At HDR we have previously resisted the temptation to enter the European bloodstock market due to the huge outlay required to buy tried horses that have shown any ability, and the ‘miles on the clock’/issues a lot of those horses have by the time they get to Australia. More recently we’ve been working towards ‘outside the square’ ways we can procure horses from Europe for a lot less than what we’d have to pay for proven horses.
In conjunction with British based Bloodstock Agent Billy Jackson-Stops we now feel we’ve come up with a scenario whereby we can get some nice European bred two year-olds back to Australia, that being through the Breeze Up Sales. Buying untried/unraced yearlings and two year-olds from Europe has become a lot more popular/commercially viable for the reasons outlined above, and has produced promising horses the like of Fifty Stars, Russian Camelot, Furrion, Harbour Views And Shepard to name a few. This year in particular we feel the European Breeze Up market represents a terrific starting point for us to become active in Europe.
We’ve seen two breeze up sales so far in Europe this season, the Osarus Sale in France and the Tattersalls Craven Sale last week, both of which were well down in terms of clearance rate, median and average. To try and mitigate the impacts of COVID two of the bigger auction houses have joined forces for their annual breeze up sales in Goffs (UK) and Arqana (France), with the sale being held this week, three month’s later than originally scheduled. The problem with this from a sellers perspective is that the breeze up sales were actually designed to service the European Summer Season including Royal Ascot, Goodwood, Newmarket etc, which to a greater extent has already happened, therefore for want of a better term these horses are a bit ‘homeless’. The buying bench will be even further depleted due to the fact individuals wanting to travel to England need to quarantine for 14 days. Additionally, given the vendors have had to hold these horses for three months longer than anticipated they’ll be very extremely motivated sellers from a cash flow point of view.
We plan on buying 2-3 horses at this week’s sale for between AUD $100 and $200k each. The horses will fly back to Australia in early August (circa $30k each) after having their vaccinations and completing their mandatory quarantine period in England, followed buy a further fortnight quarantine in Australia. We should have the horses in work by early September for a short preparation with a view to having them racing from February/March next year onwards.
We are excited by the prospect of being active in Europe this week and hope it’s something we can build up year on year. We are seeking expressions of interest in the project from those who may have interest in taking a share of 10% or greater in one or all of the horses – please register by tomorrow night with either Kratzie or myself. For those interested parties we will have a short list available by mid-afternoon tomorrow, with the sale commencing Wednesday night our time.
Goffs Arqana 2020 Breeze Up Sale – https://www.goffsuk.com/sales-results/sales/breeze-up-sale-2020
See below correspondence from Billy Jackson-Stops:
Buying European form horses has become too expensive, but the swing to now buying unraced horses is proving that quality can be bought at a reasonable price. The benefits of being able to buy unraced horses from a breeze up sale, rather than a yearling sale, are unparalleled. The advantage being that we see whether the horse can gallop or not, unlike when taking a shot in the dark when buying a yearling.
This year I’ll be analysing each horse at the breeze ups alongside Timeform analyst Simon Rowlands. Simon is able to break down stride lengths and stride cadences, this helps me create a more informative picture of each horses’ ability and peak racing distance.
I did a study on horses sold from the breeze ups that went on to win a race at 1600 meters or further and that had an original handicap mark of 87 or higher. (In my opinion 87 would be the equivalent mark to a horse being of Saturday class in Australia). The study threw up 214 horses from breeze up sales between 2015 and 2019. Of these 214 horses 59% of them were bought for less than £75,000 ($140,000). These horses ranged in ability from 87 rated to Group 1 winners, namely Channel, who won the Gr.1 French Oaks. This is a good example of the type of quality that can be bought from the breeze ups and with the pandemic causing the issues that it has, this year will be the best chance to buy value from Europe.
There have been a huge amount of good horses to have come from the breeze ups in recent years, such as:
Teppal – €105,000 (Gr.1 French Guineas).
Spanish Mission – £60,000 (Belmont Jockey Club Derby and multiple Group race winner).
Robin Of Navan – €47,000 (Group 1 Criterium De Saint- Cloud).
Red Verdon – £90,000 (Group 1 2nd Grand Prix De Paris and multiple Group race winner).
Kenzai Warrior – £45,000 (Group race winner and unbeaten 2yo targeting the Group 1 2000 Guineas).
Homerique – €75,000 (Group 2 New York Stakes Winner).
Older examples include Contributer, who cost £130,000 as a Breeze Up, he was a two time G1 winner for John O’Shea in Australia. Trip To Paris was £20,000 as a Breeze Up and went on to win the Group 1 Royal Ascot Gold Cup and ran 4th in the Melbourne Cup.
This year’s breeze ups have exceptional quality in them as usual with progeny of the likes of Dubawi, Farhh, Iffraaj, Lope De Vega, New Approach, Night Of Thunder, Noble Mission, Shamardal, Siyouni, Zoffany to name but a few!
Looking forward to working together,
Billy Jackson-Stops