£50,000 sale-topper masks a challenging day for vendors at Goffs

A familiar pattern of rosy at the top and challenging at the lower end was again in evidence at the Goffs UK Autumn HIT & Yearling Sale yesterday, with the gloss of the sale-topping £50,000 yearling taken off by the alarmingly low clearance rate of 46 per cent.

On a largely difficult day for vendors, one operation who benefited towards the top end of yesterday’s trade was Worsall Grange, who not only consigned the top lot, but also the second and fourth most expensive yearling purchases at £35,000 and £15,000 respectively.

The sale topper, consigned as lot 147, was a colt by Darley reverse shuttler Sidestep, with trainer Tony Carroll responsible for the winning bid as the gavel came down at £50,000, while earlier on in the session, Liberty had gone to £35,000 to secure lot 104, a filly by Gazeley Stud stallion Finjaan.

“The Sidestep was a cracking good-looking horse, Tony Carroll had seen him at home and he bought him,” said Worsall Grange’s Lucy Horner.

“He’s a gorgeous horse and the mare (Cheap ‘N’ Chic) was a decent two-year-old who ran in the Weatherbys Super Sprint. Sidestep should get going on the basis that he’s a son of Exceed And Excel.

“The Finjaan filly looks as if she’ll be a racy type and she should go on and do something.”

Click here to view Wednesday's sale results

The North Yorkshire outfit also saw their Cable Bay filly fetch £15,000 from Racing For All, and when asked for her reflections on the day’s general trade, Horner gave an honest and frank assessment.

“I think that anything that was right here today made money, that would be my reflection on it,” she said. “It’s like any sale that you’re going to at the moment, if you have the article, you’re going to get paid. If you don’t, you’re in trouble.

“Don’t get me wrong, we’ve hit the high notes and we’ve been lucky, but at the same time we’ve had the down side of it. We had a good-looking Epaulette go to the sales out of a Listed mare, he made £1,500.

“There was nothing wrong with him, the sire’s just gone wrong. If you have what the market wants you will get paid. We’ve just been lucky that we had a nice bunch of horses on the day.”

A comparison with last year’s figures told the story of mixed fortunes, with the top lot up significantly from £20,000 in 2017, while the clearance race fell drastically from 74 per cent to 46 per cent for this year’s renewal. The average also saw an increase of 23% to £5,198.

On the day’s trade, Tony Williams, managing director of Goffs UK, commented: “Today’s yearling sale was indicative of the season’s end service trade. Our figures were in line with last year’s edition and the clearance rate is reflecting this market.

“We were pleased with the top lot selling for £50,000 and we progress with our horses in training and form horse sale tomorrow, and look forward to a strong trade.”

The Horses In Training session kicks off at 10am this morning, with the 266-strong catalogue featuring a strong draft from National Hunt supremo Willie Mullins.

If you are interested in this, you should also read:

Timely update sees Soldier Hollow filly fetch €140,000 at Arqana