Bill's Columns

It’s been a very good October in the European yearling market. After Tattersalls October Book 1, held October 6-8, when the gross was off by 20% and the average by 13%, but with strong participation from the Maktoums, Coolmore, and American interests led by clients of Chad Brown, breeders and consignors were heartened, but nobody was expecting the relentless strength of October Books 2-3. For five consecutive days, October 12-16, we literally were back in 2019. Last year, between Books 2-3, there were 1,396 yearlings catalogued, of which 1,054 sold, for a seriously strong clearance rate of 75.5% from the catalogues. This year, there were 1,418 catalogued (+1.5%), of which 1,096 sold (+4%), for an astonishing 77.3% clearance rate from the catalogues – nearly 2% higher than the corresponding 2019 books. Last year, the two sales grossed 55,506,900 gns, for an average of 52,663 gns. This year they grossed 55,729,700 – an actual gain of 222,800 gns (four-tenths of 1%). The average for the two sales was 50,848 gns, down 3.5%. In a year when being down 20% was a win there were a lot of very pleasantly surprised sellers.

The French yearling sales this year, like all of the Irish sales, were thrown into disarray by the pandemic. Arqana held their October Yearling Sale in Deauville over five days, October 19-23, but this sale combined the usual September yearling sale of their rival sales company, Osarus. When we add in the Osarus sale’s previous years, the combined Arqana October sale this year saw 578 yearlings sell (down 6% from the combined sales’ 618 sold in 2019), for €18,062,000, an average of €31,249. The gross was down 15% from the combined 2019 gross of €21,278,000, and the average was down 9%, from €34,340.

The European yearling sales are now more or less complete, with only Tattersalls’ one-day December Yearling Sale, scheduled for November 23, the principal sale still to come. According to figures compiled by Brianne Stanley of The Bill Oppenheim Group, there have been 5,526 yearlings catalogued in the European yearling sales this year, down 6% from 5,849 in 2019. There have been 3,829 yearlings sold, a 10% decline in number sold, for a clearance rate from the catalogues of 69.3%, a 3.1% decline from the 72.4% clearance rate last year. The sales grossed €267,275,000, down 19% from €331,017,500 at the corresponding 2019 sales, and the average this year is €69,803, down 11% from €78,125 last year. All things considered, a pretty big sigh of relief all around.

The big guns are pretty much done after Tattersalls October 1, so no change among the top rung of European commercial sires. Galileo (23 sold/avg $893,930), Dubawi (20/$756,387), Kingman (27/$519,017), and Frankel (29/$461,403) were the only European sires to average over $300,000. Among them they had 93 yearlings sell, for a total just under €53.6-million, an average of €576,290. These four sires had 2.4% of the total number of yearlings sold, for exactly 20% of the gross. Their combined average was ten times that of the other 3,736 yearlings, which sold for an average of €57,195.

There was an interesting tussle for supremacy among sires with their first yearlings, and in the end there was virtually a three-way tie among France’s Haras d’Etreham’s Almanzor (53/avg $119,464) and the Coolmore duo of Caravaggio (63, $118,767), who is now transferring to Ashford Stud in Kentucky for the 2021 season, and Churchill (65/$115,988) Darley’s Ribchester (63/$85,239) and England’s Cheveley Park Stud’s Ulysses (36/$77,946) complete the first-crop yearling sire top five. Ireland’s Ballylinch Stud’s up-and-coming 2015 G1 Prix du Jockey-Club (French Derby) winner New Bay (33/$91,894) dethroned the Haras de Bouquetot’s Shalaa (49/$73,924) as leading European sire with first 2-year-olds, with Ireland’s Tally-Ho Stud’s Mehmas (63/$70,061), Europe’s Leading Freshman Sire, running a strong third. Darley’s Night of Thunder (41/$115,795) is comfortably the leader among sires with their first 3-year-olds, ahead of another Darley stallion, Golden Horn (15/$87,502). Night of Thunder has been standing at Kildangan Stud in Ireland, Golden Horn at Dalham Hall in Newmarket. Among sires with their first 4-year-olds, Juddmonte’s Kingman (27/$519,017) reigns supreme, but Coolmore’s No Nay Never had 66 sell for a $146,219 average off a €25,000 stud fee; England’s Lanwades Stud’s Sea The Moon (36/$98,884) and Coolmore’s Australia (58/$84,607) also had good sale seasons.

For more articles by Bill Oppenheim, APEX ratings, and Brianne Stanley’s Worldwide Sales Ticker, please visit www.billoppenheim.com. Twitter @billoppenheim