Thoroughbred People with Johnny Hassett and Host Emma Berry | Breeze ups in focus, Part 1

Johnny Hassett of the Bloodstock Connection chats to Emma Berry about the disruption to the European breeze-up sales season.

Europe's belated breeze-up season at last gets underway on Thursday in Newmarket, with the combined Tattersalls Craven and Ascot Breeze-Up Sales (for which the breeze took place on Monday) setting the scene ahead of the joint Goffs UK and Arqana Breeze-Up in Doncaster six days later on July 1. Osarus staged its juvenile sale online on May 27, but these will be the continent's first live, in-person (and, crucially, in-horse) bloodstock sales since the world was brought to a standstill by COVID-19 in mid-March. The Tattersalls Guineas Breeze-Up Sale will be staged on July 8, and the Tattersalls Ireland Goresbridge Breeze-Up brings the curtain down on July 24.

The world effectively went into lockdown on the eve of Tattersalls's planned Ascot Breeze-Up Sale in early April, and a revisit of the timeline of events surrounding the rejigging of the sector's calendar shows just how swiftly, completely and unexpectedly COVID-19 tightened its grip. Tattersalls quickly moved to combine its Ascot and Craven sales, and those have endured no fewer than four date changes to accommodate lockdown and national health protocols as well as the racing calendar and other sales. Goffs UK and Arqana officially announced their partnership on Apr. 18 with the sale slated for Ireland, but the latest amendment on June 4 saw the sale moved to Doncaster to allow vendors and purchasers to take in the Tattersalls breeze ups and the Goffs UK/Arqana breeze ups in one country, breezes included, within the space of 10 days and avoid the risks and quarantines required for moving between countries.

Read more about the return of the sales on the TDN Europe.

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