Disaster avoided but no sugarcoating £61m black hole in yearling sale market

Breeders, pinhookers and consignors are, by their very nature, an optimistic bunch. But even those possessing the sunniest of dispositions seem certain to have found the latest round of yearling sales an experience they will not want to repeat.

The tried-and-tested sales schedule was thrown into disarray by a variety of travel restrictions, lockdowns and quarantine protocols, meaning key events took place out of sync from the regular calendar and, in some cases, in an entirely different country from the one originally intended.

It is hard to quantify the impact these changes had on trade in precise terms, but suffice to say the consequences should not be dismissed lightly. Indeed, it took until Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Sale for a major British or French yearling auction to be held in its regular date and location, while all key Irish sales were staged in Britain.