Henry Beeby hopeful trade can match last year's blockbuster returns

Goffs chief executive Henry Beeby is optimistic that this week's Orby Yearling Sale can keep pace with last year's blockbuster renewal, which recorded a seven per cent increase in turnover to €43.5 million and leaps of 22 and 23 per cent in the average and median figures to €132,948 and €80,000.

“That's the hope,” he said. “We've been well supported with some very nice horses as a result of last year's trade, and the catalogue is bigger because we have more horses of a suitable quality.

“So we have the right horses, we believe, and a huge number of international buyers. We just hope that putting the two together will result in at least matching last year. Whether we can remains to be seen.”

View the Goffs Orby Sale catalogue

Some 472 lots have been catalogued for the sale, which gets under way on Tuesday, compared with 418 last year.

They include nine by Galileo, sire of last year's sister to Oaks heroine Forever Together who became the most expensive yearling filly sold in Ireland when bought by Phoenix Thoroughbreds for €3.2m.

Another sister to that pair is set to go under the hammer as lot 262.

Other elite sires represented in the catalogue include Dark Angel (14 on offer) Dubawi (two), Frankel (five), Invincible Spirit (eight), Kingman (eight), Lope De Vega (13), No Nay Never (ten), Sea The Stars (15) and Siyouni (three).

Beeby said he hoped Sheikh Mohammed and Sheikh Hamdan would arrive on Tuesday, and made special mention of a significant number of American visitors on the grounds inspecting stock.

“We've invested heavily in buyer recruitment, adding Tom Taaffe and Hayley O'Connor to our team in the last year, and we've targeted America as there's more turf racing and interest in turf horses there at the moment,” he reported.

“We were mindful that there's uncertainty in the UK for obvious reasons, so the market seems a little quieter there. We felt Irish horses in particular would be well received by American buyers and have made extra trips to the US this year.”

The only small setback in the run-up to this year's Orby Sale was torrential rain that hit County Kildare from 2pm on Monday, making inspections difficult.

“A little bit annoying,” was Beeby's assessment of conditions, before he added: “It's been horrendous, so we've delayed the start of the sale until 11am on Tuesday, to give people time to try to catch up.”

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