“ADAPTABILITY. That is one of the key words that sums up the bloodstock industry throughout this awful pandemic, as all of us have had to react and adapt to circumstances that have been both out of our control and unlike anything we have experienced.”

These were the words of Goffs group chief executive Henry Beeby as the two-day online Autumn Yearling Sale drew to a close on Wednesday evening. It was a catalogue blighted by the withdrawal of over 200 lots, and held in circumstances that could never have been foreseen by the auction house or its vendors.