For the first time since the socially distanced sales in the autumn of 2020, the key numbers at Tattersalls’ Book 1, Europe’s premier bloodstock auction, last week were all down. Turnover dropped by 24% from last year’s record of 126.7m gns (£132m), to 95.3m gns (£100m), at least in part because the total number of lots sold was down from 424 to 391, but the average and median sale prices were also down, by 18% and 10% respectively, to 243,977 gns (£256k) and 180,000 gns (£189k).
These are still, of course, very big numbers and, in the midst of an ongoing cost-of-living crisis, the average passenger on the Clapham omnibus will not be too concerned that members of the super-rich global elite have not shelled out quite as much on young, untried thoroughbreds as they did 12 months ago. Young horses, in fact, such as Military Leader, a colt by Dubawi and a top-10 lot at last year’s Book 1 costing 1.5m gns (£1.57m), who made his racecourse debut at Newmarket on Saturday in a £5,400 maiden – and beat just one of his eight opponents home.
Exeter 1.40 Coconut Splash 2.15 Post No Bills 2.50 Opening Bid 3.25 Newmill Getaway 4.00 Ten Ten Twenty (nb) 4.35 Scrumpy Boy 5.10 Coolnaugh Haze
Worcester 1.55 Glimpse Of Gala 2.30 Prince De Juilley 3.05 Huckleberry Sting 3.40 Elogio 4.15 Doughmore Bay 4.50 R S Ambush
5.20 Karannelle
Ayr 2.10 Frankendael 2.45 Peace Walk 3.20 The Gay Blade 3.55 Admiral D 4.30 B Associates 5.05 Temper Trap 5.40 Don’t Look Back (nap)
Chelmsford 4.25 Pressure’s On 5.00 Nubough 5.30 Roman Dynasty 6.00 Lunarscape 6.30 The Waiting Game 7.00 Bluebells Boy 7.30 Time Patrol 8.00 So Sleepy 8.30 Pretty Peg
Military Leader’s sale price would be a life-changing lottery win for most of us, but it is just another speculative splurge that may have gone awry for Godolphin and its owner, Sheikh Mohammed, who was back at Tattersalls last week and picked up 20 lots in all, costing a total of 12m gns (£12.6m).
He was joined at the famous sales ring by longstanding bidding rivals and some fresher faces, including the emergent Qatar-based Wathnan Racing, whose agent signed for more than a dozen yearlings. The Coolmore syndicate picked up the top lot, a 2m gns (£2.1m) Frankel colt, while the Shadwell operation, which is now overseen by Sheikha Hissa al Maktoum following the death of her father, Sheikh Hamdan, bought seven yearlings to carry its famous blue and white silks, including the week’s most expensive filly – by Frankel, almost inevitably – at 1.6m gns (£1.68m).
Globalised and sovereign wealth, in other words, remains a law unto itself, and while demand for the most choicely-bred yearlings was not quite at its previous record level, it remains strong. The early signs were promising too on the first morning of the Book 2 sale on Monday, which will be followed by Books 3 and 4 over the next six days with around 1,500 yearlings catalogued to be sold.
Doyle handed suspended ban for positive test
Hollie Doyle, currently fifth in the Flat jockeys’ championship, has received a one-month suspension from riding, suspended for 12 months, after testing positive for traces of dihydrocodeine (DHC) on her return to riding on 31 March following an elbow injury.
Doyle told BHA investigators that she had been taking what she believed to be ibuprofen tablets, purchased “over the counter” in Japan under the label of “Pabron Ace Pro”, and the Authority accepted that this was the source of the DHC in her sample.
At a “fast-track” hearing, the Authority’s independent disciplinary panel imposed the penalty on the basis that, while the case involved “an element of lack of care”, there was “no evidence to suggest that Ms Doyle’s suitability to hold a licence is affected".
The key question for British racing is how many of these yearlings will end up running on our tracks, in races that tend to lag behind many international rivals in terms of prize funds but trump them – at courses like Epsom, Royal Ascot and Goodwood – in terms of kudos and heritage.
And this is where the British Horseracing Authority will hope to offer a helping hand, via its much-trailed “premierisation” project, which will begin to take shape next year.
A number of independent tracks in particular – those that are not owned by either Jockey Club Racecourse or Arena Racing Company (ARC) – have expressed concerns about the process, which aims to promote the top tier of the sport at what seems to many to be the inevitable expense of the day-to-day schedule.
A proposed restriction on the number of meetings in the key Saturday afternoon window from 2pm to 4pm is a particular bone of contention, and the expected publication of the 2024 fixture list on Tuesday will take on unusual significance as a result. The biggest losers, almost certainly, will be relatively small tracks which have one or two Saturday fixtures each year that, in effect, underwrite the remainder of their schedule when they will welcome a fraction of their weekend crowd.
Nottingham: 2.02 Global Skies 2.37 Divine Comedy 3.12 Midair 3.47 Go Daddy (nap) 4.22 Yorkstone 4.57 Stressfree 5.30 Kentucky Kingdom
Ludlow: 2.10 Stonific 2.45 Kundaline 3.20 Rexem 3.55 Lisnamult Lad 4.30 Hedera Park 5.05 Quick Draw (nb) 5.35 Miss Applejack
Sedgefield: 2.20 Johnny M 2.55 Breeze Of Wind 3.30 Brian’s Jet 4.05 Oceans Red 4.40 Leopolds Rock 5.15 Getaway Jewel 5.45 Micks Jet
Kempton Park: 4.17 Mezzo Soprano 4.52 Cynosure 5.25 Imperial Guard 6.00 Happy Place 6.30 Mafnood 7.00 Enola Grey 7.30 Mount Olympus 8.00 Dark Side Thunder 8.30 White Mist
“Premierisation” is not a new idea, but it has taken on renewed momentum since Peter Savill, who first proposed it during his time as chairman of the BHB, the BHA’s predecessor, presented a report to the BHA Board warning of dire consequences for Flat racing if his plans were ignored.
A personal feeling about this has always been that promoting the top tier of the sport at the expense of the remainder is a high-risk strategy that appears to rely on some kind of trickle-down process to preserve the much-loved – and very valuable – variety of British racing. The apparent winners and losers when the fixture list emerges on Tuesday will be the next test of whether such concerns are justified.
