Mahony Sounds Note of Caution Despite Strong December Returns at Tattersalls

[Wandering Eyes]

NEWMARKET, UK — There was still plenty of business to be done as the December Sale drew to a close – in the ring, at the bar, and around the local stallion studs still busily showing to breeders in welcome sunshine. 

For many, money earned at the sales over the last few weeks is quickly reinvested. Wendy Miller, whose Jarosa Stud was responsible for the first lot in Tuesday's Sceptre Session, was back on Wednesday to buy a new mare. Miller bred Fair Angellica (Harry Angel) herself and when she failed to find a buyer for her as a yearling at £2,000, she put her in training with Richard Hughes who coached her to seven wins from her 16 starts, including Listed victories in England and France and a last-start triumph in the G3 Sceptre Fillies' Stakes before she was handed over to Jenny Norris to be prepared for sale. This time around Miller received 260,000gns in the ring for her, and on Wednesday she restocked with the purchase of three-time winner Ashky (Caravaggio) for 78,000gns, also through Norris Bloodstock. The six-year-old mare (lot 1899) already has a colt foal by Modern Games and she was sold carrying to Triple Time, whose first foals have been well received in recent weeks.

“Wendy has the farm next to Jenny and she loved this mare when she saw her there,” said Conor Norris, who conducted the bidding on Miller's behalf. “The Triple Time foals have been lovely so far and she was keen to buy a mare in foal to the sire having seen the foals. He's an exciting young stallion.”

Ashky was one of the bestsellers of the day but the leading lady proved to be Denford Stud's 91-rated Desert Spring (lot 1086), who will leave the Gosdens' stable to continue her training in France with Mario Barrati. Alex Elliott was the agent in the hotseat, and bought her on behalf of a partnership for 220,000gns  

“She ran in a stakes race last time, she is a winner, and bits have happened since she was catalogued,” he said. “We will try to make her a stakes winner and bring her back to the market then.”

Desert Spring's third dam Last Second (Alzao) was a multiple group winner for Denford Stud and was bred by Kirsten Rausing and Sonia Rogers from their influential mare Alruccaba. She is thus a half-sister to Alouette (Darshaan), whose Alzao daughters Alborada and Albanova were both multiple Group 1 winners for Rausing. The Denford-developed branch of this high-achieving family includes Last Second's son Aussie Rules (Danehill), the Poule d'Essai des Poulains winner who later become a Lanwades stallion, and Approach (Darshaan), the dam of dual Group 1 winner Coronet (Dubawi) and St Leger runner-up Midas Touch (Galileo). Approach also features as the granddam of Desert Spring, who was sold on her breeder's behalf by The Castlebridge Consignment.

Also en route to France will be the beautifully bred Star Spirit (lot 1836), a daughter of Deep Impact and the Prix de Diane winner Star Of Seville (Duke of Marmalade), who was bought by Paul Fretwell of Melchior Bloodstock for 82,000gns. The eight-year-old mare enjoyed an update after the catalogue was published when her juvenile half-sister Star Of Life (Starspangledbanner) won Rome's Listed Premio Femminile.

“Under the first dam there is a Dubawi two-year-old who has just gone to the Gosdens, and I like her Ghaiyyath cover,” Fretwell said. “He is a progressive sire, and in France he has a good profile with [Andre] Fabre's My Highness. There is a Havana Grey to run for her and another Starspangledbanner to come.

“Her sire Deep Impact – there are not loads of them and he was one of the most important sires in the modern era.”

After Tuesday's blockbuster session, this was a lower-key ending to the December Mares Sale, which this year has been abbreviated to three days. Presumably the rise of the online sales has accounted for some of the mares who would previously have been catalogued for what used to be the final session on Thursday. With or without online sales, numbers will almost certainly, for now at least, continue to contract – for mares in production and inevitably the number of foals born across Europe. 

The diehards and deep-pockets will sit it out, hoping for an upturn, and anyone who has been in the business for long enough will be all too aware of its cyclical nature. That said, even some of those people are beginning to opine that the decline in numbers is alarming. This will inevitably affect the pool of available racehorses for a British fixture list in dire need of pruning.

As we have continued to see – quite remarkably at times – the demand for yearlings and young stock at the top end of the market appears to be undiminished, but the horse with a weaker pedigree, by a less fashionable stallion, or an imperfect individual will struggle. Twas ever thus, up to a point, but now it is even more so, and the knock-on effect is that smaller breeders who would once have been at the parade ring rail hoping to sniff out a potential bargain are going home without an extra mouth to feed while considering carefully the futures of the mares they already have at home. To many, it is a time for retrenchment in the hope of survival.

With the mares, as for the yearlings, the elite sector remains buoyant, with a premium on top-class fillies who remain racing prospects, as the 4.8m gns given for three-year-old Prix de l'Opera winner Barnavara shows. The list of top ten buyers featured major names from Ireland, China, America, Japan, and India. Bloodstock from these shores continues to have major international pulling power, but Tattersalls chairman Edmond Mahony sounded more than a note of caution regarding Britain's current political climate in his closing address. 

He said, “In recent weeks at Tattersalls we have enjoyed record-breaking yearling sales, sustained demand for horses in training and December Foal and Breeding Stock sales which have produced figures second only to the extraordinary 2024 renewals which broke all records. On the face of it, we have a strong market with British and Irish breeders being well rewarded for consistently bringing some of the finest bloodstock to be found anywhere in the world to Park Paddocks, but this hard-earned success comes in spite of rather than because of government support of a genuine British success story.”

Those figures, which must be considered against last year's record-breaking trade, led to a 47% decline on the final day to 2,437,100gns in turnover. The clearance rate dropped to 78% from 89% last year, and the 10,000gns median and 15,622gns average represented reductions of 38% and 37% respectively. 

For the mares overall, however, the average for the three days was up by 13% to 140,661gns and the median rose by 7% to 40,500gns, while the aggregate of 82,337,515gns was down by 2%.

The eight days which constituted the December Sale as a whole – from yearlings through to foals then breeding stock – saw turnover of 128,183,700gns (-5%), with 1,364 horses sold at a fractionally improved average of 92,925gns and a median of 35,000gns (+9%).

Mahony continued, “Overseas buyers have always been drawn to Tattersalls by the cream of British and Irish bloodstock and we work tirelessly to promote our sales internationally, but domestically the industry continues to be buffeted by external political forces which make it uncomfortably reliant on overseas investment and participation. Just as we court overseas buyers, domestic involvement needs to be nurtured and encouraged in order for the industry to thrive in the long term and the current direction of political travel in this country is a cause for concern. The rural economy is clearly not a priority at present and the two budgets under the current Labour government have increased taxation and business costs in every sector of society.

“While government has accepted the racing industry's case with respect to betting duty, the wider industry dynamics remain perilously uncertain. We are fortunate that the lure of Newmarket as the Headquarters of European racing continues to resonate globally, but we must also work to ensure that government does not allow the status of a globally admired industry to be eroded through neglect.”

Thought for the day

It's disconcerting to know that when we reconvene at Tattersalls for the February Sale, the soundtrack of the day will not include the voices of Edmond Mahony and John O'Kelly presiding over the sale ring from the rostrum.

Like a favourite presenter on your favourite radio channel (it used to be Radio 1 but advancing years have seen the dial moved to 2 and now 4), certain voices become a part of daily life, and for those of us who spend plenty of time on the sales beat, hearing Mahony and O'Kelly during stints throughout the day has become a familiar anthem. 

It is not an overstatement to say that auctioneering is an art form in its own right, one which done right must skilfully blend the commanding delivery of key facts with a touch of theatrical performance. These two men are masters of this art, and though we will undoubtedly continue to see them at Tattersalls, days at Park Paddocks will be poorer for their absence from the main stage.

 

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