or Goresbridge, I think it's vital to give people time to go through them all, and get vetting, and communicate with owners.”
After a dry spring, conditions were lively for the breeze.
“And there was a strong wind, too,” McGivern said. “But Newmarket's always an excellent track to breeze on, especially at the end where they're a little bit more tired and going hard: it's uphill, so that does take a bit of pressure off their front legs. I didn't hear of too many lame ones around this morning. It was watered, of course, and actually I think some of those early on possibly found it a little bit deader, but I was quite late up and I was happy enough.”
McGivern has two colts and two fillies in the Derryconnor shop window as she bids to consolidate last week's coup.
“I have a nice Cotai Glory (GB) filly [lot 174],” she said. “She breezed very well, she's very strong with loads of size and will be a really nice six-, seven-furlong filly for this year. Then there's a lovely Showcasing (GB) filly [51], maybe more seven furlongs. She gets the bonuses and has a really nice pedigree, one a breeder could win with and keep to breed. And then I have a couple of nice colts by Magician (Ire) [154] and The Gurkha (Ire) [254], they would probably want seven but they'd be real nice trainers' horses, I'm sure they'll be winning races.”
Albeit she was the one to benefit last week, McGivern agrees with many consignors that shoppers should assess the full package and not be enslaved to the clock. After all, the star performers of 2020 out of this sale, as featured on the back of the catalogue, show the breadth of talent available: one is Far Above (Ire) (Farhh {GB}), who won the G3 Palace House S. after making 105,000gns for Bushypark Stables to Blandford in 2018; the other is Trueshan (Fr) (Planteur {Ire}), winner of the G2 Qipco British Champions' Long Distance Cup after his 31,000gns sale, the same year, by Knockanglass Stables to Highflyer Bloodstock/Alan King.
As we all know, the agents talk a good game about assessing the horse in the round, but the die is almost invariably cast from the moment the time sheet arrives.
“There's often people who come down and ask, 'What do you recommend?'” McGivern says. “But if the horses don't clock, they don't come back. That does mean there's huge value around. I had a Mehmas (Ire) colt last week, I loved him, his homework had been really good and the sire is flying. But in the end a trainer bought a share off me, because I think he was around 50th [on the times] and you're only talking fractions.”
Not that she's complaining about her fortunes in South Yorkshire. In the circumstances, admittedly, she probably needs to think of a better way of expressing the delight of her team than by saying that they all got “a big kick” out of the Kodiac filly's price. But the hope now is that the Doncaster sale will prove a valid signpost to better times ahead for everyone. After all, there are a lot of people around who now have a heightened sense that life is for living–precisely the lesson absorbed by McGivern herself, along with a kick that somehow combined the very worst of luck (in suffering it at all) and the very best (in still being here to tell the tale).
“Everyone has been so chuffed, I've felt it, and it's been so nice,” McGivern said. “What happened, it really does teach you: you can't control every situation, whatever happens you have to play it out. You have to enjoy every day, rather than stress about things you can't control.
“And yes, maybe people out there do want to make more of their hobbies after the lockdown. So it's all very positive. As people always say, this is an industry like no other: here's the whole world falling apart, and racing just getting stronger.”
The opening horses-in-training session has been strengthened by a most attractive prospect, given her residual value. Declaring Love (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) [lot 37], recent winner of a listed sprint at Bath for John Butler, was an inspired 39,000gns discovery by Megan Evans in the Godolphin draft at the December Sale here.
The sale begins at 10 a.m.
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