'It's not in their nature to put it in the bank' - why a fruitful breeze-up season should be good news for yearling trade

Selling breeze-up horses is arguably the most high risk of all pinhooking pursuits. Vendors invariably get one brief shot at maximising the value of their stock, and even the most minor blemish during a pre-sale workout can wipe an untold amount off a horse’s price. Months of hard labour and significant yearling investment can go up in smoke during the course of a breeze that lasts barely 20 seconds. This is not for the faint-hearted. 

But with risk comes reward, and now that the key European dates are done and dusted for another year it seems as though breeze-up speculators can, on the whole, reflect on a fruitful 2023 season. 

By their very nature breeze-up consignors tend not to be risk averse, but their combined gamble was considerably greater than in 2022, with a sizeable increase in the number of lots catalogued across the six major European two-year-old sales, namely Tattersalls’ Craven and Guineas events, Goffs UK’s Doncaster date, Osarus, Arqana and Tattersalls Ireland Goresbridge.