Industry Heavyweights Have Their Say On The Market Ahead Of Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale

[Wandering Eyes]

In the age of stride length and cadence, stopwatches and sectionals, top speeds, biometrics and all of the other measurement tools out there to judge a racehorse on, one could be forgiven for thinking that all bases are covered at the breeze-up sales. 

However, handler Willie Browne, bloodstock agent Ross Doyle and trainer Joseph O'Brien, three titans of the bloodstock industry, say they don't care if you utilise data until your eyes bleed–there will always be good horses that will escape through the net.

That is good news for the goose, but it's also excellent news for the gander. You see, be it the breeding stock sales, yearling market or indeed the breeze-up game, the demand for high-end stock has never been greater. But clearance rates remain a worry and buyers need to think they have a chance. 

Whether Browne has been watching too much of the action at Augusta, or whether he's gone completely cuckoo over the clock, the Mocklershill maestro says he expects the middle market to be a 'bogey' area for vendors ahead of the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale. Therein lies the value. 

He said, “I think the market will be very good if you have a good one, but that's not any fresh news story for you. That's the way the market has been for a little while. I haven't got a crystal ball so I don't know if the trade will be there for the nice horse who does a nice breeze but doesn't make it into the top 20 per cent on the clock. I don't know how that is going to go. I'm hoping it will go well but, if it does, it will be a change to what we have been used to in the past few years because it's gone so clock-orientated it's unreal.”

Browne added, “I keep going back to Arqana last year as an example-I sold three or four very nice horses and, if they're not Group horses already, they're on their way to being Group horses. But I was only getting my money back on those horses because they didn't break the clock. God be with the days when you had a nice horse with a bit of book and a nice big stride on him, you'd always get your money back at worst, but if he breezed smart, you could get a few quid. Now, if you're not in the top 15 or 20 per cent, you may as well go home. It's just the middle market that is the bogey area here.”

Ross Doyle: has bought a number of smart types inexpensively at the breeze-ups | Tattersalls

Doyle and O'Brien have shopped the middle market with a huge degree of success in recent years. This year's Craven will be played out to a soundtrack of star graduate Believing (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}), and rightly so given her Group 1 exploits on the international stage in Dubai last week. Lest we forget that Believing didn't cost the sun, moon and stars either at 115,000gns at this sale two years ago. Nor did her sire, Mehmas, who Doyle and his father Peter sourced for just 170,000gns at this same sale in 2016.

Doyle recalled, “Mehmas breezed very similarly to how he raced on the track. He wasn't the most imposing, but he had such good action and dropped his head down low and it just got lower and lower as the breeze went on. You could see that he was trying very hard and, when he went past the line, still in a very controlled manner, you could see he was a very good horse. That's what his trademark is now and his progeny are just like him-they seem to try very hard. But he came from a very good home in Roger Marley and John Cullinan, who have sold a lot of good horses over the years. That's very important as a buyer, to go back to the right vendors.”

You could say there's something of a, 'you can look but you can't touch,' approach to agents with a limited budget utilising times at the breeze-up sales. Yes, they are there, but there is always going to be a premium to seeking out and trying to buy those who are deemed faster than the rest. 

That's why horses like recent G3 Irish 1,000 Guineas trial fourth Carla Ridge (Ire) (New Bay {GB}) and genuine Classic prospect Stem (Ire) (Calyx {GB}) were purchased for inexpensive sums of €105,000 and €120,000 respectively using the one tool that has served the Doyles well down through the years. Their eyes.   

He explained, “We've bought between eight and 10 horses at the breeze-up sales over the past few years. Obviously, the yearling market is our main business. But we like buying breeze-up horses. We're not able to get involved at the top end of the market, which we have seen over the past few years to be very, very strong, but we usually work in that 50,000-250,000 bracket and we've been lucky to have bought some nice horses down through the years. There's definitely value around, though, especially in the past couple of years where things seem to have become quite polarised. I think this could be a good year for people to be doing their homework as there will be some nice horses who can be bought at the breeze-up sales.”

Doyle added, “We watch the horses up close during the breeze. That's the process I have been taught, as Peter would have done back in the day, as the Liam Brownes and the Richard Hannon Snrs of this world would have done. They were absolutely obsessed with the horse's physique-that always came first. And then, if it fell into their bracket budget-wise, it worked. But it has always been down to liking the horse physically. We look at all the horses breeze and we're looking for something that's nice and relaxed, with a good temperament and good action. There is plenty of data out there if people want to use it and obviously we use as much as we can but, when it comes down to it, we've got to send these horses to trainers. When it comes to pulling the horse down from off the box, if the horse is not the normal type that we buy physically, the trainers would be very upset. I can't turn around and say, 'Well, he did a very good time but he's not there physically.' That's not going to work.”

Joseph O'Brien: I work a lot of the breeze-up sales with Stuart Boman [Blandford Bloodstock] | Sarah Andrew

O'Brien agrees. And while he admits that he is a stickler for the two As, attitude and action, he revealed there are some parameters he is rather more relaxed on when it comes to sourcing the value at the breeze-up sales. 

“First and foremost, finding value for clients is the most important thing for us, he said. “Generally speaking, in order to find value, you have to go against the grain a little bit. I work a lot of the breeze-up sales with Stuart Boman [Blandford Bloodstock], who obviously has his own clients, but he makes a list for me. I watch the breeze at home before flying over on the day of the sale.

“The bottom line for me is the performance. If they don't perform in the breeze, I don't look at them. There's a couple of things that are important for us. You have to have a horse who behaves well–behaviour and attitude is one thing that's very important for me–and you like to see them moving well. If they behave well and they move well, the rest of the pieces in the puzzle are all relative. You're not going to expect a middle-distance horse to come up there in the top 10 per cent on times. But behaviour and action is non-negotiable.”

O'Brien added, “We've bought every type of horse from the breeze-ups. Stuart bought Up And Under (Fr) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) [at Arqana for €135,000] on behalf of his clients [Go Racing] and he finished fifth in an Irish Derby. Galileo Dame (Ire) (Galileo Gold {GB}) was a stakes-placed filly who also wasn't an expensive breeze-up purchase and, on the quicker side of things, we had Rudi's Apple (Ire) (No Nay Never) who ran imminently after the breeze-up sales and won and was traded on. We just try to find value in the market and, whether it's a veterinary issue that we can live with, or even a sire that isn't fashionable, wherever there's value, we'd look to try and take a view on that.”

There is no denying that this sphere has never been more professional. Doyle concedes that, similarly to the National Hunt business where point-to-point handlers are out-bidding trainers at the store sales, he has been forced to play second fiddle on numerous occasions to breeze-up handlers at the yearling markets. 

While the quality and standard of consignor has never been higher, there is still room for the diamond in the rough, of which Tattersalls Guineas Breeze-Up Sale graduate Anshoda (Ire) (Inns Of Court {Ire}) is a perfect example given her 5,000gns price tag proved no barrier in her making it to the Breeders' Cup last year.

And while Browne says he doesn't have a crystal ball ahead of the Craven, he says he's willing to bet big money that more high-class horses will slip through the cracks throughout the breeze-up season. 

Browne concluded, “A bit like Book 1, the ordinary man doesn't come to the Craven but he should because there is value there. I know that there's value there. I'm not saying that the fast horses don't end up being very good horses because they do. And the stats will back this up, the breeze-ups are the best source of winners by a country mile and more people should be turning up because there's a lot of value there. 

“But I'll admit that I am scratching my head a little bit about where this market might be for the horse who might not run until October. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of good agents and trainers who are clever enough to give horses a chance-Jake Warren, Hubie de Burgh, Ross Doyle, Joseph O'Brien and plenty more-but there are an awful lot of good horses slipping through the net.”

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