Tatts Commemorates Milestone Year

It must be said that the anniversary claimed this year for Newmarket, as a racing town, is somewhat contrived. Yes, 1666 was the year Charles II first raced there following the Restoration, but racing had been recorded on the Heath during the reign of his grandfather James I and had resumed by 1663. No doubt there are sounder commercial than historical reasons for confining Newmarket's true antiquity to a nice, round 350 years.

There is nothing spurious, however, about the simultaneous anniversary being marked at the sales company that has become one of the definitive presences at the headquarters of the British Turf. For it was categorically in 1766 that Richard Tattersall first set up shop as an auctioneer, and those who this week assemble for the modern firm's premier yearling sale can legitimately celebrate the 250 years of remarkable theatre that have ensued since.

For much of this time, of course, Tattersalls was not actually based in Newmarket. Its founder initially took out a 99-year lease on a parcel of land at Hyde Park Corner, then on the very fringe of London. His landlord was Lord Grosvenor, but it was another of the remarkably sordid aristocrats crowding the Hanoverian Turf who gave Tattersalls a more immediate breakthrough. Viscount Bolingbroke's debts had become such that, whether to raise funds or redeem a default, Highflyer entered Tattersall's ownership. Unbeaten on the track, Highflyer went on to sire three early Derby winners and Tattersall built himself a mansion with the proceeds. Lest there be any doubt as to the agency of his exaltation, from relatively modest beginnings, he named his new residence Highflyer Hall.

Nonetheless he does not appear to have been an unduly ostentatious man, and sooner depended on integrity for the growing success of his business. “The Corner” was acquiring a unique status in the round of London high life–not simply as the place to buy horses, but also as a place to bet on them. As an ancillary to his main business, Tattersall cleverly established subscription rooms where Jockey Club members could dine and wager together. As a result, Tattersalls would become a recurring motif in the annals of the sport. Whether in the London era or in Newmarket, with or without the apostrophe, in the ring or beyond it, Tattersalls has been a constant setting for the expensive pursuit of dreams on the Turf–as constant as the stone fox under his cupola, symbolically transplanted to Park Paddocks from the metropolitan site.

Unsurprising, then, that the firm's evolution should already have been chronicled in depth by both Vincent Orchard (1953) and Peter Willett (1987). But the commemorative book just published by the firm in no way purports to supplant its predecessors. Its priorities are frankly–and splendidly–decorative. Compiled over the last three or four years by Tattersalls stalwart Martin Mitchell, it charts the firm's history only with the broadest of brushstrokes and reserves its greatest precision for the words and pictures that together document a profound sense of “living history”; of Tattersalls not only cherishing its heritage, but also building on it. Fascinating images of the firm's past, from old paintings to grainy newsprint, are duly displayed in counterpoint with lavish photographs of its 21st century operation.

“Both the previous books were very good in their way but I thought, rather than try and do the same thing over again, we should try to reflect both the past and the present,” Mitchell explains. “Obviously there is some basic history in there, but it's sooner supposed to be a coffee table book that you can pick up one day and read a chapter and then put down for next time. The idea is to entertain, rather than educate.”

Having said which, there was plenty to learn on the way. Mitchell found much satisfaction in turning up the odd vignettes that together create the bigger picture. “For instance, I didn't know that 'Old Dick' Tattersall, the founder's grandson, was injured as a lad in a riding accident,” Mitchell says. “And that, also being a very good boxer, he was as a result only able to fight while sitting down. History doesn't relate whether his opponent was also obliged to be seated, but I suppose he would have had to be.”

And Mitchell found particular pleasure in trawling the photo archives of the 1950s and 1960s. In contrast with this week, when the biggest spenders will typically be wearing trainers and jeans, this was still an age of scrupulous elegance. “The sales in those days were not just covered by society magazines like Tatler but by the papers as well,” Mitchell says. “It was part of the fashionable calendar, like Ascot and Wimbledon. Everyone was immaculate. Everyone wore hats. You even see a boater in one photo. I suppose the last to live up to those standards would be John Dunlop, always in trilby and tie. The only hats you see nowadays are beanies and baseball caps.”

Mitchell also enjoyed collating personal perspectives from others, ranging from the rostrum to the pressbox. These latter include Tony Morris recalling the sale of Vaguely Noble in 1967– for 136,000 guineas, shattering the record for a horse in training set at 37,500 guineas way back in 1900–as “an event without parallel, before or since”; plus an amusing contribution from Ed Prosser, nowadays European representative of Keeneland. On one occasion Prosser prematurely consigned someone to “late” status in a sales report. “The next day's correction, stating that they were 'alive and well' got as furious a response,” he writes. “With the demand that an update appear announcing that the person was 'alive' but 'not well'.”

The book, priced £40, is available from the Tattersalls shop and also at the newly opened Heritage Centre in the town, where a Tattersalls exhibition will be on display until Jan 7.

The implicit message of the anniversary book–namely, that you best show respect for the past in the way you build for the future–is underlined by the innovation that has opened a new chapter in the Tattersalls saga. This time last year, in an attempt to embolden any middle-market investors intimidated by the elite cachet of its premier yearling catalogue, Tattersalls introduced its October Book 1 Bonus: a payment of £25,000, on top of race prize-money, for winners of designated maidens and novice races in Britain and Ireland.

Jimmy George, the firm's marketing director, is delighted that 14 of the 31 Book 1 graduates to have already won a bonus were bought for £100,000 or less. One of these was Kilmah (GB) (Sepoy {Aus}), who cost just 32,000gns and has since gone on to win the G3 Prestige S.

“These horses have been bought very much at the commercial end of the Book 1 market,” George says. “The very first bonus winner, back at the Guineas meeting in May, was Global Applause (GB) (Mayson {GB})–a 78,000-guinea yearling for a new owner in Britain. He won nearly £40,000 for that first success and of course went on to win the National S. at Sandown, and has since run well in several other big races. That was a very good start to the scheme–and has been replicated time after time. These are animals that have not only been bought for very reasonable sums but are flying the Book 1 flag at the highest level, as well.

“That was the whole point of the scheme: we wanted people to come to the sale and be able to buy horses that could nearly pay for themselves by winning one of these,” George adds. “It's encouraging people into the Book 1 market and they're getting fantastic value for money. We've had winners bought for as little as 28,000 guineas. They all pay for a year's training fees by winning a bonus.”

“The response from owners has been overwhelming. A number have already contacted us and said that they'll be spending their bonus money back in this year's Book 1. And that's as good an endorsement of the scheme as you could possibly get. It doesn't matter if you own a country or a small back garden, prize-money of this magnitude for winning a maiden is noticed–and it's appreciated,” George concludes.