The ‘Ascot Three’ Sprinkling Extra Stardust on Tattersalls Ireland

[Wandering Eyes]

Three Group 1 winners this year have emanated from the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale, with their wins coming across four glorious days on the biggest stage of all: Royal Ascot.

From the opening-day thrill of Docklands (Massaat) holding off Rosallion (Blue Point) in the Queen Anne Stakes came a dual top-level strike on the Friday of the meeting for Cercene (Australia) in the Coronation Stakes and Time For Sandals (Sands Of Mali) in the Commonwealth Cup. To have bought all three of these horses at Fairyhouse as yearlings would have cost €101,000.

It is easy to imagine that their trainers, Harry Eustace and Joe Murphy, will be back shopping at Tattersalls Ireland when this year's sale gets underway on September 23. Across Europe, the hunt is already on, but at Fairyhouse, perhaps more than anywhere, you can expect to find a vast array of trainers on the beat. 

“You have to go to the sales and find your horse, don't you?” A rhetorical question from Simon Kerins, CEO of Tattersalls Ireland. 

“They get a bit of value, you know. Someone said once that you need a type and I thought 'Well, do we?' You can find the sharp, speedy types, but I know people that have come and bought a big backward type of horse there and they've gone on well.”

Wicklow Brave would fall into the category, and what a star he became. An €11,000 yearling bought by Bobby O'Ryan, the son of Beat Hollow returned to Fairyhouse two years later for the Derby Sale in Luke Barry's Manister House Stud draft, with Harold Kirk and Willie Mullins going to €43,000 to ensure he went home with them to Co Carlow. From 59 starts and 17 wins, Wicklow Brave proved to be the ultimate dual-purpose hero, winning the G1 Irish St Leger and the G1 Punchestown Champion Hurdle, and running at Ascot, Flemington, Cheltenham, York, Belmont and beyond. An appropriate flagbearer, then, as a horse who had graduated from Tattersalls Ireland's two flagship sales for each code. 

“Then there's Pether's Moon,” Kerins adds. “He won the Coronation Cup. He was a huge horse, and he was gorgeous. So I suppose there's all types.”

 

Cercene, pride and joy of the Murphy family | Brian Sheerin

 

Indeed there are, and on Sunday at the Curragh we witnessed those of a more precocious leaning line up in the Tattersalls Ireland Super Auction Sales Stakes, run as part of the Irish Champions Festival. The 16-runner contest went the way of Alparslan (Dandy Man), who was bought by Federico Barberini on behalf of Mohammed Saeed Al Shehhi for €75,000 and contributed to a memorable weekend in Ireland for his trainer Karl Burke. 

Kerins says, “Karl Burke will turn up perennially and he's a great supporter of the sale. Our sales race is the longest-running race of its kind in Europe.

“The likes of Clive Cox has always done well at that sale too, as have some of the breeze-up guys. I've always thought we could compete with any sale at a level.”

Kerins, who is now in his 26th year with Tattersalls Ireland and also pops up regularly on the rostrum at Tattersalls in Newmarket, is encouraged by the pan-European support the yearling sale at Fairyhouse receives. This year's catalogue has been trimmed back to the numbers seen in 2023, with 50 fewer horses catalogued for Part 1 (505) compared to last year. Part II, which takes place in one session, has been reduced by 110 lots.

He says, “It's a small team at Tattersalls Ireland but they're all passionate about the sale doing well, and they really put their shoulder to the wheel.

“Charles [O'Neill] and his team at ITM, again, they're really passionate about the Irish sales doing well and the Irish suffix being the flag that's flown. Having them behind us is really important. We work closely with ITM and they do a great job.”

Kerins continues,  “Italian buyers bought a huge number last year. They turn up in their droves to the September sale and the breeze-up and they do a lot of business.”

It is not just the buyers who count, however. There is something of a paradox in the growing fears of falling foal crops around the world while breeders can still struggle to find a suitable sales spot for their yearlings. The latter is a situation of which Kerins is all too conscious, particularly when he regularly witnesses first-hand the dedication of those breeders.

“It's their love of the horse and it's a love of racing,” he says. “For me, what's most satisfying as an auctioneer is seeing someone who has a smile on their face after you sell a horse. Sometimes, when you're out looking at horses, people can be hyper-sensitive in discussions about their horse, because they've either bought the horse or they've sent the mare to the stallion. They've seen this foal gallop across the field. Now it's a yearling and you're not going to take it for the sale that they thought was suitable. So it is tough.”

One potential upside to the drop in the number of foals being bred could be that this scenario is played out less frequently.

“I suppose in the long run, like anything, it comes down to supply and demand, and if you've a smaller supply of horses, there's good demand,” he admits. “That seems to be the case at the moment, that we're seeing greater demand for horses. And that will help from a breeder or vendor perspective when it comes to getting into a sale, and it helps us as well. 

“Like I always say, I'm privileged to work in a sales company and go out to see these amazing farms and meet some really fantastic people – small breeders, big breeders, whatever. And we always try to put the horses where we feel they will make the most money.”

He adds, “I think numbers contracting will help to a certain degree. It'll bring demand to every level of the market. And that's a good thing.”

There is also plenty of encouragement to be drawn from the manner in which the yearling sales season has started this year, with seemingly plentiful demand throughout the middle market at the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale and Tattersalls Somerville Sale. 

“That's a good sign,” Kerins notes. “And there seems to be really good, solid trade. I'd be more hopeful than normal before a yearling sale. I suppose with the year we've had as well, that helps.”

 

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