Booming sales houses could deliver major financial boost to British racing

Recent events in Newmarket might lead you to believe British racing is awash with money. To an extent, however, that depends on what actually represents British racing.

The figures recorded during the Sceptre Sessions of the Tattersalls December Mare Sale were astonishing. Alcohol Free will now race in Australia having been sold for £5.67 million, while Saffron Beach moves into Saudi ownership after changing hands for £3.78m. In total, the four-day sale concluded with turnover having reached £84,872,760, a 30 per cent increase on the 2021 figure. As a further guide to how the bloodstock market has exploded, consider that from 2012 to 2022, turnover for the sale grew by 84 per cent.

While the wider economy enters ever choppier waters, the top end of the bloodstock market continues not just unscathed but enriched, almost as though it existed in a completely separate universe. This has proved most welcome to anyone selling elite thoroughbreds and also to sales companies whose rings those horses have passed through. Indeed, for those companies – and most especially Tattersalls – this has been a superb year.