Extraordinary times

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It’s been a long time between drinks as far as this blog is concerned and I’m blaming a hectic sales season which has kept me very busy and endlessly entertained.

The 5 million guineas sister to Oaks winner Was

Deauville in August now seems a distant memory but the Arqana Sale gave a strong hint at what was to come with four yearlings selling for €1 million or more – two by Dubawi and two by Galileo. The real excitement was saved for Park Paddocks in October and no sooner had Newsells Park Stud’s Galileo colt out of Shastye set a new European yearling record at 3.6 million guineas than he was trumped by the sister to Oaks winner Was, who, less than 24 hours later, sold for 5 million guineas to Sheikh Joaan.

The strength of the yearling sales inevitably led to strong foal sales, and for the last three weeks I’ve been following the action at Goffs and Tattersalls. With Thoroughbred Owner & Breeder going to press this week I had to sidestep Arqana’s December Sale, which is just as well as the grim sales bug has me well and truly in its grip and I’ve spent the last few days in bed trying to shake it off.

Liam Norris and William Huntingdon in action at Tatts

Over the years, I've looked at quite a lot of yearlings with John and, by that stage in a horse’s life, it’s easier to start to see the future athlete emerge, in most cases anyway. One thing I’ve always thought must be nigh on impossible is judging foals, so it was really interesting – and educational – to spend some time at Goffs and Tattersalls looking at foals with Liam Norris and William Huntingdon. The duo enjoyed a terrific yearling sale at Tattersalls, selling all of the previous year’s foals for a profit through Clairemont Stud, which Liam runs with his wife Jenny.

I guess all good buyers of horses will tell you that first and foremost it’s about the individual in front of you, so pinhookers will want to see correct foals who walk well, but if you’re buying with next season’s yearling sales in mind, thought must be given to stallion popularity and what else might come through from the horse’s family in the meantime. There are plenty of elements to consider and then of course luck must play its part too.

It was fascinating to watch Liam and William weigh up which foals would and wouldn’t make their short-list – one filly by first-season sire Dream Ahead was eventually purchased at Goffs with another six added at Tattersalls – and I’ll be very interested to see how they fare next October.

Unfortunately I couldn't persuade Liam to buy the next Top Notch Tonto

I first met William about 13 years ago when I was working for Pacemaker and he was writing a column for the magazine. He’s a breath of fresh air in the bloodstock world – someone who can hold forth on just about any topic with boundless energy and enthusiasm. He also has a fairly wicked sense of humour and loves a good wind-up, as I found out to my cost one evening in Ireland. He and Liam make a great team – some might say odd couple ­– and I can’t thank them both enough for their kindness and patience over the last few weeks.

The evidence of how they work so well together was brought to the fore last Monday when Dancing Rain sold for 4 million guineas at Tattersalls, topping the first day and becoming the second-most expensive mare of the sale after Immortal Verse set a new record at 4.7 million guineas on Tuesday. Dancing Rain had been bought by Liam and William as a yearling at Goffs for €200,000 and raced in the colours of Martin and Lee Taylor, who also own Clairemont Stud.

Jenny Norris with her pride and joy Dancing Rain at Tattersalls

The excitement surrounding the dual Oaks winner’s appearance in the ring at Tatts had been building ever since it was announced in August that she was to be sold. Dancing Rain retired at the end of last season and left William Haggas’s yard to take up residence at Clairemont on Christmas Eve. Since then she has been covered by Frankel, yet another factor which added to the intense scrutiny surrounding her in the weeks leading up to the December Sale.

It was a pleasure last February to be part of a 90-minute programme about Frankel on BBC 5 Live as the covering season started. The station then followed up with bulletins before and after Dancing Rain sold, with Radio 2 and BBC Radio Scotland also phoning for a comment on the day after her sale. It’s rare for racing to be given much coverage in the mainstream media so it was quite a coup for bloodstock to get in on the action – testament really to how much we owe Frankel. His allure is still far-reaching even more than a year after retirement, but then so is that of Dancing Rain, who packed the ring to bursting point on Monday.

The lovely Chicquita with the Castlebridge team at Goffs

I’m sure that Jenny, Liam and everyone connected with the mare must have been feeling the pressure as the big day approached but they didn't let it show and neither did Dancing Rain, who was beautifully presented by Jenny and Rachael and handled all the attention like the superstar that she is. It’s surely not the last we’ll hear of her, or of Clairemont Stud, which looks certain to become an increasingly influential name, both as pinhookers and breeders, in the years to come.

Of course I can’t mention this extraordinary sales season without reference to the Goffs November Sale, which was augmented by the Paulyn Dispersal. Chicquita was the star, and rightly so, selling for €6 million to Coolmore after a thrilling bidding duel between the Doyles and our own James McHale. Well done to James for playing it so cool and good luck to Aidan O’Brien in keeping Chicquita cool next season. I hope she can put her waywardness behind her and that the Ballydoyle team can continue the brilliant work started by Alain de Royer Dupre in bringing out the very best in this talented and beautiful filly.

Some members of the press bench bond better than others

One final sales credit must go to the really good team of people I work with on the press bench. My friend Nancy Sexton had to put up with sitting next to me every day at Tatts and Goffs and I had the pleasure of getting to know the knowledgeable Ryan McElligott at Goffs this year too. Ryan also had to sit next to me for six days straight through Goffs November and pretended not to mind my barrage of stupid questions. The rest of the Racing Post team work really hard too – Martin Stevens, Tom Pennington and Katherine Fidler – and they are just putting the finishing touches to the Bloodstock Review, which is a publication to look forward to every year. Then of course there's Carl Evans and Sally Duckett who graft away for the EBN, Thoroughbred Owner & Breeder and International Thoroughbred, plus the Tattersalls live sales reporter blog, which is done by Sally. It's a long old season but they are all a pleasure to work with. Ever since the much-missed sales reporter Ed Prosser left the bench to join the team at Keeneland, I've benefited from his departure by doing extra work for the TDN which has been great fun. They have a really enthusiastic team based in New Jersey and cover the racing and bloodstock world in great depth. It was great to meet and work with their new international editor Kelsey Riley this week at Tatts and she's continuing to do sterling work from Arqana's December Sale. I must also thank the excellent Sid Fernando, whose thoughts and analysis from the Kentucky sales are always worth reading in Thoroughbred Owner & Breeder.

On the home front, John’s been hard at work while I’ve been swanning around. He’s been giving me increasingly bullish bulletins about Oscar Bernadotte, who is coping very well with training since returning from an injury sustained in his bumper debut in February. I’m nervously pencilling in December 22 for his reappearance on the track, in a bumper at Lingfield. He’s my first homebred so hopes have been running very high for a long time, even if expectation is well and truly in check.

Oscar, right, and Timmy. Picture by Nigel Goodenough

It was a big blow to us to lose Grand Liaison to another stable, especially as she’s won three times from this yard, but that’s part of racing and we are very grateful to have had her here since her yearling days. She's made us all very proud and given us plenty of happy times. 

In racing, as we all know, you have to take the good days with the bad, and this year it feels like there’s been plenty more bad than good. Living among horses however means you have to keep getting up (early) each day and looking forward. And there genuinely is always something to look forward to, even if you’re not sure some days quite what that is. For me at the moment, it’s Oscar in the short term and then, next spring, I can't wait to welcome back the yearling fillies from this year to see how they’re blossoming as two-year-olds. Watching the early stages of a young horse’s training is always a joy and I’m really looking forward to seeing the class of 2013 progress, including, of course, John’s Le Havre homebred So Much Water, who already looks like a cheeky little minx.

Panto's special privileges include breakfast outdoors with his canine friends

One final thought, especially because I can rarely post a blog without mentioning him, is for my very special horse Panto. One thing I’ve always struggled to come to terms with in a racing stable is the coming and going of horses you’ve grown to love. The coming is fine, of course, it’s the going that’s unbearable.

Panto’s been with me now since 2006 and, having come so close to losing him last year, no matter what else happens in any day, I consider it to have ended well if I can spend a few minutes in his stable when I give him his last feed before I go to bed. I can’t ask for more in life than the sound of him quietly munching and looking so well while knowing that nobody can take him away from me. It's the recipe for a good night’s sleep.