'Whether that thing is dedication or tight-fistedness, I’m not quite sure'

Monday

A new week, a new sale and the prospect of yet another British prime minister. But while the Conservative Party appeared to have a dwindling pool of talent from which to pluck their next leader, buyers at the Tattersalls Autumn Horses in Training Sale were rather more spoilt for choice with 1,563 lots.

So many entries means early starts, late finishes and a fairly attritional week on the press bench, but, to quote Rishi Sunak’s oddly robotic speech upon learning he’d been given the keys to 10 Downing Street, “I will work day in and day out to deliver for you.” Sunak may not strictly have been talking about bloodstock content, but I very much am.

It wasn’t long until a lively cast of international and domestic buyers were getting stuck in at bloodstock’s equivalent of the United Nations general assembly, with countries such as Australia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the US featuring prominently on the Park Paddocks departures board.