Demand for top lots masks harsher reality for those at the bottom of the market

For the second successive year the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale supplied a record-setting lot. The Kingman colt out of Shamandar went the way of Coolmore's MV Magnier for £440,000, a price that comfortably eclipsed the £380,000 given by Alastair Donald for a son of Gleneagles 12 months earlier.

Moreover, the top lot in 2018 realised a full £100,000 more than the previous high mark, meaning the ceiling at Doncaster has risen from £280,000 to £440,000 in eight years, following Eddie Fitzpatrick's acquisition of Gale Force Ten in 2011.

View full Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale results and stats

The record of £280,000 stood until 2018, though was matched twice in the interim, as Tony Nerses gave that sum for Choumicha, a sister to Galileo Gold, in 2015, and Peter and Ross Doyle also hit that mark for Yafta the following year.

This sharp upward trend is indicative of the rude health displayed by the top of the thoroughbred market, a point further underlined when detailed analysis of this year's Premier Sale results is undertaken.

The quartile average for the top tier of the market showed a seven per cent year-on-year increase to break the six-figure barrier, growing from £99,615 to £106,360.

Credit: RP Graphics

This increase was not only helped by the record-breaking Kingman colt, but other factors such as Shadwell's show of spending strength too.

A total of 35 lots fetched £100,000 or more, 15 of which were knocked down to Hamdan Al Maktoum's racing manager Angus Gold, whose haul totalled 18 yearlings acquired for an aggregate spend of £2,203,000.

That figure represents 12 per cent of the Premier Sale's turnover and a 54 per cent increase on Shadwell's spend at last year's renewal of the sale, when the operation bought 13 lots.

All told the Premier Yearling Sale produced a solid-looking set of figures. The aggregate of £18,486,000 was down just three per cent on 2018's total, the average went the other way, up three per cent to £46,565, while the median remained static on £35,000. The clearance rate was 89 per cent, with 397 of 448 offered lots finding a new home.

Those figures were reflected in the upper- and lower-middle quartile averages, with both sections of the market showing marginal year-on-year growth of two per cent. The former produced an average price of £47,890 while the latter generated an average of £28,990.

However, as had been the case at Arqana, those operating on the lowest rungs of trade did not enjoy such a fruitful spell. The bottom quartile was the only area of the market to show a year-on-year decline, with the average price dropping by eight per cent from £13,480 to £12,430.

The word polarised is often bandied about in relation to the current bloodstock marketplace, but on the evidence of results from Arqana and Goffs UK it seems entirely appropriate.

There is a seemingly insatiable hunger for what are perceived to be the brightest or best-credentialed prospects, but that is contrasted with an unsustainable malaise surrounding the lowest tiers of trade that will have undoubtedly seen some breeders, consignors and pinhookers leave sizeable sums of money behind.

This worrying trend, which was also very much in evidence during Thursday's Silver Sale, is far from a new phenomenon, but at the moment there is little to indicate that the situation is improving.

This has to be of serious concern for the rest of the sales season and beyond.

More Goffs UK news:

Emotional result for Anna Sundstrom as Wootton Bassett colt stars at £280,000

Golden Horde's breeder living the dream as half-brother sells for £260,000

Coolmore set a new Goffs UK Premier Sale record with £440,000 Kingman colt