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TALK about strength in numbers. You might think that Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott are represented at the Cheltenham Festival with a bigger team of horses than anyone else, but that’s not how the National Hunt team at Goffs see it.
With a total of 132 runners at last year’s four-day bonanza who were previously sold at Goffs or Goffs UK - making up a third of all horses competing at the meeting - they had quite the squad to support across the 28 contests.
It turned out to be a memorable festival for group chief executive Henry Beeby and the expanding National Hunt operation, as nine Goffs representatives etched their names on the meeting’s roll of honour in 2022, including a handful of Grade 1 winners.
There’s every chance it could be another fruitful four days this spring for those who have come under the Goffs gavel, with almost all of the sales house’s scorers from 12 months earlier likely to return again. Another strong representation on track demonstrates the company’s concerted effort to strengthen and evolve its Goffs’ National Hunt team, which includes highly-respected figures such as Gerry Hogan, Kevin Ross, Neil Walsh and Peter Molony.
Beeby, 57, originally from the Scottish borders, is as enthusiastic as ever ahead of his annual return to the Cotswolds to watch the firm’s graduates on jump racing’s biggest stage.
“I like to look at them as ‘our horses’ because we’re following them the whole time,” says Beeby. “I don’t bet, primarily because I’m so wound up about following the horses who have passed under our gavel. I stay in the same hotel every year and a very good friend of mine, Geoffrey Russell, comes along. Every night before racing we sit down and work out the horses who we’ll be supporting; he likes a punt on the races and I like to follow the Goffs horses.
“We get to the racecourse nice and early, and I circle my racecard to mark all those who have been sold at Goffs.Everyone has their habits and rituals for that week, and I’ve always stood on the lawn at Cheltenham - it genuinely gets me excited each and every time.
Cheltenham history
“My late father [Harry] went to nearly 70 consecutive Cheltenham Festivals and his father [George] trained two Cheltenham Gold Cup winners [with Brendan’s Cottage in 1939 and Silver Fame in 1951]. I’ve gone every year myself for roughly 30 years and it still gives me such a thrill. When two fancied horses approach the last it’s immense, and if one or two of them are Goffs horses then it’s incredible. It’s what you live for.”
Last season’s Cheltenham Festival got off to a flying start for Beeby’s team when Constitution Hill, who had sold at the previous year’s Goffs UK Spring Horses In Training/Point-To-Point Sale from Warren Ewing’s Bernice Stables to Nicky Henderson, ran out a stunning 22-length winner over Goffs UK November Point-To-Point Sale graduate Jonbon in the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. J.P. McManus bought this year’s Sporting Life Arkle favourite from Ellmarie Holden’s Coolmeen Stables for a record £570,000.
Corach Rambler, bought at the same sale as Jonbon by Michael Scudamore from John Walsh’s Scar Stables, stayed on powerfully to land the Ultima Handicap Chase roughly an hour later before Honeysuckle made it back-to-back wins in the Unibet Champion Hurdle and Marie’s Rock plundered a first Grade 1 success in the Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle.
Honeysuckle was bought by Peter Molony on behalf of Kenny Alexander from Jerry Cosgrave at the 2018 Goffs Punchestown Festival Sale, while Marie’s Rock was purchased by Highflyer Bloodstock/Middleham Park at the same year’s Land Rover Sale from Dan Breen of Railstown Stud.
Sir Gerhard, who went through the ring at both the 2015 Goffs November Foal Sale and 2018 Land Rover Sale, struck in the opening Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle on day two of the meeting, quickly followed by a Coral Cup success for Commander Of Fleet, bought by Mags O’Toole from Mount Eaton Stud at the 2017 Land Rover Sale.
Flooring Porter brought up consecutive wins in the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle on day three at Cheltenham, having appeared at both the 2015 Goffs December National Hunt Sale and 2018 Land Rover. Billaway made it nine Cheltenham Festival wins for Goffs graduates in 2022 with victory in the St James’s Place Festival Challenge Cup Open Hunters’ Chase. He was sold from Dwayne Blake to Michael O Gorman at the 2015 Land Rover Sale.
Memorable meeting
“Last year’s Cheltenham Festival is one I reflect fondly on, but I always do when it comes to this meeting,” says Beeby, who last December marked 40 years of service with the firm.
“Back when it was a three-day festival, my father would always say that if you could only have three days of racing a year you’d have it as Cheltenham. It’s the ultimate.
“It isn’t long before Punchestown rolls along, though, and the sale there is another of our National Hunt success stories. Honeysuckle came from there and we had a top-priced lot last year of €370,000 for Absolute Notions, who had won the Land Rover Bumper earlier that week.
“The Aintree Sale has made a stunning start, selling Samcro in its first year and having a highest-priced lot of £400,000 last spring. We launched the Tingle Creek Sale last December too and it seemed to be well received. I love working with the team to develop those ideas.”
All eyes will be on whether Constitution Hill can back up the outstanding impression he has created so far over hurdles in the Unibet Champion Hurdle, and Beeby counts himself among the Nicky Henderson-trained performer’s fanclub.
“He’s just an extraordinary horse,” says Beeby. “ I think he looks amazing. At this stage in his career, he’s as good as anything I’ve seen. Then again, this time 12 months ago I’d have said Honeysuckle is as good a mare as I’ve seen. She’s a mare who everyone adores.”
The Goffs Land Rover provided more than double the number of Cheltenham Festival winners than any other store sale in 2022, but there will be a new name on the major three-year-old auction this June.
In honour of history’s greatest chaser, Arkle, who was sold as a three-year-old at Goffs, the sale will now be known as the Goffs Arkle Sale, taking place from June 13th to 14th for Part 1 and June 15th for Part 2.
Goffs’ longstanding partnership with Land Rover is also evolving as the Arkle Sale will be held in partnership with Defender and all horses offered will be eligible for the €100,000 Goffs Defender Bumper at the Punchestown Sale, where the winning vendor will become the new owner of a new Defender Hard Top.
Beeby says: “We feel it is a fitting tribute to “Himself” and to our ambition for the Goffs Arkle Sale to give it a new title for a new era. The fact that this sale has been the leading store sale for Cheltenham Festival winners over the last decade - and that last year we had more winners at the meeting than any other store sale - is very important. All the fancy prices are grand and it’s what we’re about, but if those horses don’t perform then buyers are less likely to come back.
“It had the largest share of select stores last year at 47% of the market. We expanded Part 1 to two days to accommodate vendors looking to send more of their best stores to Goffs. Our average was over €51,000 and it was the highest-grossing National Hunt store sale ever at €23.5 million. The aspiration is to continue to grow the market share, to have a bigger share of the best horses.”
On how the new Goffs Arkle Sale name came about, Beeby explains: “When you’re involved in running an auction house, which I’ve done since 1998, you’re always looking to develop because to stand still is to go backwards. The Land Rover Sale has been one of our great success stories in Goffs, and we were looking to evolve it.
“Arkle was sold at Goffs in 1960 to Tom Dreaper on behalf of Anne, Duchess of Westminster, and he remains the greatest National Hunt horse of all time. Our flagship flat sale is called the Orby Sale, named after another iconic Irish champion, so to have the sale named after Arkle just feels right.
“There’s also quite a nice link there to Arkle in Goffs as Tom [Taaffe] is an important team member focusing on international client relations, and his father Pat had a famous association through riding the great horse.
“I can remember when the Land Rover Sale was launched 27 years ago, it was really about the sharper, shorter, bumper type of horse but the sale has evolved - particularly over the past decade. We’ve invested a lot when it comes to National Hunt in Goffs in that period, broadening our buyer-recruitment team, our inspectors to go and select the horses, our race and point-to-point sponsorships.
“There are some very talented and experienced people. We have continued to broaden our team and focus on relationships with vendors, which is an integral part of ensuring the best possible outcomes for everyone who attends our various sales throughout the year.
“Looking at how the sale has evolved, Arkle is exactly the type of horse we would aspire to have in the Arkle Sale nowadays. It is a sale for top-class chasers and our record at Cheltenham over the past 10 years speaks for itself.”
Industry resilience
Statistics published by Horse Racing Ireland for 2022 showed an impressive recovery from Covid-19 in relation to bloodstock sales, and Goffs’ annual returns were no different.
Beeby credits the lessons learned from the financial crisis in the late noughties as being of significant value to his operation when riding out the Covid storm.
“Isn’t this such a great business that it’s so resilient?” says Beeby. “I remember in the financial crash when we were all on our knees. Goffs’ turnover went from €120 million to €45 million in two years, but - like everyone - we put our heads down and kept working together to recover.
“I truly believe the experience of the crash stood us in very good stead. When Covid hit, there was no sense of panic because we’d learned from before and were better prepared. We took very quick action.”
Keeping the Goffs team that had been assembled over many years intact was viewed as being essential.
“I was asked, quite reasonably, by some shareholders and directors about having to make redundancies but I said we wouldn’t as I couldn’t see the situation lasting,” he says.
“I didn’t know how long but thought it would be months, and that we’d need our team. We have specialist people and companies like Goffs need to look after their team. Everyone had to be in it together. This organisation is like a family. Everyone is working towards the same goal and we’ve got a wonderful group of people with youth and experience.
“The current market is remarkably resilient. We had our best year ever in 2022. In 2021 we had a turnover of €180 million, which was the highest ever at the time, and last year it was up 20% to €217 million to a new Goffs record. Others did well too, so we weren’t in isolation, but we did as well as we could.
“The key point is, we’ve got massive support from Irish breeders. One of our lines is that we can’t do it without you because we’re nothing without your horses, but it’s not a line - it’s the truth. We’re everyone’s servant and nobody’s master. We work for the industry, and try to both react and grow for them.”
Beeby is estimated to have auctioned approximately 75,000 horses since his first, Miss Tali, went for 1,350gns after winning a selling race at Kelso in December 1985, but nothing quite sets the pulse racing like a big-race winner at the Cheltenham Festival. His racecard will be well circled again with Goffs graduates to shout for this spring. If history is anything to go by, it all looks set for more unrivalled joy on the Cheltenham lawns.
This article is taken from The Irish Field Cheltenham Magazine 2023, produced in partnership with Goffs
Selecting the best
THE National Hunt team at Goffs and Goffs UK has been transformed in recent years and that has been a key reason behind the success of the sales themselves. The people inspecting and selecting horses for the Arkle Sale and Doncaster Spring Sale are vastly experienced and know what they are looking for in terms of festival winners. This gives buyers confidence, leading to the strongest prices we’ve seen at the Arkle Sale and Spring Sale.
Leading bloodstock agents Gerry Hogan and Kevin Ross remain at the core of the Goffs NH team, along with consigner Peter Molony. Add in Derek O’Connor, the most successful point-to-point rider of all time, and Cheltenham Festival-winning jockey Jerry McGrath. The company also boasts two of the bloodstock industry’s most experienced selectors in Neil Walsh and Harry Fowler, who are joined by top auctioneers Nick Nugent, Tim Kent, George Stanners, Andrew Nolan, and Bernard Condron, working alongside Jeremy Mactaggart, Mary Kilduff, Celine Orton, Michael Hardy, Conor Wixted and Caroline Kenneally
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