Horse 'breeze-up' sales back on track

The partners behind the Tipperary-based Coolmore Stud made history earlier this year when they paid $16 million (€12.5 million) for a two-year-old racehorse at an auction in Florida. The price was the highest paid for a racehorse at an open auction anywhere in the world. But it was not only the price that set tongues wagging; it was also the type of sale that attracted interest.

It was a "breeze-up" sale, where horses that have yet to race are galloped or "breezed" over a short distance, normally between one-quarter and three-eighths of a mile (two to three furlongs), and their performance is timed. It's a way of assessing their potential on the track. The $16 million colt, now called 'The Green Monkey', put in a record time over two furlongs, hence his astronomical price.

At most sales, unless the horse has already run, buyers have to go on their pedigree, looks and whatever else they identify during pre-sale inspections. According to Martin Donohoe, of Goresbridge Bloodstock Sales in Co Kilkenny, at a breeze up, horses are "performance-tested".

Donohoe is the man behind what will be Ireland's first breeze-up sale for many years at Goresbridge next Monday. It seems odd that there has not been a serious attempt to launch a specialised breeze up in this country before, as not only are the Irish enthusiastic buyers, they are also active sellers at such auctions in the UK.

Tattersalls did make one attempt a long time ago, but decided against carrying on.

Donohoe suggests the company probably felt it would end up competing with other sales, and dropped the idea. Whatever the reason, there's a clear gap in the market and Goresbridge is confident the company can fill it. "We're already the biggest sport horse auction house in Europe, we sell eventers and show-jumpers," Donohoe says. "We started expanding into thoroughbreds over the last few years and have had a few mixed sales. But we wanted to do something specialised, and we felt that this was a niche in the market that we could fill."

Goresbridge could not have picked a better year. Not only was the world record broken at a breeze up, but this year's winner of the English 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket (one of the top races for three-year-old fillies), the Irish-bred Speciosa, was last year purchased at a breeze up in England for £40,000 (€58,000). Her value has now soared into the seven-figure zone, providing a healthy return for the investors.

Another Irish-bred colt, Amadeus Wolf, which last year captured one of the biggest prizes for two-year-olds in England, was also bought at a breeze up. That horse was sold by one of the leading vendors at such sales, Bansha House, an Irish operation run by Con Marnane and regarded as one of the leaders in this field.

Bansha House will be offering several horses at Goresbridge, as will a number of other Irish-based key players in this market, Mocklershill, Callas Stables, Knockanglass and Knockgraffon.

Breeze-up vendors operate by buying horses as foals or yearlings, breaking and bringing them through the initial stages of training and preparing them for sale as two-year-olds.

The attraction of buying at breeze ups is that they will not need a lot of preparation to get to the track. In addition, the horses offered at Goresbridge are not going to cost $16 million, and are pitched at the middle market.

"They're ready to run," Donohoe says. "They'd be perfect for syndicates and groups of people that want to buy horses to race them and enjoy them."