Craven Sale a buoyant breeze-up opening salvo but not a licence to print money

By just about every conventional metric, this year's Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale rates a buoyant opening act for the European two-year-old auction circuit.

With a slightly slimmed down catalogue and 18 fewer lots changing hands - 103 compared to 121 in 2021 - there was every reason for turnover to fall behind the level set 12 months ago.

However, by the close of trading on Wednesday evening buyers had spent a combined 11,939,500gns, a 15 per cent year-on-year increase on last year's aggregate of 10,408,500gns.