photo of the month: the goffs uk yorton sale The Yorton Sale top lot, a two-year-old gelding by Isfahan, who sold for £80,000. It is second-best price given in the three years of the sale of young NH horses at the stud in Shropshire Photos courtesy of Goffs UK
THE GOFFS UK YORTON SALE is now three years old, and this year’s sale, which took place at the Shropshire-based stud on September 9, proved to be the best yet hitting a seven-figure turnover for the first time at £1,138,000 and with a 95 per cent clearance rate with 41 of the 43 lots offered successfully sold. The average was up by 13 per cent to a record £27,756, while the median increased by 30 per cent to £26,000. Previous graduates from the sale include the French runners Paros, Anneloralas, Lorason and Master Nonantais. The sale’s top lot was a two-year-old gelding by Isfahan (Lot 15), who was knocked down to former NH jockey Marcus Foley bidding on behalf of pre-training yard Lew House Stables, for £80,000. The horse was purchased to race for a partnership. The horse had been originally bought as a yearling by agent Richard Venn and Yorton’s David Futter for €15,000 at BBAG Sales 2020. The Pether’s Moon two-year-old gelding out of the Listed-winning mare Azza (Lot 33) made £75,000. He was one of five lots bought by Nicolas
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Trainer Alan King interviewed by Arnaud Poirier (left) and Nick Luck (right) for France Sire after King purchased Lot 47, a two-year-old gelding by Pether’s Moon and out of Fabrika (Presenting) for £42,000
Bertran de Balanda’s NBB Racing. The French-based Sue Bramall, who bought the twice-raced and one-time-winner Master Nonantais by Masterstroke at the sale last year for £22,000, went to £28,000 for a two-year-old gelding by the same sire, one of four lots purchased by Bramall. After the sale, Yorton Stud’s owner David Futter said: “We are blown away. We have worked for many years to achieve this – it
is the culmination of years of planning and long hours by our wonderful Yorton team. “We were encouraged leading into today as we had many positive comments from buyers but we never expected that level of trade, especially given the difficulty endured by us all over the last 18 months. “We have welcomed a big crowd of buyers from the UK, Ireland and France and we are very grateful to everyone who came and supported the sale. We now have to figure out how to match this in 2022 – it will be some challenge!” Goffs UK managing director Tim Kent commented: “What an incredible day at Yorton! “This sale is only in its third year and has already achieved some fantastic results on the racecourse and in the sales ring, both of which have given David Futter and his team the increased confidence to improve the quality of horses catalogued for sale at the unique event. “And these improvements have been richly rewarded with a sale that generated more than £1 million in turnover, whilst recording record prices for both average and median.”
