Turnover rises 54%, average increases 29% and 33 lots sell for six figures

The Goffs UK Breeze Up Sale posted record figures on Wednesday. Last year's sale produced record results and this year, 158 juveniles sold for £10,016,500, an increase of 54 per cent on last year's figure. The average finished up 29 per cent to £63,396 and the median rose 11 per cent to finish at £40,000. A record clearance rate of 86 per cent was achieved with 33 lots selling for six figures, up on last year's record of 17.

Blandford Bloodstock finished as the sale's leading buyer having spent £900,000 on five lots. Tally Ho Stud was the leading vendor by aggregate, selling 12 horses for £1,340,000 at an average of £111,667 including the sale topping Harry Angel (Dark Angel) colt. By average, Oak Tree Farm led the way selling three lots at an average of £130,000. 

Goffs UK Managing Director Tim Kent said at the conclusion fo the sale: "What an incredible day at Europe's Oldest Breeze Up Sale. A record top price; record turnover; record average; record median; four horses selling for £300,000 or more; 10 horses selling for £200,000 or above and 33 horses realising £100,000 or more.

"That is an incredible achievement for any sale and accurately sums up today's trade but there is so much more that goes into today and we must thank all our vendors and purchasers who have supported this record-breaking event. When we started to visit vendors in the early part of the year, we knew they were planning to target this sale with some of their better horses and the fact that there was a healthy increase in their purchase price compared to last year was a positive way to start. 

"We then began to hear many positive reports after vendors had started to work these horses and the momentum continued to Town Moor where some sensational breezes led to some breath-taking prices." 

Harry Angel colt secured by Michael O'Callaghan for £500,000 
The most expensive lot to sell on Tuesday was a son of Darley shuttler Harry Angel (Dark Angel) who was bought by Irish-based trainer Michael O'Callaghan for £500,000. 

Sold by Tally Ho Stud late in the day as Lot 191, the colt is out of the Listed winning mare Go Angellica (Kheleyf). He was bought for €38,000 by Tally Ho Stud at the 2021 Goffs November Foal Sale. 

Michael O'Callaghan said he did not expect to have to go to £500,000 to secure the colt, but he was the one which he wanted to go home with. 

"He was the standout for me, even before the sale" he said. 

"I went down to Tally Ho a couple of months ago and he was the one that stuck in my mind. We've been very lucky buing off the before and as they say 'old friends are the best'.

"You go where you're luck and they come up with the goods. He breezed very well yesterday and he's done everything right the last couple of days. There is plenty of nice stock here and a couple that I'd followed in earlier, but I've had this horse at the back of my mind all day so I probably pulled up on those ones a little easier." 

O'Callaghan is a regular purchase of breeze up horses, buying a significant proportion of his string at the juvenile sales. 

"It's something I adoped early on and it's worked well for us," he said. 

"It's what works for me and this horse is from the same family as Twilight Jet who was a very good horse for me and he's out of a stakes winning half-sister to his dam. He's a lovely individual. A good walker and look we've had to pay for him and now he'll have to go and do it." 

Earlier in the afternoon, a filly by Twilight Son (Kyllachy) sold for £360,000 to Blandford Bloodstock. The filly is the second foal out of Lethal Force (Dark Angel) mare Babylon Lane. 

Two other fillies were well received, with a daughter of Starspangledbanner (Choisir) bought by Anthony Stroud of Stroud Coleman Bloodstock for £350,000. The filly was sold by Brendan Holland's Grove Stud. 

Holland was confident after the filly's breeze that she would sell well and believes that the filly will be better yet in a couple of months. 

"I was confident that I had something that was going to do something positive in the ring," he said. She did an outstanding breeze. She wasn't a typical Doncaster breeze up horse. I thought she was early in the year but as we got closer she actually started growing. 

"She breezed exceptionally well and vetted exceptionally well, so I knew she was going to do well. It's the best result I've ever had in Doncaster and I topped it a couple of years ago with another filly but this is my best result. Sometimes you get lucky. I bred her but she got sick, so missed her slot to sell as a yearling. I liked her and I decided to breeze her and I got lucky. The majority of my horses, 95 per cent, I buy to breeze but she wasn't." 

Holland said that he wasn't surprised that the sale was so strong. 

"The first two [breeze up] sales were slightly disapointng," Holland said. "The clearance rate wasn't what we would have liked it to be. Every year, the type of breeze up horses being produced has improved. The catalogue here is bigger today but the market seems to be coping. We believe there is a finite number for the amount of breeze up horses but Doncaster is the home of the breeze up. The breeze up started in Doncaster.

"They have a fantastic record of producing Royal Ascot winners and two-year-olds so it's no surprise that the sale is so strong here today, even with an increased catalogue. It's great to see the compeition here, not just at the top but all the way down the catalogue." 

Jake Warren of Highclere Agency meanwhile went to £340,000 for the Dark Angel (Acclamation) filly out of Dubai Power (Cadeaux Genereux).