The Irish Thoroughbred industry is renowned the world over, and it is not only the country’s breeders and trainers who have helped earn that reputation. Its breeze-up consignors have also flown the flag by producing a large number of high-quality athletes on the global stage.
To give just a taste of that success, Irish-based breeze-up operators have in recent years produced Preakness Stakes hero War Of Will (sold by Oak Tree Farm in County Meath), Prix de Diane winner Channel (Mayfield Stables in County Tipperary) and British Champions Sprint scorer Donjuan Triumphant (Lynn Lodge Stud in County Westmeath).
Already in 2021, breezers who were prepped in Ireland have included Meydan Group winners Al Tariq (sold by Powerstown Stud in County Kilkenny), Midnight Sands (Brown Island Stables in County Cork) and Summer Romance (Mocklershill in County Tipperary).
And it doesn’t take bottomless pockets to be able to afford breeze-up horses of the calibre of those stars, either. Donjuan Triumphant was originally bought by syndicate Middleham Park Racing for 30,000gns, while Channel, now a hugely valuable broodmare whose first foal, a Sea The Stars filly, was born this year, was a relative bargain at €70,000.
For a number of years now, Irish-based breeze-up vendors have been sending many of their best offerings to Ireland’s sole auction of 2-year-olds in training, the Tattersalls Ireland Goresbridge Sale.
The Goresbridge sale was launched in 2006 by Martin Donohoe at his County Kilkenny complex, the largest auction venue of sports horses in Europe, with the breezes taking place at Gowran Park. The inaugural breeze-up sale achieved a top price of €40,000 for a Val Royal gelding and an average price of around €10,400.
Thanks to Donohoe’s determination and hard work, as well as Irish Thoroughbred Marketing’s help in attracting buyers, the sale rapidly grew in stature over the next decade.
G1 winners Fiesolana, Hunt and Music Show were sourced at the fixture, and by 2018 the auction had achieved a new record price of €315,000, given by Stephen Hillen for the Katie Walsh-consigned East, a daughter of Frankel who went on to finish placed in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and Poule d’Essai des Pouliches. The average that year came in at around €30,000, a big improvement on the inaugural edition but indicative of the fact that value was still available.
Later in 2018, it was announced that Tattersalls Ireland would take over the running of the Goresbridge Breeze-Up Sale and that the event would move to the company’s Ratoath premises, over the road from Fairyhouse racecourse, where the breezes would henceforth take place.
The first Goresbridge Breeze-Up Sale held at Tattersalls Ireland in 2019 proved a success, with healthy returns for vendors and some excellent performers returning home with buyers.
The €175,000 top lot, a Lope De Vega colt sold by Oak Tree Farm to Blandford Bloodstock, turned out to be this year’s Lincoln Handicap winner Haqeeqy, while the second highest priced lot, a Kingman filly sold by Kilminfoyle House Stud in County Laois to BBA Ireland for €165,000, was listed winner and G3-placed Parent’s Prayer.
Another lot sold for a 6-figure sum that year, a Camacho filly from Meadowview Stables in County Tipperary bought by Blandford Bloodstock for €100,000, became With Thanks. She has won three of her five starts for William Haggas and was last seen strolling to a 5-length success in the G3 Athasi Stakes at Naas in November.
Meadowview Stables’ Brian Slattery says, “WIth Thanks wasn’t much to look at as a yearling, if I’m being honest, but she came to us to be broken and she just kept improving every day until she blossomed into a really lovely 2-year-old. She was always fast in her breezes at home and she repeated that at Fairyhouse.
Reflecting on the Tattersalls Ireland Goresbridge Breeze-Up Sale, he adds, “The Donohoes did an excellent job in bringing the sale from its infancy to one of the leading events of its kind.
“In the very early days, it was perhaps a sale for left-over breezers, but not any more: it’s become stronger and stronger and is supported by all the big buyers, so it’s now a sale you target and buy yearlings specifically to resell at.”
Because of stricter Covid lockdown restrictions in Ireland, this year’s Tattersalls Ireland Goresbridge Breeze-Up Sale will take place in Newmarket for the second year in a row. But, with life after the pandemic in sight thanks to the vaccination rollout, it will be back at Fairyhouse from 2022.
Slattery thinks the one time the sale was held in Fairyhouse showed the new format worked. “Fairyhouse is a beautiful Grade 1 track and lends itself really well to staging a breeze, and of course having the breezes take place so close to the sales complex is a real benefit for everyone,” he says.
His memories of selling at that 2019 renewal in Tattersalls Ireland also include an anecdote that shows how, for all the talk of blockbuster prices, there were bargains still to be had there.
“We managed to sell our entire draft except for one lot – a Slade Power colt who we couldn’t get €10,000 for,” he says. “He went to be trained by my brother Andy as Power Ahead, and he won a Dundalk maiden and was then sold to race in Hong Kong.”
Other examples of the value on offer from Irish-based breeze-up vendors at the Goresbridge sale are Anda Muchacho, an 8-time stakes winner in Italy sold by Powerstown Stud to Marco Bozzi Bloodstock for €26,000, and Duca Di Como, a prolific black-type scorer in Scandinavia sold by County Westmeath-based Gaybrook Lodge Stud to Peter and Ross Doyle for €42,000.
Archie Watson is compiling a good record with Goresbridge Breeze-Up Sale graduates, too. He sent out Maystar, a €35,000 buy from Mocklershill, to win a Deauville listed race, a valuable contest in Qatar and more than £140,000 in prize money; and he saddled Mehmento, a mere £14,000 purchase from Tally-Ho Stud in County Westmeath last year, to wide-margin wins on the all-weather in the winter and to finish a neck second in the Greenham Stakes this spring.
Buyers wishing to take advantage of Irish consignors’ expertise in preparing future stars themselves should attend the Tattersalls Ireland Goresbridge Breeze-Up Sale at Tattersalls in Newmarket on June 2 and 3, with the breeze taking place on the Rowley Mile on the first day and the lots going under the hammer at Park Paddocks on the following day.
Those unable to attend can register to bid online. However potential bidders wish to participate, Irish Thoroughbred Marketing are on hand to assist.