THE first sale of my year was the Doncaster January Sale the week before last. It had a horses-in-training section followed by National Hunt foals and breeding stock.

Due to a gale in Dublin most flights were grounded the day before, regardless of airline, and there was a real danger that the multitude of Irish buyers would not get there. Our 8am flight eventually took off at 3pm so it effectively became an eight hour flight – much the same as flying to Dubai or New York. There was an outside good chance that we would be the first Dublin flight to East Midlands to suffer from jet lag.