Buyers Primed for Goffs UK Premier Sale Action

With no disrespect intended to the esteemed South Yorkshire town, there are more salubrious settings than Doncaster hosting a headline yearling auction in 2021. And, if history is any guide, some of those events will generate much higher prices than we will witness over the coming two days.

Nonetheless, the Goffs UK Premier Sale, which kicks off on Aug. 24 at 10 a.m. local time, still stands out among an increasingly crowded auction calendar as one of the most important dates of the bloodstock year.

While we can all appreciate a picture postcard location or the theatrics that come with a seven-figure bidding battle, neither is any guarantee of a fast horse. But should you want the guarantee of a well equipped equine athlete, and let's face it, who doesn't, then the 'Donny' yearling sale simply cannot be ignored.

It was in 1963 that Willie Stephenson and Ken Oliver, founding fathers of the Doncaster Bloodstock Sales company, introduced the St. Leger Yearling Sales, and the 58 intervening years have seen the so-called Donny yearling develop a strong identity all of its own.

The foundation of this reputation was the kind of horse whose hallmarks were speed and precocity, and buyers on the hunt for such an animal will doubtless be well catered for by this year's catalog, which has been trimmed to 400 lots.

But recent years have seen a broader cross-section of stock presented in Doncaster, and in turn the roll of honor now contains a more diverse list of talent.

The likes of Reckless Abandon , Supremacy , Tiggy Wiggy , and Toormore  all graduated from the Doncaster ring before winning at group 1 level at 2, as did Advertise , Laurens , and Olympic Glory  before enhancing their profile at 3 and beyond. There have been a whole host of other notable talents who won group 1s beyond their 2-year-old days too, think names like Barney Roy , Golden Horde , Harry Angel , and Limato .

And, of course, winning a group 1 is not the only way for a yearling purchase to realize its potential. Happy Romance  was sourced on behalf of first-time owners the McMurray family for £25,000 (US$30,548) in 2019 and has helped pen something of a fairytale first step into ownership by winning six races, including a brace of group 3s, and over £270,000 in prize money.

Few, if any, are better placed to opine on the appeal of the Doncaster yearling sale than Ross Doyle, who, along with his father Peter, was responsible for unearthing Happy Romance, as well as a string of group 1-winning Goffs UK graduates like Barney Roy, Canford Cliffs , Limato, and Olympic Glory.

"Donny is a massive deal for us and has been a lucky place for my family," said Doyle during a short break from inspections in a sun-baked South Yorkshire on Monday afternoon. "We've bought some of our best horses here. We've bought champions out of this sale and they're hard to find, especially with it getting so competitive out there now. But when you can say you've had champions out of a sale, and a couple of them, it's hard not to look forward to coming back."

A common theme among the Premier Sale's best graduates is that they have tended not to come with pretentious pedigrees but have gone on to invigorate their family themselves, and Doyle notes that, for him, the main attraction in Doncaster has always been the physical specimens on offer.

"Year in, year out there are top-class 2-year-olds coming out of here, as well as horses who train on as well," he said. "Stallion wise there's always a great mix here, from first-season horses to well-established proven sires, but the physicals here are the main thing for us. The pedigree is probably just what puts the value on them.

"Happy Romance is a typical Donny type of horse; good looking, medium sized, and generally a bit of a neater individual. You just get good runners here."

Another key tenet of the Premier Sale is value for money. Although the names mentioned above rate as some of the finest Thoroughbreds to have graced the racecourse in recent years, the only one among that number to break the six-figure barrier was Laurens at £220,000 ($290,378), a trifling amount considering she went on to win six group 1s and £1,765,488 in prize money.

A further example of the value on offer emerged just last week during York's Ebor meeting when Zain Claudette  maintained her rapid rate of progress with a ready success in the Sky Bet Lowther Stakes (G2). The daughter of No Nay Never  cost Rabbah Bloodstock just £20,000 ($26,735) when offered through Castlehyde Stud last year.

"We've always got great value here in Doncaster too, and when you look back at the horses once they've gone into training, it always seems like you've got more than you paid for from a physical perspective," continued Doyle. "The Hannons like that, as do lots of our other clients, and the good thing is that means we can come here and buy a few more.

"Good value usually means a good sale too as it's a reflection that there are plenty of nice horses on offer. There have been plenty of fireworks in recent years too. We've followed lots of horses in that we can't buy because they make too much money, but you've just got to box and weave like everyone else and hope you fall on the good ones.

"Owners feel like they've got a chance to buy a good horse without having to go crazy, and that's important to keep people interested in the game. No one has an excuse here, you can buy a racehorse and everyone on the scale is catered for."

Whether the Premier Sale record of £440,000 ($537,636), given by MV Magnier for the smart Admiral Nelson  in 2019, will be threatened over the coming two days remains to be seen, but, having looked at every single yearling currently stabled in Doncaster, Doyle is confident the catalog is well up to scratch.

"We go and see every single horse between us and narrow it down to our shortlist," he says. "We've got 35 or 40 on our list for each day, so that's a good sign."

Another encouraging sign was the amount of prospective purchasers out combing the grounds on the final day of inspections, with plenty of major names in attendance including Godolphin's chief talent scout Anthony Stroud, Qatar Racing's David Redvers, who was joined by the operation's figurehead Sheikh Fahad, and Shadwell's Angus Gold. 

Only time will tell how this year's renewal fits into the rich history of the Doncaster yearling sale, but one thing is for certain: you don't want to miss it.