FINDING myself based in Kildare with an office in Leominster, a not insignificant drive from Birmingham Airport, and sales venues at Ascot and Cheltenham, has its challenges.
As Tattersalls Ireland run these sales we obviously have key personnel assisting on sales days. The Tattersalls Newmarket team have the geographical advantage of not having to cross the Irish Sea so are also called upon for resources and this adds to the Ascot Cheltenham team of Richard Botterill, Dawn Thomas and Matt Hall. We further welcome some casual staff to assist which ensures there is quite a bit of organising.
Before we had the chance to pat ourselves firmly on the back for combining this team of 25-30 required to run each sale smoothly, our Cheltenham friends pointed out that they manage to source, train and organise up to 9,000 casual staff for the festival.
Those qualified in the hospitality sector would marvel at the speed-training taking place on the Tuesday morning of the festival for this army of staff who may be somewhat new to the trade in many instances!
NEW MEMBER TO TEAM
With Dawn Thomas soon to cross the Irish Sea and set up base in Tipperary, we look forward to welcoming Shirley Anderson-Jolag to the team on Monday where she will begin to take over Dawn’s role.
In her interview she described herself as being part of Ireland’s not so well known Irish/Iranian community from Donegal! Shirley will now join the team in Leominster before moving to Newmarket in June with Matt Hall.
Many vendors and purchasers will know Shirley as she has been working in the Control Office at both venues since November and now joins the team in a full-time capacity.
Dawn won’t be leaving us entirely and we look forward to her support and assistance on sales days going forward into next year.
Shirley will face a busy period with four sales taking place from the March 16th Festival Sale to the April 20th Cheltenham Sale. Sandwiched between those are the Ascot Breeze Up on April 4th and 5th and the new Ascot March 23rd Sale.
ASCOT MARCH SALE.
This new sale takes place on Thursday, March 23rd, one week after the Cheltenham Festival sale.
It has many advantages including the opportunity to sell pointers with a reasonable amount of the season remaining for the end-user to run their new horses.
Many UK point-to-point handlers will be keen to restock with new rules allowing them to buy horses at this time of year while Ascot is a very easy venue to access for Irish clients, being about 25 mins from Heathrow.
Our July sale really captured the imagination of buyers and Tom Malone, Harold Kirk, Anthony Bromley, Bobby O’Ryan, Kevin Ross, along with a host of trainers, were all in attendance. This sale has many similarities and I think it has real potential for the Irish point-to-point horse who does not find a space at the festival but has a very real value for new connections.