IT is a privilege to be travelling the country in the early months of each year meeting breeders and producers to see the stock that they have to offer for the Tattersalls Ireland store sales. It is invaluable in my role representing Tattersalls Ireland to spend time with our clients in their home environment and, most importantly, it gives them a one-on-one opportunity to discuss their thoughts, be they positive or negative, on all aspects of the industry with me.

Each year there is enormous demand for places in the Derby Sale and I imagine the same can be said for the other select store sales that are run by competing sales companies. With this demand there will always be disappointment for vendors who are unsuccessful in securing places in these sales and from my point of view this is without question the most difficult aspect of the job.

You can visibly see the disappointment in some people as you deliver your thoughts and suggest that a horse would sell better in later sales; to these vendors a later sale seems like the end of the road.

I would suggest that it is the start of a new journey and one where the focus should be presenting horses in a more forgiving market where a nice horse will stand out and sell well; after all it is in the vendors and our interest that each horse achieves the best possible price.

BIG PUSH

When I joined Tattersalls Ireland nearly 10 years ago there was a big push on by industry professionals to encourage vendors to produce store horses with more done when offered in a sales ring as store horses. New conditions of sale were introduced to facilitate horses being sold as “driving in long reins” and also to be sold as “broken and guaranteed untried”.

The industry was acutely sensitive to how well French imported horses were doing at the major festivals. Trainers perceived French horses as being more precocious and early maturing than our Irish-bred horses and our industry saw a need to adapt and change.

Our vendors and horses needed to step up to the plate; the store horse was seen historically as one that had little handling and education on his CV when offered in a store sale and this was a big obstacle to overcome. Since then, the store horse has gone through significant change, thanks in no small part to our vendors and in particular the point-to-point industry.

A number of point-to-point trainers saw an opportunity to develop the existing market for Irish pointers, these trainers have specialised in educating and training young three and four-year-olds, preparing them for careers on the racetrack using the point-to-point field as a nursery.

It is a significant feat to produce a young horse to run in point-to-points sometimes within six months of being purchased. One of the key aspects that has helped young store horses through this graduation process is the amount of preparation that the majority of store horses now receive and for this, credit must be given to the store horse vendors.

REPEAT BUSINESS

Currently a large percentage of store horses will have been driven in long reins in the autumn of their two-year-old year and some even loose schooled over obstacles. Purchasers, in particular point-to-point purchasers, are aware of the vendors who produce their horses ready to go on with, and it is no surprise to see these vendors benefit from repeat business year on year.

For these vendors it is good business and in horse terms it is also good for our breed. Our young horses are being introduced to exercise programs earlier in their careers and they are also benefiting from better diets. Long term, this can only be good for the young horse. All the best sports players and athletes didn’t wait until they were adults to initiate their careers, it was a gradual process initiated very early in their lives. I might be brave enough to suggest that in a few years’ time the French and Irish way of producing young horses will be far more similar and the perception will eventually disappear.

One of the highlights of the spring so far for me was witnessing a filly called Maire Banrigh win a point-to-point at Lingstown in March. This filly brought a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘winning on the bridle,’ as she was actually still pulling as she was crossing the finish line and it took all of Barry O’Neill’s strength to slow her down. She really could be something special.

The event was significant for a couple of reasons. She was trained by Richard Black, a young trainer who isn’t training for that long and only has a couple of horses in his care. He was brave enough to spend £40,000 on this daughter of King’s Theatre as a store on behalf of owner and fellow Wexford man, John Murphy. Their handsome reward was a record price for a point-to-point filly of £320,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland Cheltenham Festival sale. Both parties are involved in the game through small numbers and it goes to show what is possible for operations of all sizes.

Also significant here was that Maire Banrigh achieved the top price at the sale – wouldn’t it be great if this could be repeated by a filly in the November National Hunt Sale or a filly in the Derby Sale?

RIGHT DIRECTION

Our breeding industry produces 50% fillies and, to give credit where it is due, massive steps in the right direction have been made by all sectors of the industry to help the filly in the sales ring and on the racetrack. If you look at how the market for point-to-point geldings has developed in recent years there is no reason that the point-to-point filly market can’t advance in the same fashion. Let’s hope Maire Banrigh can serve as the example and be the headline act for the girls. The filly situation is improving and I would love to see the day when top class National Hunt fillies would be sought after in the same way as the top class flat fillies are in the sales ring.

I am a Kilkenny native and my main interests all begin with ‘H’, horses, hunting and hurling. With the hunting season over, attention now turns to the hurling but with far less enthusiasm than in previous years, especially after last Sunday’s defeat to Wexford in Nowlan Park. With the Tipperary people still rubbing salt into the wounds after last year’s All-Ireland Final I hope my Wexford friends won’t get too carried away with the win and give me too much stick!