‘Whatever life throws at me, I’ll always be at the sales’ – meet the force of nature nurturing the next generation of human and equine talent

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Here, James Thomas finds out from Brenda Shortt what makes her tick, and tick – subscribers can get more great insight every Monday to Friday.

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There are various ways to describe those who have a significant impact at the sales. There are big buyers, shrewd operators, major consignors and savvy sellers. But in the case of Brenda Shortt, a force of nature might just be the most accurate label. 

Shortt has been involved in just about every area of the thoroughbred industry, but is best known for her work at the sales overseeing some sizeable consignments and generally keeping the show on the road in her role as sales manager. 

She not only works for operations like Castletown Stud, Karl Burke, Lynn Lodge and The Glanvilles Stud, but has developed a reputation for educating and supporting the younger generation making their way in the industry. This has earned her the nickname the ‘mammy of the sales’, a title she wears with considerable pride. 

Although she has been on the end of the lead when stars such as Arizona, Big Zeb, Cooldine, Honeysuckle, Latrobe and Lumiere Rock have been through the ring, it is the human connections she has made that give Shortt the greatest sense of pride. 

“I love the industry,” she says. “The industry provides me with my passion, it gives me strength, it gives me a reason to keep going in my crazy life and it’s part of who I am. My family seems to have grown by working in this industry, as I have my biological children and roughly 2,500 others worldwide!” 

It could be argued that the bloodstock industry’s gain has been formal education’s loss, as Shortt possesses a rare enthusiasm for teaching. 

“It’s nice for the youngsters to be looked after and shown how to do things properly,” she says. “I take great pride in seeing all these kids coming through and progressing, and I value the next generation very highly because they’re the future of the industry I’ve grown up in. People like me won’t last forever. We’ll be around for a long time yet but we need to pass on our knowledge to the younger generation.” 

Shortt’s proteges are too numerous to list but suffice to say there are some familiar names among them. As an illustration of her influence, she says there are currently 20 consignors operating under their own banner that learned the ropes by her side. 

One of her fondest recent memories came at Doncaster in 2023 after Tradewinds Stud sold the dual Listed winner and Royal Ascot-placed Beautiful Diamond to Blandford Bloodstock for a life-changing £360,000. 

“I’m very proud that Shane Power, someone I think an awful lot of and who has a very bright future, has had a great time of it of late,” she says. “I do a lot of muscle manipulation and chiropractor work and visited Beautiful Diamond before she went to the breeze-ups. 

“After the filly sold so well I couldn’t go near Shane for a couple of hours because I was so emotional, but when I saw him he said, ‘Without you we’d have never made that money. You’re our lucky charm.’” 

Beautiful Diamond in the ring at Goffs UKCredit: SARAH FARNSWORTH

As well as providing professional development, Shortt prides herself on fulfilling the role of sales ring pastoral support worker. Staff, buyers and even the horses themselves have all benefited from her desire to lend a helping hand. 

“I look after everybody and that’s the way it works,” she says. “I don’t know how to be anybody else. If the staff are happy they’ll give you everything they have, and that means they put everything into the horses. And at the end of the day, the horses come first. 

“But if anyone needs anything they know they can find mammy. Whether someone has missed their flight, lost their passport or needs a needle and thread to sew waterproofs back together. Anything. They all come to me for painkillers, so I always know who’s been out the night before. And suncream. They all come around for suncream, David Redvers and JD Moore included! It's the simple things that people don’t have time to think of when they’re dashing out of the door.” 

But beneath the cheery persona and motherly instincts, Shortt possesses a steeliness that has been severely tested on more than one occasion. She has numerous skull fractures to show for her days in the saddle, and also survived a five-year battle with liver cancer, two of which she says were spent in denial. Throughout her illness, she only missed one season at the sales. 

“Whatever life throws at me, I’ll always be at the sales,” she says matter of factly. 

Shortt credits her recovery to the two most important factors in her life: family and horses. 

“When I was in remission I was as weak as a kitten and to muck out four stables and fill four hay nets was a serious chore,” she says. “But within eight months I was back riding and my muscles and bones got strong again. I will be forever grateful to the Kennedy family, Jennifer and Karen, who have show hunters and show cobs. 

“My favourite cob of all time was Darcy, who I competed on for the Kennedy family. I had no hair, I rode with a wig at the bottom of my hat that I could get into a bun, and Darcy brought me back. It’s a part of my life that I reflect on now as I know where I was and the strength it took to come through that and build myself back up. That was 12 years ago now and I’ve never looked back. Since I got back to 100 miles an hour I’ve stayed at 100 miles an hour. I’ve kept going and loved every minute of it.” 

A farmer’s daughter and the eldest of five children, Shortt first developed her affinity for horses when she began riding and producing ponies for her aunt Rachel Bennett, who had a long-running career in the sports horse industry before branching out into thoroughbreds. 

Guidance and encouragement also came from her grandmother Patience Bennett, who became the first Irish rider to win a dressage class overseas when triumphing at the International Horse Show at White City in 1948. 

“I was always very small for my age – Shortt by name and short by nature – but when I was four years old my granny used to watch me ride around on a fat pony,” she says. “She saw something different in me.” 

Shortt became a decorated rider at a young age, gaining notable successes at Clifden and the Dublin Horse Show. 

“But it was auntie Rachel who introduced me to thoroughbreds,” she continues. “When I was ten I led the first foal that I’d prepped with auntie Rachel through the ring in Goffs. I’ve been doing it ever since and I still have the same love, passion and motivation now as I did all those years ago.” 

In turn, Shortt has four children of her own in foster daughter Mairead (27) and her three sons Adam (25), Ryan (22) and Rhys (18), who is known almost universally as Smallman. 

Brenda Shortt with son Rhys at TattersallsCredit: Alisha Meeder

Adam has followed in his mother’s footsteps and is now an accomplished horseman in his own right, most notably being a key part of the Yeomanstown Stud team. There was also a poignant full circle moment earlier this year when Rhys made his sales ring debut for one of Shortt’s long-standing connections, Burke’s Spigot Lodge Stables. 

“He says that he’s only able to spend quality time with me when he comes and works for me!” says Shortt. “I was very emotional though, which is not like me. Everyone calls me mammy but this is my biological child, and my youngest. I was emotional but extremely proud. Family is everything to me. We’re a very close unit and I live and breathe and have survived and fought every day for my children.” 

All this reflection gives Shortt pause for thought. 

“I am nowhere near hanging up my lead!” she adds. “I might have put my reins away but I’m not giving up the lead any time soon. No, no, no, no. Not for a long, long time. It’s nice to know that my children are a chip off the old block though, and I’m extremely proud of them.” 

It is something of a minor miracle not only that Shortt has the inclination to share her expertise so freely, but that she has time and energy as well. Not only has she raised four children but working the sales with flighty young thoroughbreds is a demanding job, with long hours ensuring a test of both physical and mental endurance. 

“I love the camaraderie at the sales, and that’s a very important part of it because we’re doing very long hours,” she says. “It’s physical work and we have to keep our wits about us too, so it’s mentally exhausting as well as physically exhausting. It’s day in, day out for weeks on end, and that takes its toll.

“The most steps I’ve ever recorded in one day at the sales was 48,000. That was when I was with River Of Stars, who sold to Woodford Thoroughbreds for 400,000gns at the December Foal Sale. She was stunning and everyone wanted to see her.” 

While Shortt says she simply “doesn’t know how to be anybody else” when it comes to her motivations for sharing her expertise, she is acutely aware that the transfer of knowledge is more important now than ever before. 

“I’ve seen the dynamics of the sales and the dynamics of breeding change,” she says. “The horses are sharper and more intelligent. You have to be a horse person to handle the thoroughbreds of today. Back in the day they were like half-breds or ponies compared to now. 

“Now, you need to have people who know what they’re doing being responsible for them. Staffing is the biggest problem in the industry. Every year I take on new people, whether it's from the showing world or someone wanting to earn an extra few bob or two. I’ll always help out where I can, but I’ll only have people that are capable of doing the job.” 

Safety is paramount when it comes to showing horses at the sales, but there is a vast difference between the job done safely and the job done well. 

“Showing a horse is an art,” says Shortt. “I call it a dance. It’s about your posture, how you feel the rhythm of the horse, and the finer details make all the difference. I’m very lucky because I have a natural feel for rhythm and cadence, and get the best of the ability out of an animal by becoming one with the horse. Everyone has always said that’s my biggest gift. It was the same riding, I’d just sit quiet and I could feel it coming up through them.

“It’s about putting the horse first. If you give the horse your best and make them feel good, they will give you everything they’ve got. The youngstock that go to the sales are only babies. It’s crazy what they’re expected to learn in an eight to ten week period. So you’ve got to be prepared to nurture them and mammy them because they love the attention. I’m someone who has lorry loads of love. I carry it everywhere and give it to man or beast, my four-legged friends and my two-legged family.”

Brenda Shortt: 'Showing a horse is an art, I call it a dance'Credit: Alisha Meeder

Although staff are the backbone of any sale, all too often their efforts go underappreciated. Or worse, according to the urban legends that recall certain bloodstock agents acting extremely unpleasantly towards those simply doing their job. Shortt has heard the horror stories, but says that sort of behaviour isn’t tolerated on her watch. 

“No matter who comes to see any of the consignments I’m working for, they’ll treat me with the utmost respect,” she says. “They know if they dare, even dare, speak a word out of line to any of my staff, I’ll soon send them packing. I’m not shy about putting someone back in their box, it doesn’t matter who you are. Yes there are stressful moments, but I’ve been doing it so long that I don’t get flustered. I don’t get flustered, therefore my team doesn't get flustered, so ultimately the horses don’t get flustered.” 

As if organising other people’s drafts was not enough to keep Shortt occupied, she also has her own consigning business, Brenda Shortt Bloodstock. The outfit sells foals, yearlings and National Hunt youngstock, and will be represented at the upcoming Goffs Orby Yearling Sale by a “lovely” Australia colt from the Group 1 family of Tante Rose, Dubawi Heights and Make Believe. 

The start of the yearling sale season, which kicks off at Arqana on Friday, has seen Shortt pack her bags and head to Deauville, where she is on duty for Charles Briere’s Fairway Consignment throughout the August Sale.

“I’m involved in the National Hunt and the Flat, so I’m at sales nearly 11 months of the year,” she says. “I’m going to France and I’ll be living out of my suitcase and my car until I finish up at the Cheltenham Sale in December.” 

It’s hard not to feel like the mammy of the sales wouldn’t have it any other way. 

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Must-read story 

“When you take a horse like Look De Vega, who won the French Derby, it all starts here at the sales, so we need to enjoy it. The pressure is there but it’s definitely good pressure.” – Arqana chief executive Freddy Powell looks ahead to the start of yearling sale season.

Pedigree pick 

Twisting Physics has already made headlines once or twice before, and will bid to do so again when he kicks his racing career off in the Sorvio Insurance Brokers Novice Stakes over seven furlongs at Salisbury on Thursday (3.00). 

Twisting Physics in the ring at the Tattersalls Guineas Horses In Training SaleCredit: Laura Green

The three-year-old Dubawi colt was bred by Lord Margadale from Frangipanni, a winning daughter of Dansili and the 2004 July Cup heroine Frizzante. 

This means Twisting Physica is a half-brother to Tropbeau, winner of the Group 2 Prix du Calvados and third in the Cheveley Park Stakes for Lady Bamford. Tropbeau wasn’t just a classy two-year-old, though, as she also won the Group 3 Prix de la Grotte at three and was second to Marianafoot in the Prix Maurice de Gheest at four. 

This lineage helped Twisting Physics fetch a cool 1,000,000gns from Manor House Farm, the nom de plume of beleaguered owner John Dance, when offered at Book 1 of the October Yearling Sale in 2022. 

However, with Dance running into some well-publicised difficulties, Twisting Physics reappeared at Tattersalls during this year’s Guineas Horses in Training Sale. Alex Cole signed the 100,000gns ticket on behalf of Jim and Fitri Hay in a move that saw the colt head to Paul and Oliver Cole’s base at Whatcombe. 

Given the discrepancy in his valuations, today’s race should give us a guide as to which buyer was nearer the mark. 

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