Breeze Up Consignors Association

The new Goffs Breeze-up Sale will be held on Irish Derby weekend 2025, it was announced on Wednesday. The breeze will take place at Naas Racecourse on Thursday, June 26 ahead of the sale at Goffs before evening racing at the Curragh on Friday, June 27. Previously announced for early-June, the later date for the Irish Derby Breeze-up Sale is intended to accommodate quality two-year-olds who may have missed an earlier sale. The increased likelihood of optimum ground conditions at that point in the summer was identifed by Goffs as...

A fundraising campaign has been launched by the Breeze-up Consignors Association (BUCA) to help with medical bills for Johnny Hassett, who is currently undergoing intensive cancer treatment in Germany. Hassett, 49, a hugely popular member of the sales community under his Bloodstock Connection banner, was diagnosed with lung cancer last month and is receiving chemotherapy in a German hospital. The Irishman has developed a large following on Twitter through his regular video blogs throughout the last two breeze-up seasons which show both the training at his home in Co Clare,...

The breeze-ups can't seem to catch a break. Europe's 2-year-old sales suffered a nosedive in fortunes in 2018-a combination of polarization and oversubscription causing figures to plummet-but the market bounced back in 2019 in buoyant fashion. The breeze-up pinhookers, already surely some of the thickest-skinned players in the game, soldiered on, stocking up their barns at the yearling sales to take another shot in 2020, when the renaissance of the 2-year-old sales would surely continue. And then, along came a pandemic. "There is a lot of concern out there given...