A day at the sales

Doug Procter takes us with him from his 3am Dorset start to Tattersalls in search of a mare – and returns with one very special purchase

Tuesday 8th July, and a 3am alarm means I’m in the horsebox and on the road by four. Usually this would mean I’m taking a mare for an early morning cover, but today I’m headed for the Tattersalls July sale in Newmarket (in Suffolk) – with an order from a new owner to buy a mare.
The July sale takes place over three days, with broodmares and breeding prospects on the first day, followed by two days of horses in training.
A quirk of this sale is that on the Thursday, selling is split into a morning and evening session … leaving the afternoon free to go racing at Newmarket’s July Course.
This year’s catalogue comprised 933 lots, but my client wanted an in-foal mare so we only had to work through the 330 selling on the first day to make a longlist, which I then spent Monday whittling down to a shortlist of 13.

The reason my client wanted an in-foal mare was so they’d have a foal next spring: otherwise, when buying in July, you’d be waiting at least 18 months before you have a foal. It’s much easier working through the list from home now that videos of horses have become standard in the online catalogue.
Most horses are on site for viewing for one or two days before the sale at Tattersalls: I, however, was just going for the day so I needed to be on the sales ground in plenty of time to look at early lots before selling started at 9.30.
The journey up was uneventful: the low early morning sun made Stonehenge look spectacular, but it is a real bore to drive head on into. I had parked up and was walking through the gates just after 8am.
Tattersalls has eight named yards, or paddocks, most of which are comprised of several stable blocks denoted by a letter A to FF. Horses are stabled by consignor, and not in catalogue order – so lot 10 may be at the opposite end of the sales ground from lot 11. Another job on Monday was to highlight my lots on the stabling list at the front of the catalogue, so I could make sure I saw all the horses in any given barn in one go.
When you arrive at a chosen lot you tell the staff which horse you want to see – some of the larger consignments have cards listing all their draft and you tick the ones you want to see.

That’s grand, thanks

First of all the horse is stood up for you, you stand into it to gauge the height and walk round to get your first impression. Then you ask to see a walk, side-on, then toward and away from you. The horse is then stood up again for a final look round before it’s “that’s grand, thanks”, the horse goes back in its stable and you write your notes on the catalogue page.
For example, my notes on the first mare I looked at read “plain, mid-size, good walk, light bone, NO”: whereas the second reads “good big mare, good lazy walk, correct, good bone, LIKE!!”

After seeing all 13, I had four mares marked LIKE – one with a single exclamation mark, one with two… and two earned a !!! (my highest score).
I then had to make a call to the client, who was abroad, to discuss and make a plan.
The problem was the mare I thought the best was to be the last of the four through the ring, so the question was, should we wait for her? This can be risky – you may pass on a good mare within your budget, only to find the one you’ve waited for sells for too much.
I was firm though: she was second in a Listed race at 2yo, was the best walker and best looking of the four and was in foal to Big Evs, a Group 1-winning first season sire standing at Tally Ho Stud in Ireland. This should make the foal inside her very commercial. We should wait for lot 120: Nottingham.
I followed the other three mares through the ring, and all would have been in budget. Had I made a mistake?
Would bidding on lot 120 go beyond the budget?
At Tattersalls they sell in guineas – 1gn equals £1.05 – and VAT is extra. So when your client gives you a budget in pounds you need some quick mental maths to work out your guineas bidding limit and also to factor in VAT if they’re not registered.

Open the bidding
Lot 119 was in the ring and it was time to get the client on the phone and see if we could buy “our” mare.
The hammer fell on lot 119, she was led out and we were on.
“Lot 120, Nottingham, from Hunting Hill Stud. Lovely Athletic Stakes-placed mare by Excelebration, in foal to exciting first-season sire Big Evs. Who’ll give me what, I want…” (That’s probably how the auctioneer started off, it’s always something like that.)
He asked for an ambitious opening bid, quickly dropping down to take 5,000. I knew the reserve was 30,000, so I waited and then caught the auctioneer’s eye with a wave of my catalogue and joined in at 20,000.
“That’s us at 20,” I said into my phone. “Us at 25 …”
At 30,000 I thought we had her, but the auctioneer worked long and hard to wring another bid of 32,000. I went straight back with 35,000, and after what seemed an eternity the hammer fell. Nottingham was ours!

Homeward bound
I wound up my phone call with a delighted new owner and waited for a member of Tattersalls staff to come over with the sales paperwork. I signed, tucked the green buyer’s copy into my catalogue and set off to the sales office to arrange payment. That done, I headed to barn U to see the mare and chat to the vendors, Conor Quirke and Kathryn Birch, a lovely young couple from Cork in Ireland, followed by a small celebratory beer with them in the back bar.
Heading back to the sales office I exchanged my green sheet for the mare’s passport and a pass out, and then moved the horsebox to the loading ramps. I collected Nottingham from her stable and took her down to load: access to the loading ramps is through a gate by the control office. Here they scan a horse’s microchip to make sure it matches the pass out before allowing you through to load.
And that was it, I was heading home with TGS’ newest resident.

*Footnote from Lucy:
For the first two weeks, all new arrivals are kept in quarantine in a field, with one retired mare for company, before joining the herd. As you can see from the photograph opposite, Notty – as she is now affectionately known – has settled in well with the other mares and we look forward to her foal, and more dreaming, in the spring.