‘The Book 1 Bonus is a phenomenal thing’ – focus on a lucrative scheme that benefits buyers at every level of the market

Ahead of the world-renowned Tattersalls October Yearling Sale Book 1 [Oct 8-10], we spotlight a popular scheme that adds to the value on offer at Europe’s premier Thoroughbred auction

Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale is renowned the world over. The auction’s roll of honour reads like a who’s who of major equine talent, with graduates ranging from multiple Classic winners to top-class two-year-olds, influential stallions through to budding blue hens. This is where the most powerful buyers come to find the best-bred yearlings Europe has to offer.

But Book 1 does not only cater for those with virtually bottomless pockets. At last year’s renewal prices ranged from the two million guineas paid by MV Magnier and White Birch Farm for the Frankel colt Galveston, down to just 8,000gns.

And the fortunes of that 8,000gns filly highlight the kind of opportunities that abound in Book 1. The daughter of King Of Change was pinhooked by Adam Potts and Danny O’Donovan and resold for 80,000gns at the Craven Breeze-Up Sale six months later. Make no mistake, there is value to be found.

Underpinning this wealth of opportunities is the lucrative Book 1 Bonus scheme. This initiative sees the owner of a Book 1 purchase that wins one of over 300 qualifying maiden or novice races at two receive a windfall of £25,000.

That is a considerable amount of money whichever way you slice it, but for those shopping below the 100,000gns mark, that sort of return accounts for a significant percentage of the purchase price. There have been plenty of successes on this front in 2024 alone.

Tilted Kilt, for example, was bought by trainer William Knight for just 27,000gns. The son of Persian King recouped all of that initial outlay and more when a successful debut at Kempton saw him scoop a £25,000 Book 1 Bonus along with prize-money of £5,346.

Productive season

Hugo Palmer has enjoyed a particularly productive season with his Book 1 purchases, having scooped £25,000 bonuses with both Seagolazo and the high-class Seagulls Eleven. 

“I always feel that if you’re buying a horse in Book 1 that looks like it can win at two, it genuinely feels like you’re knocking £25,000 off the purchase price thanks to the Book 1 Bonus,” says Palmer.

“If you tell an owner you’ve found a horse you love and you’d really like to buy it for them, they might turn around and ask what it can win. If you go to any other sale the answer is £4,500 for winning a maiden, whereas at Book 1 it’s £29,500. That £25,000 makes a massive difference.”

Securing a Book 1 Bonus is not the only thing that has helped Seagolazo and Seagulls Eleven look good value. 

The pair, who are owned by 11 members of the Brighton & Hove Albion football team, were purchased by bloodstock agent Ed Sackville, with the former signed for at 82,000gns and the latter looking especially well bought at 50,000gns. For context, the average price at Book 1 last year was 243,977gns. 

Seagulls Eleven won a Book 1 Bonus for landing a Haydock novice, and has since finished second in the Superlative Stakes and a close third to fellow Book 1 graduate Scorthy Champ in the G1 National Stakes. 

Explaining how he and Sackville unearthed Seagulls Eleven for such a value sum, Palmer says, “He’s a half-brother to a G1 winner [The Platinum Queen], he just happens to be by Galileo Gold. Some people might turn their nose up at the stallion, but since I trained Galileo Gold – and trained his first G1-winning son in Ebro River – if I couldn’t buy Seagulls Eleven then the vendor, Roger O’Callaghan of Tally-Ho Stud, was in serious trouble!

“He was a classic Book 1 yearling; a big, powerful animal, and a brother to a G1 winner. Perhaps in Book 1 so much of the big money is looking for the big-money horse. If there’s a reason like they lack a bit of pedigree, or they’re not automatically a stallion because, for example, they’re by Galileo Gold, those horses don’t suit those with the budget to go after the perfect individual.”

Knight and Palmer’s success stories are far from one-offs. Since the scheme was introduced at the 2015 renewal of the sale, few operations have farmed Book 1 Bonus winners quite like the Johnstons.

Between the father-and-son combination of Mark and Charlie, the Johnstons have trained 26 Book 1 Bonus winners, and purchased 14 of those themselves. 

A dozen of those 14 cost under 100,000gns, with an average price of just 62,355gns. The latest addition to the list was Kiss Me My Love, a 30,000gns purchase who netted her owner Jaber Abdullah £25,000 on top of her prize-money of £5,400 when breaking her maiden at Carlisle in June.

Best pedigrees

“We love the Book 1 sale,” says Charlie Johnston. “It’s where the best pedigrees are, and pedigree is where we start when it comes to purchasing our yearlings. It’s the premier sale in that regard and it’s somewhere we always want to buy as many horses as we can.

“Given that we’re largely buying on spec and would rarely tiptoe into six-figure territory, the majority of horses we’re buying in Book 1 are for 100,000gns or less. When you can win a significant portion of that back in one go thanks to the Book 1 Bonus, it’s a big incentive and a good selling point when we’re trying to find owners for these yearlings. 

“With a horse like Kiss Me My Love, when you include the prize-money she earned, she won pretty much exactly her purchase price back in one go. Those sorts of stories are fantastic and it's a great advertisement for us and for the Book 1 Bonus that this sort of result is achievable.

“At a time when we’re all moaning about prize-money, a Book 1 Bonus can take a £5,000 maiden to a £30,000 maiden, and that’s much nearer where it should be.”

Since its inception there have been 378 bonuses won (up to and including Sept 20), meaning the scheme is rapidly closing in on having paid out a cool £10m. Of those 378 winners, 132 of them – almost exactly 35% – cost 100,000gns or less. 

Buyers shopping at the European yearling sales now have a whole range of lucrative incentives presented to them. But the above figures highlight one of the initiative’s unique selling points: not only does the Book 1 Bonus pay a valuable dividend but, unlike some other such enticements, they are also eminently winnable.

“The whole point of the scheme from the word go was to get significant prize-money into the hands of owners at the point we feel it has the most impact, which is when they win their first race,” says Tattersalls’ marketing director Jimmy George. “The Book 1 Bonus is something that, dare I say it, we’re proud of, and the response from owners has only increased our commitment. 

“We know that Book 1 of the October Yearling Sale is Europe’s premier yearling sale, but there will always be value to be had and yearlings to be purchased at every sector of the market.

Yearlings for everyone

“A salient point for people to recognise is that around 35% of Book 1 Bonus winners have cost 100,000gns or less,” he goes on. “I think that demonstrates that this is a scheme that benefits owners at every level of the market, and that was always the point of it.

“We’ve always focussed on getting the message across to owners, trainers and agents that Book 1 of the October Yearling Sale at Tattersalls is a sale which has yearlings for everyone – and that they will be rewarded as at no other yearling sale in Europe.” 

Palmer tasted success in two valuable sales races with the redoubtable Gifted Master, but says the distribution and accessibility means he “massively prefers” the Book 1 Bonus concept to having a solitary target to aim at.

“The Book 1 Bonus is a phenomenal thing,” says the trainer. “Of course the dream of winning a big race is what keeps us all involved and engaged in this game, and those of us with large stables are lucky enough to win the big races from time to time. 

“But when you’re buying well-bred, good-looking horses like you find at Book 1, to expect them to win a maiden at two is not a pipe dream.

Achievable reality

“Winning maiden races is fairly bread and butter, and to be getting that well paid for winning a maiden race is what makes the Book 1 Bonus such a fantastic initiative. Winning a Book 1 Bonus isn’t the stuff of dreams; that’s a very achievable reality.” 

Moreover, the Book 1 Bonus can be just part of an even more substantial payout owners receive, provided they shop wisely. George highlights the increasingly popular Great British Bonus (GBB) scheme as another initiative that can be taken advantage of alongside the Book 1 Bonus. 

GBB-eligible fillies can win up to £20,000 in bonuses per race, while the scheme is being extended for the 2025 season to include GBB Plus. This enhancement will see middle-distance and staying-bred fillies in with a chance of winning as much £40,000 in bonuses. 

“Just the other day we had a graduate [the William Haggas-trained Bintjeddah] win over £50,000 because they won a Book 1 Bonus and a GBB bonus, as well as their prize-money,” says George.

“Going into this year’s sale, with the new GBB Plus initiative there are fillies in this year’s catalogue that will be eligible to win £65,000 worth of bonuses should they win the appropriate maiden or novice race, and that’s before you throw in prize-money. 

“That sort of return is pretty well better than anywhere else in the world, barring perhaps the outlier of a few days at Kentucky Downs. These are big prize-money opportunities that need to be recognised.” 

The opportunities are there, if only you know where to look. With something to suit all budgets among the 449 entries in this year’s sale, which starts on October 8, Book 1 rates a truly unmissable event.

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