Showtime as Wraps Come Off the October Yearlings

One doesn't need to delve too far into the Group 1 results to find a graduate of Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, and come Saturday afternoon another may be added to the list, with the G2 Coventry S. winner River Tiber (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) and G2 Gimcrack S. winner Lake Forest (GB) (No Nay Never) among those favoured to go well in the G1 Juddmonte Middle Park S. at Newmarket.

By that stage, there will be frenetic action of a different kind just a mile up the road at Park Paddocks where several days of Book 1 inspections will be underway ahead of the start of the nine-session October Sale on Tuesday. The first three days are devoted to Book 1, the profile of which continues to rise to ever dizzier heights. A 200,000gns median last year tells its own story, that figure having doubled in a decade. The average meanwhile settled at its own record high, just shy of 300,000gns and, at the final ringing of the tills, more than 126 million gns was spent across three days in 2022 for 424 fledgling racehorses. Looking ahead to this year's sale, it is hard not to envisage more of the same, or perhaps just more. 

Jimmy George, the marketing director for Tattersalls, says, “It's an outstanding catalogue. Book 1 seems to collect the cream of the British and Irish, and perhaps wider European yearling crop year after year. And it's not only a catalogue of real quality, it has diversity as well. In simple terms, it's probably fair to say that it represents the biggest collection of yearlings by the best turf stallions in the world that you'll find anywhere.”

In the bloodstock world's version of chicken-and-egg, the fact that Britain and Ireland continue to enjoy a golden age of stallions no doubt influences the fact that there is a growing throng of international breeders keeping mares in those countries, or indeed transporting them to be covered. We cannot forget, however, the importance of those blue hens and classy matrons in making these stallions what they are in the first place. 

“The consistency of these top stallions at the moment, the seamless movement on from the Galileo era, it's just amazing,” George says. 

“I'm not ranking them in any particular order, but you have Frankel, Dubawi, Kingman, Lope De Vega, Wootton Bassett, Sea the Stars, and there's the thick end of 200 yearlings by those six stallions in Book 1 of the October Yearling Sale.

“And I think that tells prospective buyers all they really want to know, these are game-changing stallions on their own, but that collection together is pretty mighty.”

From Program Trading (GB) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) landing the GI Saratoga Derby on only his third start to the victory of Luxembourg (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) claiming his third Group 1 – one for each season of racing – in the Tattersalls Gold Cup and Good Guess (GB) dominating the G1 Prix Jean Prat for a Japanese owner in France, the broad international success of the October Sale, and Book 1 in particular, remains a strong theme.

“It gives [owners and breeders] access to these top stallions; they recognise the quality of the horses standing in Britain, Ireland and also France at the moment,” George continues. “And if they're going to have regular access to these sort of horses, they come here and buy them as yearlings, and in the case of yearling fillies, perhaps leave them over here [to race] and breed from them in the future.

“One of the aspects of Book 1 that strikes me year after year, is that the top owner-breeders will also target Book 1 for their broodmare bands. They're racing these beautifully-bred fillies and they can go on to have a huge impact on their own broodmare bands later down the line.

“In the Juddmonte International this year, which was won by Mostahdaf, and Nashwa was second, both of them are raced by owner-breeders, and both of them are out of mares who those owner-breeders have bought as yearlings at Book 1.”

The sale dovetails nicely with two weekends of Group 1 action on the Rowley Mile, making a trip to East Anglia in October an extra draw.

“Newmarket is the hub, not only in the British racing and breeding industry, but really the European racing and breeding industry,” says George.

“We've got two racecourses here, we've got numerous stud farms in and around the area standing some of the best stallions in the world, we've got all the top veterinary facilities, we've got 70 to 80 different racehorse trainers here, the most fantastic training grounds, and we've got Tattersalls.”

He adds, “The owner-breeders feel comfortable here, they come to Newmarket, whether it's to race or whether it's to see their broodmare bands and their young stock, or to buy. Which is obviously why they come to Tattersalls.”

Some 500 Book 1 yearlings will usher in a fortnight of action at Park Paddocks, where the newly refurbished and levelled yards at Somerville R, S, T have just been unveiled. Naturally there are some swanky pedigrees to digest. 

The brother (lot 316) to 2022 Derby hero Desert Crown (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) – himself a 280,000gns Book 2 gradate in 2020 – features among the Newsells Park draft, while a Dubawi half-brother to Imad Al Sagar's treble Group 1 winner Nashwa (GB) (Frankel {GB}) heads a select consignment from Blue Diamond Stud and, catalogued as lot 35, may well prove to be one of the early highlights on Tuesday.

The McCartan family's Ballyphilip Stud brings lot 240, a half-brother to that brilliant sprinter Battaash (Ire) who is by another brilliant sprinter and budding young stallion, Blue Point (Ire). Meanwhile, Blue Point's own immediate family is represented by his three-part-brother [lot 81] from the first crop of fellow Darley stallion Earthlight (Ire) and consigned by Hillwood Stud. 

From the same Shamardal sireline, and with a typically strong female family behind him, comes the Lope De Vega (Ire) half-brother to St Leger and Irish St Leger winner Eldar Eldarov (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), the colt having been pinhooked for 300,000gns from Kirsten Rausing's St Simon Stud draft at the December Foal Sale. He is reoffered by Eugene Daly's Longview Stud as lot 226.

Among the colts on offer from Cheveley Park Stud is a three-quarter-brother to the farm's champion filly Inspiral (GB) (Frankel {GB}). The son of Ulysses (Ire) features on the first day of Book 1 as lot 127 and is one of eight yearlings to be offered by the Thompson family, along with a Kingman (GB) colt out of the GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf winner Queen's Trust (GB) (Dansili {GB}).

The above is just a taster. It's easy to make a case for pretty much every yearling in the opening book, and for agents and trainers tasked with doing just that for potential purchasers, it is made a little easier by the existence of the Book 1 Bonus. It's a scheme which is now well established and has over recent years pumped almost £8 million in additional prize-money to owners with more than 340 bonuses now having been won. From next year, that individual bonus is set to rise from £20,000 to £25,000, with all yearlings catalogued for Book 1 of this year's sale eligible for the scheme.

George says, “I think people are unnecessarily negative about the sport in Britain at times. There's so much to be positive about. One, it is the most magnificent sport.

But two, there are aspects of British prize-money that need to be recognised, and Britain is the most lucrative place to own a horse in Europe, if it's a decent horse. British prize-money for group and listed races is superior to anywhere else in Europe, and that's a fact. And it isn't always a fact that is put out there often or loudly enough, in my humble opinion, but you only just have to look through the Pattern book and look at the prize-money available for British group and listed races and compare it with France and Ireland, who are the obvious main competitors in that respect. Britain is comfortably number one. The average prize-money for a Group 3 race, a Group 2 race, a Group 1 race in Britain is significantly higher than anywhere else in Europe.”

What is often grumbled about of course is the lower levels on offer for maiden races and handicaps, but a significant number of maiden and novice races for two- and three-year-olds have been boosted this year by extra sponsorship from Juddmonte, Darley and the British EBF. On top of that, a Book 1 graduate has a chance of scooping an extra pot, and that is not restricted to British races, but also includes Ireland.

“We know the impact it's having,” he continues. “We've distributed directly to racehorse owners in Britain and Ireland the thick end of £8 million in prize-money, with no deductions, just directly to the owners, since the inception of that scheme.

“That is a lot of money to win for winning your maiden. The average price, or the average win prize-money next year for a Book 1 Bonus winner, will be I'd say comfortably over £30,000, which is significant. It's not headline prize-money, it doesn't show up in statistics, but it is significant.”

George adds, “I think it's so important for us not to talk ourselves into thinking that there isn't opportunity out there, because there is. Whether it's our bonuses for Book 1, or whether it's Great British Bonuses, or certain sales races, or other angles that are out there, there's more there than sometimes we're led to believe.”

Traditionally, the October Sale, under its various guises over the years, brought the curtain up on the autumn season at Tattersalls, but since a reshuffling of venues, which brought the Ascot Yearling Sale, now known as the Somerville, to Tattersalls, the sale grounds have already been busy in Newmarket since the yearling season began, and we head into a frenetic fortnight on the back of encouraging results not just at the Somerville, but pretty much across the board in Europe and America. 

“The sales calendar bears no resemblance to how it once was, and we've had the addition of the August Sale and Somerville Yearling Sale in recent years just at Park Paddocks alone. Under the Tattersalls umbrella it's grown out of all recognition, with Cheltenham and Tattersalls Ireland and the online sales,” George says. 

“But it still remains that the Tattersalls sales season really kicks off with the October Yearling Sale. That's when we become the focal point and it's pretty intense for those two weeks of Books 1 through to 4.

“It's a busy time, but it's an exciting time, and there's a lot riding on it for everybody. It's very busy for the trainers and the agents, but the owners enjoy their time at the sales as well. And long may that last, it's very much part of the ownership experience.”