Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale

Bars and taverns never seem to be lacking in high stool prophets willing to tell anyone who'll listen how they could have or even should have been something they're not.  The well-trodden path is a tempting one. There is security to the predictability and comfort in knowing there will be a cheque in the post at the end of the week. But what if there was something more out there? A greater reward that required a bigger risk perhaps.  The prospect of dying wondering about what magic lies outside of...

Jake Ballis and a group of partners finalized the purchase of the Dubai-based Six Speed (Not This Time) Monday morning with hopes that the colt can continue to move forward and make it to the GI Kentucky Derby. Ballis noticed the horse, who sold for 220,000 guineas at the 2025 Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale, when he won a Jan. 2 prep for the 2000 UAE Guineas. Now in the Ballis stable, he will start in Friday's GIII 2000 UAE Guineas at one mile. The race awards 20 Kentucky Derby...

Never in the history of the breeze-up game have the top horses been worth more. That was evident at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale last week when the record for the most expensive horse ever sold at the sale was broken not once but twice and top agents Richard Brown and Billy Jackson-Stops admitted to finding it hard to land a blow.  Malcolm Bastard's 1.75 million gns record-breaking Havana Grey (GB) colt played a pretty significant role in the turnover reaching an all-time high of nearly 20 million gns. On...

More records were sent tumbling at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale on Wednesday when Amo Racing out-muscled Godolphin at 1.75 million gns for a Havana Grey (GB) colt that was consigned by Malcolm Bastard.  Part of the allure of the Havana Grey colt came from the fact that he was consigned by a man who seldom has a horse feature among the top 15 or 20 per cent on the timing sheets at the breeze-up sales.  So, when Bastard, who ought to consider changing his first name to Jammy, sent...

Legendary handler Willie Browne lit the touch paper for a barnstorming Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale by netting a cool 1.4 million gns from Godolphin for an Acclamation (GB) colt that he sourced for just €70,000 the previous autumn. That sale was the headline act on a day where 15 horses sold for 200,000gns or more and all of the key figures were dramatically up on last year's corresponding day of trade. Arguably the most encouraging metric to jump was the clearance rate, up 18% on last year to 84%. The...

In the age of stride length and cadence, stopwatches and sectionals, top speeds, biometrics and all of the other measurement tools out there to judge a racehorse on, one could be forgiven for thinking that all bases are covered at the breeze-up sales.  However, handler Willie Browne, bloodstock agent Ross Doyle and trainer Joseph O'Brien, three titans of the bloodstock industry, say they don't care if you utilise data until your eyes bleed--there will always be good horses that will escape through the net. That is good news for the...

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Friday's Observations features Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up graduate Bambalam (Persian King).   16.45 York, Mdn, £100,000, 2yo, 7fT BAMBALAM (FR) (Persian King {Ire}), who was his sire's most expensive progeny sold at auction when becoming the fourth-highest-priced lot at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale in April, makes his...

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Wednesday's Observations features the topper from the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale. 18.00 Ripon, Mdn, £9,000, 2yo, f, 5fT LADY ROXBY (GB) (King Of Change {GB}) debuts for the R N J Partnership and the Bryan Smart stable, having topped the Tattersalls Guineas Breeze-Up Sale at 180,000gns. From the family...

The biggest challenge is no one wants a 'fun horse' to win races anymore, they are just a liability, making vendors worry that official times will be harder to shift the bottom half of the sale. You can hit it out of the park on one but staying afloat is about how you shift the other 80% of your horses... As Brian Sheerin says, the times are available for anyone that wants them and I doubt there is a buyer on the sales ground that wouldn't have known how a...

Lot 154, a son of Persian King (Ire) and the Paco Boy (Ire) mare Robanne (GB), hammered at 600,000gns to Stroud Coleman Bloodstock from the draft of Tally-Ho Stud during the second session of the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale. The dam was third in a brace of Group 3s, and is already responsible for Listed Prix Herod winner and G3 Prix Imprudence runner-up Ritournelle (Fr) (Camelot {GB}). Bred by Haras d'Etreham and Riviera Equine, the colt caught the eye of Tally-Ho at €80,000 out of the 2022 Arqana December Breeding...

Just past the halfway mark during Wednesday's session, lot 147, a son of Blue Point (Ire), was knocked down to Anthony Stroud for 800,000gns at Park Paddocks. Consigned by Station Yard, the bay colt is out of Platinum Coast (Speightstown), herself a half-sister to multiple graded winner Istanford (Istan) and will race for Godolphin. Bred by Mr. and Mrs. Reddy Coffey, the colt made €78,000 on the bid of Blandford Bloodtstock/Station Yard during the 2023 Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale. Three lots later, a bay son of Kingman (GB) and...

The third juvenile to make 525,000gns or more at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale was a colt by the late, great Galileo (Ire) (lot 112), who changed hands for 1 million gns on the bid of Anthony Stroud for Godolphin. Part of the Glending Stables draft, the Coolmore-bred bay--and only representative of his sire in the sale--is out of the stakes-placed Manderley (Ire) (Clodovil {Ire}), who ran fourth in the G1 1000 Guineas. She is also a full-sister to multiple group winner and multiple Group 1-placed sire Gregorian (Ire). Glending...