AS a first sale of its kind, the Goffs UK January Online Sale produced mixed results. The headline acts all provided hugely attractive returns for vendors, while horses lower down the pecking order found that buyers were either lacking or just not interested.

This was a timed sale, with no horse onsite and no auctioneer in the rostrum. With ongoing uncertainty about the ability of sales companies to stage live sales from time to time, it was an experiment worth taking, and with half of the lots selling, and three of the 36 lots sold realising six-figure sums, it was a valuable exercise.