Breeders’ Digest
Nancy Sexton Bloodstock Editor
Unity required ahead of a challenging sales season
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SARAH FARNSWORTH/GOFFS UK
A
ny kind of normalcy seems a world away right now with our lives having narrowed beyond imagination in the past six weeks. In turn, our own bubble, racing, has rarely been so threatened. Perhaps racing will return in some format later this month. It is to be fervently hoped but the analogy used by BHA Chief Executive Nick Rust on Luck On Sunday of balancing on a knife-edge when it comes to the sport’s return is not hyperbole. On the other hand, as pointed out by David Redvers in the later pages of this magazine, this industry will be “in terrible peril” if the sport doesn’t make a swift return, as everyone involved is undoubtedly painfully aware. For the breeding fraternity, it is worth reiterating that comprehensive guidance can be found in this month’s TBA Forum and on the TBA’s website (thetba.co.uk) within its dedicated Covid-19 pages that are updated most days. There is also the question of the sales calendar. Auction houses are doing what they can to accommodate the breeze-up community, with every European twoyear-old auction already rescheduled to the best availability. Various members of the sector are resigned to taking a hit but overall breeze-up vendors are a resilient group and it is to be hoped that enough positives come out of the season for them to reinvest in the autumn. Beyond the breeze-up season, the sales companies seem hopeful that the autumnal yearling sales calendar won’t require significant restructuring. Maybe that will turn out to be the case but there has to also be a fear that some of those early yearling sales won’t escape revision. And even if they do come to be staged in their original slots, the extent of the potential ramifications of the lockdown, such as potential quarantine issues for participants and restrictions on travel and accommodation, won’t be clear until much closer to the time. Which makes the need for unity all the more urgent. There might be an element of stating the obvious in this, but as we know there are occasions
The 2020 sales calendar has been disrupted
when not everyone sees eye to eye and competition runs high. However, right now it is vital that everyone works together, and that includes sales companies. An early example has already emerged in the decision by Arqana and Goffs UK to join forces and merge their breeze-up sales into one event staged in late June at the Goffs sales complex in Ireland. By all accounts, news of the amalgamation has been well received by buyers, particularly as a move indicative of the will to make everything work. The pandemic has also turned the spotlight on to the greater role that online bidding will come to play in future auctions. Areas of the sales process have been exposed as archaic, although in recent weeks Tattersalls and Goffs have accelerated the development of their respective online bidding facilities. Results from last month’s virtual edition of the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale in Australia provided encouragement in that department and now it has been announced that the newly combined Goffs UK and Arqana breeze-up sale will also offer an online bidding platform. It will be interesting to watch it evolve but hopefully it can ultimately become a support to a sales season that is going to face many challenges.
SMALL RELIEF
News filtered through last month of some light relief for smaller breeders in North America with the announcement that prominent owner Charles Fipke
is to waive the 2020 stud fees on his stallions in the US and Canada. Fipke stands seven stallions including Grade 1 sire Tale Of Ekati and young Grade 1 winner Bee Jersey. Both stand for $5,000 at Darby Dan Farm in Kentucky. Fipke revealed the news by publishing a statement on Twitter via his consultant Sid Fernando on April 13, and by the end of that week, about 50 mares had joined their books. “What can I say? Small breeders will especially be affected by the economic conditions, and they are the backbone of this industry,” said Fipke, a Canadian geologist who has horses in training with Joseph O’Brien and Sir Mark Prescott. “None of my stallions stand for more than $5,000, and they are primarily supported by small breeders. Because I own my stallions outright and don’t have shareholder responsibilities, I am able to do this, with the support of the farms where they stand. I’m passionate about this game and will continue to support my stallions, and I’d like to show my appreciation for outside breeders who do so as well in these trying times.” With regard to Europe, much of the fallout within the breeding industry will be felt much later on, particularly for 2021 as breeders reevaluate their plans without any signed contracts to adhere to. Many of this season’s nominations would have been sold prior to the outbreak; the stallions likely to suffer in 2020 are those picking up late foaling mares. It will be interesting to see if any European-based studs come to follow a similar route to Fipke down the line. Indeed, representatives from one big Kentucky farm with no attachment to Fipke have admitted privately that such a move has already become more commonplace within the lower North American market as the industry seeks to regain momentum. It’s unlikely to happen on a major scale in Europe. However, stallion masters over here might just have to get even more creative with their terms to sustain books in 2021.
THOROUGHBRED OWNER BREEDER
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