Sensational Sales At Newmarket!
It’s been an exciting few weeks for Jason Fildes who bought six yearlings at the recent Newmarket Yearling Sale, which attracted many of the racing superpowers
The Tattersalls Newmarket October Yearling Sale was quite an exceptional event. Boosted by new investors from the football world, overseas bidders from Canada, Japan, USA and the Middle East plus the racing superpowers of the Irish (Coolmore) versus Godolphin (Sheikh Mohammed) receipts for the whole sale exceeded 200 million guineas for the first time.
A total of 1,416 horses were sold over the course of eight days for an average price of approximately £160,000 each!
As you might imagine with the top lots reaching in excess of four million, it was hard to comprehend what we were witnessing.
These are yearlings who were only foaled in early 2023 and who haven’t even galloped, yet they are being sold for mind boggling money. It just shows what happens when the uber-wealthy come out to play and in terms of Book 1 (the top sale) play might be the operative word!
Some prospective owners choose only to shop at Book 1 where you will find the sales company’s hand-picked blue bloods that are sons and daughters of the great sires like Frankel, Galileo, Dubawi (see the article in the last issue). These days if you want Frankel to cover your mare it’s a cool £450,000 payable on the birth of a live foal.
Admittedly some of the prices paid at Book 1 defied all logic but it is worth remembering that many of those investing at Book 1 do not make their fortunes from racing. Rather, this is where they choose to spend their leisure time and their money and if you want to give yourself the best chance of winning major races then this is the place to be.
The owner of Premier League Wolves, Evangelos Marinakis was a new name at the sales. Forbes list his estimated net worth at $3.8 billion so the 4,400,000 guineas he and football agent Kia Joorabchian paid for the blue-blooded Frankel filly was just pocket money. Moreover, Marinakis was not by any means, the wealthiest individual in the room!
Will there be expensive failures from this year’s sale? Without a doubt. But by the same token, there will also be rags-to-riches stories with horses completely outperforming more modest price tags. This is all part of what makes racing so compelling and why one – or all – of the six yearlings that I have bought for an average price of about £40k, could be the ones to hit the jackpot in 2025!
Please see the details below. All shares include purchase and all first year training and racing costs:
• Twilight Son x Rococoa filly foaled 14/2/23 bought at Goffs, Doncaster, to be trained by Karl Burke, Middleham.
12 shares @ £6,500 each
• Mayson x Adornment colt foaled 13/1/23 bought at Goffs, Doncaster, to be trained by Ed Bethell, Middleham.
12 shares @ £5,000 each
• Starspangledbanner x Peace Royale colt foaled 13/5/23 bought at Tatts Book 2, Newmarket, to be trained by Charlie Johnston, Middleham.
12 shares @ £6,000 each
• Ardad x Love Henry colt foaled 9/2/23 bought at Goffs Doncaster sales to be trained by Ed Bethell, Middleham.
12 shares @ £5,000 each
•Profitable x Rio Festival colt foaled 2/4/23 bought at Tatts Book 2, Newmarket to be trained by Tim Easterby, Malton.
10 shares @ £6,000 each
• Dandy Man x J’Ouvert filly foaled 4/3/23 bought at Somerville sale, Newmarket to be trained by Karl Burke, Middleham.
12 shares @ £5,000 each
Fildes Racing
07721 311778
fildesracing@gmail.com
