British Yearling Season Underway At Goffs UK

The British yearling sales season begins today at the newly branded Goffs UK sales house at Doncaster where, for the last few days, trainers and agents have been combing the yards in search of the next star juvenile.

The poster boy for this year's catalogue is Limato (Ire) (Tagula {Ire}) – a £41,000 purchase three years ago by Peter and Ross Doyle – who very much lived up to the sale's billing as a source of precocious speed by scorching through his 2-year-old-season unbeaten in four runs, including two Listed wins. He has subsequently built on that impressive start with three Group victories, the biggest of them all coming in last month's G1 Darley July Cup.

Limato's trainer Henry Candy was among those pounding the beat on Monday, as was Tony Nerses, who bought last year's record-equaling top lot, a sister to Galileo Gold (GB) (Paco Boy {Ire}), for £280,000. Nerses issued an upbeat bulletin on the filly now named Choumicha (GB) and in training alongside her brother at Hugo Palmer's stable for Saleh Al Homaizi and Imad Al Sagar, saying, “We're very pleased with her and she's doing really well. I hope she'll be racing before too long but I don't like to rush our trainers.”

The catalogue for the two-day sale, which is followed directly on Thursday by the Silver Sale, has been trimmed slightly to 487 lots. Taking into account withdrawals at the time of writing, 462 yearlings are due to come under the hammer in the next 48 hours and will do well to emulate an excellent set of results posted in 2015. The Premier Sale has been consistently upwardly mobile over the last few years, with last year's turnover of £17,644,000 being up from just £10,641,500 in 2012, while the average and median figures also represented notable gains at £40,034 and £30,500 respectively. Most encouraging of all was a clearance rate of 87%.

“The vendors have responded really well to the progress that the sale has made over the last few years and the general consensus is that the quality of the individuals here has taken another step forward,” said Goffs UK Chief Executive Henry Beeby.

“We're quietly hopeful that we can at least match last year, though obviously the world is a slightly precarious place at the moment in terms of uncertainty over the Brexit issues. We haven't yet seen exactly what effect it's going to have and it's the one unknown that makes us slightly nervous. But, of the horses we've seen, the footfall today and feedback, we're feeling quite happy.”

We've already seen several first-season sires given the market's seal of approval at Arqana, and there will be plenty more to be tested at Goffs UK over the new few days.

Cheveley Park Stud's dual Group 1-winning sprinter Lethal Force (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) heads the list with 19 catalogued, including Houghton Bloodstock's colt out of a winning Kodiac (Ire) half-sister to Kingsgate Native (Ire) (Mujadil) (lot 323).

Also well represented is Epaulette (Aus), whose fellow Darley sire and half-brother Helmet (Aus) has made a blazing start with his first runners this season. Among his 18 yearlings catalogued is lot 101, Whitwell Bloodstock's half-sister to this season's three-time winner Justice Lady (Ire) (Dream Ahead {Ire}) from the super-fast family of Lochsong (GB) (Song {GB}) and recent Qatar Stewards' Cup winner Dancing Star (GB) (Aqlaam {GB}).

Epaulette and Swiss Spirit (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) were among the newcomers to please the foal judges last year, and Whitsbury Manor Stud's Swiss Spirit has 13 yearlings in the Premier Sale. Lot 165, from the Baroda & Colbinstown Studs draft, has been the subject of a good recent update following the Listed victory of his half-sister Silver Rainbow (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}) in the Prix du Cercle at Deauville on July 30.

Tally-Ho Stud sadly lost top sprinter Society Rock (Ire) (Rock Of Gibraltar {Ire}) to laminitis earlier this year but the former James Fanshawe trainee has 16 of his first crop to be sold at Doncaster, while Ballyhane Stud's Red Jazz – like Scat Daddy, a son of Johannesburg – has seven on offer, including the very first horse through the ring at 10am this morning (lot 2), from the family of EP Taylor S. winner Truly A Dream (Ire) (Darshaan {GB}).

Completing the list of freshman sires with yearlings in the Premier Sale are Camelot (GB) (1), Data Link (1), Declaration Of War (1), Havana Gold (Ire) (8), Intello (Ger) (1), Maxios (GB) (1), Most Improved (Ire) (7) and Worthadd (Ire) (2).

First-season sires always attract much attention but there are plenty of proven stallions on the pages of the catalogue – not least Kodiac (Ire), who has 33 yearlings in the book and supplied the joint sales-toppers at the Goffs UK Breeze-up Sale back in April. One of the pair, Prince Of Lir (Ire), went through this sale last year for £40,000 before making £170,000 for Con Marnane's Bansha House Stables as a 2-year-old, just two months before he won the G2 Norfolk S. at Royal Ascot for the Cool Silk Partnership. Prince Of Lir's fellow breeze-up topper Ardad (Ire) wasn't offered for sale as a yearling but he too won at the Royal meeting, claiming the Listed Windsor Castle S. for John Gosden.

“This is probably the sale that has the strongest identity of any yearling sale,” commented Henry Beeby.

“There's a 'Donny horse' and people know what that is, and what's changed about the Donny horse over the last 20 years is the depth of pedigree, which means that it used to be all about how many 2-year-old winners we could get, but now it's about quality 2-year-olds who can win at Royal Ascot and train on. There are plenty of recent examples – Limato, of course, Tiz Marvellous is a good horse, Prince Of Lir is another one. It's a sale that is regularly producing quality winners and few major buyers in Europe miss it these days.”

The huge crowd of vendors and potential purchasers gathered at the end of the final viewing day under the newly installed giant tepeee alongside the sales ring bore testament to these words. It would seem all the players are in place for what Beeby hopes will be another vintage renewal of the British season-opener.