THIS year’s Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale felt like a complete 180 from 12 months ago, when vendors were on a high from booming trade, with celebrations widespread.

The atmosphere at Park Paddocks this week was muted in the run-up to and during the sale, with conversation focussed on the challenging position vendors found themselves in, who wasn’t buying, and whether it would be quite so bad at later sales.

Kia Joorabchian’s Amo Racing was the leading buyer at last year’s Craven Sale, spending 3,160,000gns, but had been absent at the venue’s breeding stock sales and remained missing this week.

In another huge blow to consignors, Godolphin – the second highest spender of 2025 – were also missing in action. Worryingly, there was widespread speculation that Sheikh Mohammed’s operation aren’t planning to buy at this year’s breeze-up sales until Arqana, though of course, that has not been officially confirmed.

Blandford Bloodstock’s Richard Brown suffered a frustrating time 12 months ago when underbidding many of the choicest lots and took advantage of his rivals’ absence this time, topping the buyers table with a spend of 2,765,000gns – almost double what the agency spent last year.

Godolphin’s talent scout Anthony Stroud made use of any spare time by buying through StroudColeman, predominantly on behalf of Victorious Forever, increasing the bloodstock agency’s outlay by 1,435,000gns.

Rob Speers, SackvilleDonald and Pythia Sports were others to increase investment, but none could fill the yawning gap left by Amo, Godolphin or Dullingham, their absence aggravated by reduced spends by BBA Ireland and Highflyer Bloodstock.

Inside information

BBA Ireland’s reduced spend was hardly surprising, as the majority of their breeze-up business is done by Michael Donohoe, known for buying for Middle Eastern clients.

Donohoe’s family also created the hugely success Goresbridge Breeze-Up Sale, so he’s an insightful figure regarding the breeze-up sector. After the dust of the Craven Sale had settled, Donohoe told The Irish Field: “With what’s going on in the world, a lot of our clients are sitting on their hands.

“Looking at the results, it’s the same for all the others, and it’s not confined to Tattersalls – at the OBS Sale in the US at the minute, there’s very few Middle Eastern buyers, certainly from Saudi Arabia at least.”

I myself got the impression at Tattersalls that British trainers have also experienced a drop in orders, suggesting that market weakness is not solely down to the conflict in the Middle East, and Donohoe felt the same.

“Definitely, you could just get that vibe from the sale,” he said. “There were no new people, that I could see, there buying. We were missing a couple of big names; Amo didn’t seem to be buying anything, and I don’t think Sheikh Mohammed bought any either.

“They’re two huge supporters, historically, of the Craven Sale and they weren’t active, along with a couple of others. There were definitely a lot of people missing, and there was no real buzz about the place, and it was fairly obvious from the onset that it was going to struggle.

Perfect storm

“Then top of that, I think some of the breeze-up consigners have lost the run of themselves the last couple of years. When the breeze-up guys are outbidding end users – agents and trainers – at the yearling sales, to resell to the same end user at the breeze-up sales, that doesn’t add up.

“I think that was very obvious this year, that the sellers paid far too much for them as yearlings. They were able to get them sold, but at a loss.”

The official results state that five horses were sold privately at Tattersalls, but it also seemed that some vendors struck deals with trainers who bought on spec, suggesting that the horses could still remain in the consignors’ ownership until a new owner is found.

If no owner is found, those horses are likely to be carrying their consignor’s silks, as will many of the unsold or withdrawn horses, and there’s reason to believe that the private market will share some of the same weaknesses as the breeze-up market.

Middle Eastern owners often purchase Royal Ascot hopes privately, and the US is traditionally another important market for European turf horses. Donohoe buys for both, and confirms that the American market has its own challenges.

“It’s well documented that racing in California is not as healthy as it once was,” he said. “I’m still selling plenty of horses to America, but for sure, the market isn’t what it was; there’s not quite the same hunger as there once was for form horses.

“So, unless we find some new markets for these horses, it’s going to be tough going for the next year or two, until it corrects itself, which it probably will.”

FOR many consignors this week, successful sales simply softened the blows of loss makers and withdrawn horses, and there were plenty of the latter, with some even withdrawn in the outside ring, so friendless was the market.

Goodwill was stronger than ever around the ring, and congratulations came thick and fast for Mark Flannery and Michael Gaffney after the former’s Egmont Stud sold a Starspangledbanner filly on behalf of the latter’s Churchtown House Stud for a sales-topping 900,000gns to Anthony Stroud.

This filly herself has had her shares of highs and lows, having been vendored as a foal and as a yearling, each time for 75,000gns, but that mattered little when she clocked the second fastest time at Monday’s breeze.

An elated Flannery was quick to credit all those involved in Wednesday’s result, the best ever achieved by the Cork farm.

“It’s unbelievable to get something like that, it doesn’t happen often, it doesn’t happen to me anyway,” he said.

Team work

“It’s not just me, it’s my wife Jess, my sister Paula, our main man who rides them is Pierce Gallagher. I’m just the one who turns up here on the day.

“The Gaffneys have been huge supporters of us. We’ve been very lucky that they’ve sent us very good horses like Castle Star, Wannabe Better, Fastnet Mist.

“When you’re getting horses off a farm like that, you have a serious chance of ending up with something special, and she’s always been exceptional.”

On their latest star, Flannery continued: “We always knew she had loads of ability, we just didn’t know how she’d compare to everyone else’s.

“It gives you confidence when she comes here and does that; it means you know what you have for the rest of the year. I think we have a few good chances later on, but it’ll be hard to find another one like her.” Michael Gaffney echoed Flannery’s comments, saying: “Absolutely over the moon. It’s a fantastic result, I’m so delighted for everybody – Mark, Jess, Paula, all the family and all the lads in the yard – they’ve all done a super job, as have my own team at home. Tom and I bred the filly and bred her dam as well.”

Over the moon

The the daughter of Starspangledbanner is the first foal out of Belicious, an unraced three-parts sister to two stakes winners, both of whom produced group winners.

On why she previously failed to sell, Gaffney reported: “She’s possibly a typical Starspangledbanner in that she doesn’t have a free-flowing walk but, my God, she can run.

“That’s what we saw in the field at home – she could just glide. So, we stuck to our guns, we didn’t want to give her away, and thankfully, Mark has proved us right.

Anthony Stroud later expressed his appreciation for Victorious Forever, for whom he purchased the filly.

“It is fantastic that Victorious Forever is here,” he said.

“There is so much going on in the world, and it is to be hugely admired that they are participating. It shows how much they love their racing here.”

BLANDFORD Bloodstock’s Richard Brown and the O’Callaghan family’s Tally-Ho Stud go way back too, having traded Group 1 winners like Dream Ahead and Perfect Power between them in the past.

The O’Callaghan family’s farm managed to sell all nine of their juveniles this week – a fine feat in the circumstances – and Blandford Bloodstock signed for four of them. The Westmeath operation topped the consignors table and had further reason to celebrate as Mehmas topped the sires’ table on both average (£266,857) and turnover (£1,868,000).

Tally-Ho skipped straight to the breeze-up sales with their homebred Mehmas colt out of homebred sister to Campanelle, and were rewarded when he brought 550,000gns from Richard Brown.

“It’s all about the breeze and he did an exceptional breeze,” Brown relayed. “The first time I saw him, I thought he was quite a nice colt and the more I saw him, the more I liked him; I thought he put up a really cool show out there.

“He looks like he’s got a great temperament and he’s by a top sire who can get you a really early one. Like a lot of people buying here, the aim will be to try to get him to Ascot, but he’s not scopeless – there’s more to him than just that.”

Brown’s confidence will have also been buoyed by a successful afternoon at the races, as yearling purchase Damysus ran out an impressive winner of the Group 3 Earl Of Sefton Stakes, chased home by fellow Wathnan Racing representative King’s Gambit. However, it’s unknown as to whether the Mehmas colt was bought on behalf of Wathnan, nor did Brown reveal the colt’s future trainer.

Powerful

Brown later went to 300,000gns to secure a daughter of the same sire, also bred and sold by Tally-Ho Stud. The second foal out of 52,000gns recruit Duchess Rose – a daughter of Brown and Tally-Ho’s Group 1-winning breezer Dream Ahead – reportedly clocked the quickest time at Monday’s gallop.

Blandford and Tally-Ho were responsible for Tuesday’s session-topper, a Palace Pier colt bought by Hamish Macauley as a yearling for 100,000gns, and resold for 450,000gns. Again, Brown did not reveal his client, but is confident the bay won’t return to the Rowley Mile.

“He did a tremendous breeze,” the agent reported. “He’s a very powerful galloper but I don’t think he enjoyed the course.

“He’d be one of the biggest colts in the sale. He was uneven into the start and then he definitely got lost in the dip, but when he hit the rising ground, he came up powerfully, and I always think that’s a good sign.

“He’s a horse that I think we can go forward with – it’s nice because I think we can try and get him to Ascot, but if he doesn’t make it, we’ve got a horse for the future.”

The agent also had some unfinished business with the colt, he explained: “I actually loved him as a yearling and I didn’t have anyone for him, so I was interested to see how he breezed. I haven’t got the best memory, but I remembered him, so I knew I really liked him.”

MICHAEL Fitzpatrick’s poker face was put under fierce pressure when his Kilminfoyle House Stud sold two lots for a combined 780,000gns in the space of 10 minutes.

As is often the case in bloodstock, it wasn’t entirely plain sailing up to that point, with the Lope De Vega colt previously vendored as a yearling after failing to recoup his foal price, while the Mehmas filly was purchased privately after failing to sell in the ring.

Reflecting on Tuesday’s result, Fitzpatrick commented: “All vendors are nervous here, and there’s no rhyme or reason, we probably just got lucky with the horses we had, and that they stayed sound. You need an awful lot of stars to align to get this sort of result.

“I do have to say a huge thank you to my staff – Pamela, Shannon and Gabriel. This means a lot to them.”

Established connections and previous success were also key for the man who bought the Lope De Vega colt for 400,000gns, with Richard Brown having secured a client for the bay just hours before.

“I bought him for Saeed Suhail; we’ve never bought a breeze-up horse for him before,” he reported. “We had always got the brief from him to buy mile, mile plus horses – obviously, he’s won the Derby twice, it’s a race he loves.

“He had a great year last year. He’s got Never So Brave, he’s got More Thunder, he’s got a lot to look forward to this year, and he’s always game. I’m very lucky to have been able to phone him a couple of hours ago, and for him to back my judgement.”

Keep Believing

Brown’s latest purchase fits Saeed Suhail’s criteria, the agent added. “A lot of the time, we’re trying to buy horses for Royal Ascot but for me, this is a horse that needs time,” he said.

“He’s the sort of horse that you’ll see in a September maiden – he’ll get some time off now, and we’ll bring him back towards the backend. He’s obviously bred to get a mile and a quarter plus, but he also showed plenty of speed in his breeze.

“It all adds up, just not necessarily to what you expect from a breeze-up horse, and not necessarily the type I usually buy, but I liked the style of the horse, his action, and the fact that he did show a lot of speed. I’ve always said that all good horses have speed, no matter the distance, and hopefully this will stand him in good stead.”

Brown also referred to Kilminfoyle’s reputation as a proven nursery, as did Anthony Stroud after buying the farm’s Mehmas filly, bred on the same cross as Al Quoz Sprint heroine Believing, a previous Kilminfoyle Craven Sale graduate.

After outbidding nearby James Tate at 380,000gns, Stroud commented: “She’s for Victorious Forever. She did a very good breeze and we were all impressed by her. Sheikh Khalid particularly liked her. She could be the next Believing.”

ONLY two lots breached 500,000gns this week, compared to seven lots last year, with the number to exceed 400,000gns also dropping from seven to five. However, 11 lots realised 300,000gns or more, which was on par with last year’s record figure.

Following Thursday’s session, Tattersalls Managing Director Matthew Prior commented: “The Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale is the first major European bloodstock sale to take place since the outbreak of war in the Middle East, which has created a degree of trepidation and uncertainty amongst bloodstock professionals heading into this week.

“Against this backdrop, we can only be pleased that the sale has returned turnover surpassed only once in its history. We have witnessed strong competition for the best breezers, with a record-equalling eleven lots realising 300,000gns or more.

“Whilst not reaching the heady heights of last year’s sale, nevertheless it is pleasing to see a clearance rate in excess of 80%.

“Demand has come from both domestic and international purchasers, including a significant number of buyers from the Middle East, Hong Kong, Australia and the USA, attracted by the consistently high-class results achieved year after year by the sale’s graduates.

“Once again, we must pay tribute to the professionalism of the breeze-up consignors whose horsemanship and dedication form the backbone of the sale and make it an unmissable fixture each year. That said, we acknowledge that the market has been selective, and that the sale has not been easy for all consignors.”

The final figures were somewhat helped by a large number of withdrawals – from the same size catalogue as last year, three fewer lots actually went through the ring, and the clearance rate dropped two points to 81%.

The median matched last year’s figure of 100,000gns – the second highest in the sale’s history, but the average price fell by 13% to 136,730gns.