‘It’s been a rollercoaster’ - Newsells Park Stud claim another leading vendor title despite up-and-down week

Newsells Park Stud claimed the title of highest grossing Book 1 vendor for the eighth consecutive year. The Hertfordshire nursery sold 21 lots for receipts totalling 13.415 million guineas and at an average price of 638,810gns. 

The draft contained two of the top ten sellers, including the Frankel colt out of Aljazzi, a brother to last year’s 4.4 million guineas top lot, who fetched 3.6 million guineas from Amo Racing during the first 60 minutes of day one.

While the team had their share of highs to celebrate, general manager Julian Dollar said the three days of trade proved decidedly up and down. 

“It’s been very tricky, I think,” he said. “One thing I’ve realised is that I can’t really value a horse. Nice horses that I thought might make five or six [hundred thousand] ended up making one or two million when we had all the right people on them, which was fantastic but way beyond what I thought. 

“I’ve never had seven horses in Book 1 go through the ring, one after another, and every single one of them fail to get a live bid. When you have yearlings by Frankel, Kingman, Baaeed, Wootton Bassett, Lope De Vega and Siyouni, all Book 1 stallions, I think that demonstrates how fragile the market is.” 

Dollar, who will oversee the sale of a further 38 yearlings over the course of next week’s Book 2 and 3, said: “I think next week we’ll get a whole different buying bench and it’ll be more realistic, and hopefully more solid, because it’s been a rollercoaster this week.”

The 3.6 million guinea Frankel colt out of Aljazzi was a highlight for Newsells Park StudCredit: Laura Green

Plenty of those on the ground suggested that if your horse made it onto the shortlist of Amo, Coolmore or Godolphin, then the sky seemed to be the limit. Those who did not make the cut often found trade more challenging.

“I’d hate to think what the landscape would look like if we didn’t have Sheikh Mohammed propping us up, or Coolmore or Amo Racing, who’ve obviously come in in a big way in the last couple of years,” said Dollar. “Without them, where would we be? 

“When you look at the market at Keeneland, you have so many people paying seven figures for a horse. That market had wonderful depth. Unfortunately we don’t have any depth, and that is a concern. If and when one or two of those players drop out, who’s going to take their place? 

“It looks very rosy and the headlines look great, no doubt the aggregate is good and the average price is okay, but underneath that we’re in a very fragile environment and we need to be sensible.” 

Asked how he would reflect on Newsells Park’s fortunes over the three days of Book 1, Dollar said: “I think we got very lucky. It probably wasn’t my best ever draft of horses but we got extremely well paid on the two or three exceptionally nice ones. We struggled with some, and overall we came away better than I thought we would. I’m very grateful and feel very fortunate but I’m certainly not taking it for granted.”

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