'Two of the sales circuit's best-loved participants' - Sir Mark Prescott on the loss of a pair of dear friends from the bloodstock world

The autumn sales circuit lost two of its much-loved and most respected participants this year in Jim and Anne Collins. Both were in their mid-eighties, had been together for more than 50 years and had gone everywhere with one another ever since. 

News of their deaths in Switzerland reached a shocked and saddened sales ring during the October Book 2 Sales at Tattersalls. 

Although latterly best known to generations of yearling sale vendors for spotting yearlings for me and the late James Delahooke, Jim and Anne had lengthy associations with the turf and the sales ring.