THERE was a sense of trepidation ahead of the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale this week – the first Irish yearling sale of the year, with many consignors concerned about the strength of the British market given the challenges currently facing our neighbours.
If this week’s sale is anything to go by, vendors needn’t worry, as the final figures were the second best in the sale’s history. The title of leading buyers went to Ed Sackville, Hugo Palmer and Michael Owen, who spent €777,000 on eight yearlings for Manor House Stables.
While the sale’s progression has brought plenty of new faces to the Co Meath venue in recent years, the Owen/Palmer/Sackville partnership remains a ‘big fish’ here compared to later sales, which is a key factor in their spend, Sackville explains: “You can go into the ring with confidence, knowing that you have a good chance to buy a horse in the sense that you’re not necessarily taking on the Godolphins and Wathnans and those bigger organizations,” the agent said.
“The Study Of Man, which was a sale topper (€330,000), was very much on our list. Obviously, we didn’t have that kind of money for him, but he was a horse we particularly liked. We were really focusing on what we think are the nicest horses there, knowing we have a chance of being able to buy them.”
Striking at earlier sales has the added benefit of allowing more time to sell yearlings that were bought on spec, as Manor House Stables is not just home to Michael Owen’s silks, Sackville adds.
“I should take my hat off to Michael Owen; Michael is a driving force in going out and finding new owners. He’s constantly traveling the world, I don’t think anybody quite understands how much Michael puts into this business in trying to bring new owners in.
“He’s a tremendous ambassador for the sale and has been a supporter of the sale for a long time.”
Warm welcome
Sackville was also keen to praise the hospitality provided this week, saying: “Another thing I should say is that despite the big guns not being there, I think Tattersalls Ireland do the most fantastic job, they really do, and in particular, I would single out Niamh Spiller, She deserves plenty of credit.”
Sackville is not the first to praise Tattersalls Ireland’s work to attract clients, resulting in a particularly healthy number of Eastern European and Italian buyers, year after year.
Cristiana Brivido of Razza Latina was a late absentee this week, which was quite a blow given last year’s spend of €442,000, but there were plenty of buyers to fill the void, including their client Manservigi Fabio, who spent €153,000.
The international flavour of the buying bench was evident in the fantastic results enjoyed by Lodge Park Stud, who sold a homebred No Nay Never colt to Edgar Byrne on behalf of Norwegian trainer Niels Petersen for €210,000 and a State Of Rest filly for €110,000 to American buyers. Joe Murphy gave €90,000 for a Sioux Nation filly, while the British and Italian buyers bought their Part II pair.
The State Of Rest filly’s price was particularly satisfying, as she was the very first pinhook bought by Jamie Burns’ wife Kate, who focussed on finding a filly by a second-crop sire and selected the athletic bay for €18,000.
“That sale has gone from strength to strength over the last few years, and we felt that we would send a better bunch of horses to it,” Jamie Burns explained.
“We wanted to support it more as Tattersalls Ireland have done so well with getting in clients and it worked out well, because we sold five horses to five different countries.”
Read Leo Powell’s full sale report frompages 34 to 40.