NEXT week is the Breeze-Up sale at Doncaster, the first to be run there under the new company name of Goffs UK. The first sale for the company actually took place last week at Aintree and was an unqualified success.

The feature races that day were won by Annie Power, Cue Card and On The Fringe, who are each champions in their category. Assisted by such a stellar day’s racing six Lots made six figures and the top Lot Samcro sold for £335,000.

Goffs will hold the next such sale at Punchestown which, of course, was the template for Aintree. With Punchestown attracting all the top players this should provide a lively market for another select collection of entries that will be assembled right up to the day of the sale.

After that the focus will go on to the Goff UK Spring Sales. This is the biggest National Hunt horses-in-training sale and was always the sale that I most enjoyed attending when I used to travel to Doncaster as a rival observer.

Following on from a really good store catalogue, the first day of Horses-in-Training will feature the annual Million In Mind dispersal as well as a section dedicated to a selected offering of the best point-to-pointers and young form horses from the UK and Ireland. Hopefully that will become the target for the smart point-to-point handlers and will allow the team at Doncaster to continue the good work that they started at Aintree.