sales review
O
NCE AGAIN a European yearling sales season which started out clouded in doubts and trepidation ended
with widely shared relief bordering on euphoria. Inevitably the decent sales results have been followed by announcements of rises in stallion fees and ever-longer lists of European stallions who
Major European sales 2017-2020 (% change year on year in $) 2018
Nos Sold
Aggregate
% change
1,023
207
5
BBAG Sept
157
6,85
-25
Arqana A + O
805
68,4
-10
Goffs Orby
326
49,2
3
Goffs UK Premier
400
23,7
-12
Tattersalls 1 & 2
Combined 2,711 355
-1
2019 Tattersalls 1 & 2
1,017
204
-1
BBAG Sept
136
8,9
30
Arqana A + O
908
73
7
Goffs Orby
362
47
-5
Goffs UK Premier
376
23
-3
Combined 2,799 356
0
2020 Tattersalls 1 & 2
1,006
178
-13
BBAG Sept
148
7,2
-19
Arqana S + O
916
67,2
-10
Goffs Orby
308
27,3
-42
Goffs UK Premier
313
14,4
-37
Combined 2,691 294 -18 2021 Tattersalls 1 & 2
1,025
202
-2.40
BBAG Sept
146
7,98
16.00
Arqana A + O
962
81,1
19.00
Goffs Orby
370
47
-4.50
Goffs UK Premier
357
18,2
-23.00
Combined 2,860 356 0.28
covered more than 150 mares during the last breeding season. Despite the pandemic and the death of Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum, one of the most prolific buyers of yearlings in the modern or any other era, the bull run in the bloodstock market and, above all, in the stallion market shows no sign of having reached its peak. Looking at the European yearling market in dollar terms, the currency most buyers are probably reckoning in and in order to take into account fluctuations in exchange rates over the longer term, the results are remarkably stable. In 2021 the major yearling sales in England, Ireland, France and Germany recorded a turnover of $356 million, up by 21 per cent from the COVID year of 2020, but more or less the same figure as in both 2018 and 2019. During this time the turnover at Tattersalls October Book 1 and 2 Sales fell by about two per cent, which is, of course, something which would have appeared impossible without the support of Shadwell, which used to spend between $20 – $30 million a year
on yearlings in Europe alone. The sales company which has seen the most significant increase during the period is Arqana, whose turnover at the combined August and October sales has risen from $68 million to $81 million this year, up by 19 per cent. This rise in aggregate at the major French yearling sales is largely due to Arqana’s excellent October Sale in 2021, which was up by 46 per cent from the turnover recorded in 2018. The Deauville October market was transformed by buyers who has been unable to purchase at the previous week’s Tattersalls October Sale, as well as by an October debut presence of several American buyers, headed by Peter Brant’s White Birch Farm and Klaravich Stables. If the market in Newmarket
Ben McElroy, the yearling buyer of Twilight Gleaming, returned to Tattersalls this year, buying seven lots, including a daughter of Kodiac that he described as the “nicest yearling he had ever seen in Europe” (Lot 1049)
Photo: courtesy of Tattersalls, by Laura Green
www,internationalthoroughbred,net
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