Demand for foals drops as threat rings home

This autumn's Flat yearling sales, at which around 1,000 lots were recorded as unsold, illustrated that increases in the Irish and British 2015 foal crops of ten and seven per cent respectively were unwarranted.

The stagnation in demand - the number of lots sold increased year-on-year by only 45 despite 321 more yearlings on the market - has evidently had a knock-on effect to foal trade this winter, with traders who had their fingers burned wary of reinvesting in crops that expanded by five per cent in Ireland and three per cent again this year.

This month 3,077 foals, Flat and National Hunt-breds, have come under the hammer at Goffs and Tattersalls venues in Newmarket and Fairyhouse. Some 2,191 of those changed hands for a clearance rate of 71 per cent.

Last year the figures stood at 3,094 offered and 2,310 sold at a clip of 75 per cent. So only 17 fewer foals have been offered in 2016 than in the preceding year, but the number purchased has dropped by 119.