‘The harder you work this sale, the luckier you get’ – buyers bid to keep the romance alive as sales season rolls into Doncaster

Doncaster may not be the most fashionable stop on the yearling sale circuit. Nor is it where we witness the biggest prices. However, despite these self-evident truths, the Goffs UK Premier Sale might just be the most romantic yearling auction of the year. 

I’m not referring to the Shakespearean variety, but the kind that racing does better than virtually any other sporting pursuit. Doncaster is a place where expectations – and price tags – are regularly exceeded. Where buyers get more bang for their buck and, sometimes, their dreams become reality. 

Admittedly ‘Donny’ keeps its charms hidden better than some sales, so bear with me while I explain. 

Sure, venture into the town centre and you’re more likely to find a branch of Greggs or Home Bargains than you are a Hermes boutique or a world-renowned racing watering hole like McCarthy’s in Lexington or Le Drakkar in Deauville. But such trappings are only ever a sideshow when it comes to finding future winners. And whatever Doncaster lacks in bells and whistles, it more than makes up for in track record. 

Similarly – and pedigree snobs may wish to look away now – you won’t find a catalogue brimming with siblings to Group 1 winners by blue-chip stallions. But that has never held the Premier Sale back before. And, after all, trainers can’t train a pedigree page. But they can train an athlete, and that’s where this sale has tended to come into its own.  

The sires index reads like a list of bloodstock’s social climbers: the stallions who started at humble fees but pulled themselves up by their bootstraps. Think Dark Angel, Kodiac, Mehmas and Wootton Bassett. 

Moyfinn Stud offers a three-parts sibling to Friday's Gimcrack Stakes winner Cool Hoof LukeCredit: GROSSICK RACING

Those sort of names have proved perfect bedfellows for Donny down the years, even if some tend to keep more exalted company nowadays. Whitsbury Manor Stud’s rising star Havana Grey is very much on the same trajectory and has 19 lots among this year’s 480 entries. Other names going places fast are also represented, including Blue Point, Kameko, Mohaather, New Bay, Night Of Thunder and Too Darn Hot. And who knows what first-crop sires such as A’Ali, Lope Y Fernandez, Lucky Vega, Space Blues and Starman may yet be capable of. 

Having said that pedigree isn’t everything, nothing helps focus buyers’ attention like a recent update. Paul Giles received exactly that when Cool Hoof Luke won the Gimcrack Stakes on Friday, as his Moyfinn Stud offers a three-parts brother to the Group 2-winning juvenile as Lot 334 on Wednesday.

“The horse seems to be going down well but you don’t know in this game until the last minute,” said Giles. “I’m delighted with the update though. We were in the middle of the Irish Sea when Cool Hoof Luke won. The sea was rough but that made the journey a bit easier! 

“He’s a grand, straightforward horse and an exceptional walker. He’s just a pleasant horse to do anything with and I couldn’t say enough good things about him.” 

Giles gave a similarly positive mention to his other offering, a Galileo Gold half-brother to the Group 3 Prix d’Arenberg winner Tiger Belle (318).

While there are always physical and veterinary matters to take into account, you probably don’t need a God-given gift to identify a sibling to a Group 1 winner by a champion sire as likely possessing some racing potential. But shopping in Doncaster usually presents more of a challenge. It is not merely a test of how deep your pockets are, but the depth of your thoroughbred IQ as well.  

Harry Angel: champion sprinter and exciting young sire is a graduate from the saleCredit: Mark Cranham

This is the sort of sale that serves best those with a keen eye for future talent. There is little wonder the roll of honour features so many stars bought by noted judges such as Clive Cox, Peter and Ross Doyle, and Kevin Ryan and Stephen Hillen. 

In 2015 Cox made his way down to box 41 in barn A and cast his eye over a colt from the sixth crop of Dark Angel with no black type under the first dam. The trainer was impressed enough to give £44,000 when the youngster came under the hammer, and found himself walking away with future July Cup and Haydock Sprint Cup winner Harry Angel. 

Things have come full circle since as seven members of Harry Angel’s fifth crop are among this year’s entries. Cox was also among the buyers of Harry Angel’s Doncaster yearlings 12 months ago, and was rewarded for parting with £100,000 for the colt out of Anna Of Lorraine when the subsequently named Diligently landed a first prize of £308,094 in the Harry's Half Million by Goffs Premier Yearling Stakes at York last Thursday. All lots sold during Tuesday and Wednesday are eligible for the 2025 renewal of the lucrative contest. 

Last year also saw Hillen and Ryan sign at £30,000 for the Sands Of Mali colt out of Burmese Waltz, whose first three dams failed to bring any black type to the page. But, despite paying less than the median price in 2023, the duo secured themselves subsequent Windsor Castle Stakes winner Ain’t Nobody, who is now worth many multiples of that yearling valuation. 

The Premier Sale is often referred to as a ‘trainers’ sale’. But it is not just trainers who have profited from shopping in Doncaster. The median price at last year’s sale was £35,000, meaning this event provides an important, or perhaps even vital, entry point for new investors and syndicates alike. 

Of course, price is what you pay but value is what you get, and few operations have found as much value in Doncaster as Middleham Park Racing. The team were among the bustling crowd of prospective purchasers kicking up a dust cloud in the yards during Monday afternoon inspections. 

“This is my favourite sale of the year,” said Middleham Park’s founding partner Tim Palin. “The quality of the horses this year is the same as it’s ever been. The phrase ‘Donny rockets’ is used frequently and I couldn’t agree more. Donny rockets come out of here every year.” 

Inspections were under way at Doncaster ahead of the Goffs Premier Yearling SaleCredit: Goffs UK

The syndicate’s familiar pale blue colours with orange epaulettes have been carried by Premier Sale graduates such as Kool Kompany, Sandiva, Shouldvebeenaring, Toormore and Ventura Tormenta, to name but a few. 

Palin said: “Year in, year out the Donny rockets are here and we’ve been lucky enough to find some of them. It’s funny how the harder you work this sale, the luckier you get. Every year horses get more and more expensive throughout the season, and we’ve been saying this for two decades now, you always get to Book 2 [of the Tattersalls October Sale] and wish you’d bought more at Donny. We think there’s an awful lot of value here.”

The outfit’s bloodstock manager Tom Palin added: “We’ve been lucky enough to buy two stallions [Shouldvebeenaring and Kool Kompany] and a champion European two-year-old [Toormore] from this sale, all for £40,000 and below, alongside other numerous Group winners.”

Those operating with more of a commercial imperative have also been well catered for in Doncaster. Last year Adam Potts and Danny O’Donovan gave £20,000 for a filly by King Of Change offered by Trickledown Stud. The pair took the youngster to the Tattersalls Guineas Breeze-Up less than nine months later and saw their investment realise a sale-topping 180,000gns. 

The 2023 Premier Sale also witnessed Creighton Schwartz Bloodstock give a slightly more punchy £50,000 for the Havana Grey filly out of In Trutina from Bearstone Stud. Entrusted to Katie McGivern of Derryconnor Stud, the filly returned to Doncaster to top the Breeze-Up Sale market at £420,000. 

Breeze-up pinhookers may have been largely notable only by their absence in Deauville, but that sector was strongly represented during inspections in Doncaster. 

Only time will tell what sort of trading conditions will prevail in South Yorkshire this week, but then each sale is capable of producing anything from comedy to tragedy, and just about everything in between. But if history is any sort of guide then one thing seems certain: there will be an unlikely love story or two starting right here in Doncaster this week.  

Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale factfile 

Where Goffs UK sales complex, Doncaster 

When Two-day sale begins on Tuesday at 10, with Wednesday’s session starting at 9.30

Last year’s stats From 414 lots offered, 354 sold (86 per cent) for turnover of £16,232,000 (up two per cent year-on-year), an average price of £45,855 (up four per cent) and a median of £35,000 (down three per cent) 

Notable graduates Ain’t Nobody (sold by Ballyhane Stud, bought by Stephen Hillen and Kevin Ryan for £30,000); Arizona Blaze (sold by Glenvale Stud, bought by Rodrigo Goncalves and Aguiar Bloodstock for £82,000); Jasour (sold by Norris Bloodstock, bought by Clive Cox for £85,000); Shouldvebeenaring (sold by Whitsbury Manor Stud, bought by Peter and Ross Doyle/Middleham Park Racing for £40,000)

Premier Yearling Sale

Goffs Doncaster Premier Yearling Sale

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