'This is life-changing stuff' - first-time consignors hit breeze-up jackpot with £160,000 sales at Goffs UK

Pinhooking profit was spread far and wide during a particularly buoyant renewal of the Goffs UK Breeze-Up Sale on Tuesday and two first-time consignors enjoyed an especially memorable session of selling in Doncaster. 

Gary de Souza, operating under the eponymous banner of Gary Bloodstock, is unlikely to forget this 24 hours in a hurry, and not just on account of what transpired in South Yorkshire, where he sold a Sioux Nation filly to Avenue Bloodstock and Paddy Twomey for £160,000. 

The Mullingar-based consignor also welcomed the birth of his first son on Monday, but somewhat remarkably wasn’t in Doncaster or back home in Ireland with his partner, Sally Nagle, but was on his way to La Teste-de-Buch in the south-west of France for the Osarus Breeze-Up Sale, where he is offering a filly by Cable Bay. 

The Sioux Nation filly was bred by and offered on behalf of Sally’s mother Grace Nagle, whose husband John was overseeing the six-figure sale. He said: “It’s a great price. I had thirty grand in my head coming here but this is life-changing stuff. It was unreal watching that, a great buzz.” 

Explaining how the filly came to be breezed in Doncaster, he continued: “I was going to sell her as a yearling at Tatts Ireland for €14,000 but my daughter said, ‘Why not keep her and go to the breeze-ups?’ I’ve done that and it’s worked out. 

"My daughter’s partner, Gary, prepped her and did all the work with her. He’s very good. This is my first breezer as I usually sell them as foals. Gary thinks she’ll win first time out and that she’ll be ready to run in about three weeks. She’s going to Paddy Twomey, who’s a great trainer and brilliant with two-year-olds.” 

Asked if this might prompt the Nagles to take a bigger involvement in the breeze-up business in future, John said: “Definitely, especially to help Gary out as he’s just getting started.” 

The Nagles are set to welcome another new addition in the coming days too, as John, a member of Coolmore’s yearling division, said this filly’s dam, the winning Showcasing mare Minnelli, was due to foal at any moment. 

“The mare is due to foal today to Circus Maximus,” he said. “Obviously after this she’s going to go back to Sioux Nation. He’s flying, he’s a great sire.”

Mocklershill duo branch out

The name DNA Equine may be new to most sales regulars but the faces behind the fledgling operation are not only well known but well liked based on the queue of well-wishers that lined up to congratulate Donna Cowens and her partner Nicky Souza de Oliveira after they sold their Tamayuz filly to Jake Warren for £160,000.

The couple are well used to bringing horses to market in their roles within Willie Browne’s Mocklershill machine but the filly, pinhooked for a mere €10,000 at last year’s Goffs Autumn Yearling Sale, was their first offering under their own banner. 

The Tamayuz filly out of Sharqeyya who was a great result for DNA EquineCredit: Goffs UK

“It was all a bit of a blur!” said a delighted Cowens. “I actually had to look back at the board to see how much she’d made in the end. I’m sure it’ll sink in by this evening but I’ve got five more to sell for Willie now.” 

Reflecting on her pinhooking accomplishments, Cowens said: “She only cost €10,000. Nicky was actually at the Breeders’ Cup with Spirit Gal so I had to go to the sales on my own. I was terrified when he came back that he wasn’t going to like what I’d bought! It’s worked out well though and he’s always loved her.

“I thought she was strong and mature as a yearling, which is what you need for a breeze-up horse. Her joints and legs looked like they could handle the work of a breeze-up prep and she was a January foal so we knew she’d come to hand early.” 

DNA Equine is another outfit among the consignors at the Osarus Breeze-Up Sale, where they offer an Expert Eye colt, while they also have a son of Kuroshio and a filly by Invincible Army entered in the Tattersalls Guineas Sale. 

Cowens, a native of Northumberland, expanded on how she and the Brazilian-born Oliveira, a mainstay among the breeze-up riders, came to get their operation up and running, saying: “We’re based at Willie Browne’s Mocklershill and we rent a few of his stables. He’s been very good to us because we couldn’t have gone out on our own, it’s too big a risk when you’re starting. But this works great because we still work for Willie and ride his horses and then do our own in our own time. You’ve got to have good people behind you. 

“Hopefully this sale will help give us a bit of a name because we want to carry on with the breezers. You have to start somewhere and hopefully this is the start of it all for us. One swallow doesn’t make a summer though and you have to keep going, but we’ve had a bit of beginners' luck. Everything fell into place, which is what you need. We’re aiming to start small and build up with a quality over quantity approach.” 

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