Sales Incentives - added value
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Author - Nancy Sexton
The issue of prize money is not going to be resolved soon, with the average horse running for levels far removed from their contemporaries abroad. But that’s not to say ownership is a guaranteed black hole. British and Irish bloodstock remain highly prized commodities overseas, making it the subject of a frenzied export market. And for the domestic horse population, the opportunities are there to win extra money for those looking to work the system.
It is to the credit of the sales companies that many of these opportunities emanate from their various initiatives, whether it be in the form of sales races or bonus series.
At the higher end of the market, Tattersalls has paid out approximately £6.5 million in bonuses against Book 1 of its October Sale, while this year’s Goffs Orby Sale will be staged alongside a new million euro sales race.
For those value seekers, sales races are also attached to Books 3 and 4 of the Tattersalls October Sale as well as the company’s Somerville Yearling Sale. Anyone shopping at the recent Goffs UK Premier Sale also did so with the incentive of a sales race at York, which comes with its own bonus of a free horse to the winning connections.
Such incentives currently run in tandem with various bonus schemes. The Great British Bonus Scheme (GBB), in which payments of up to £20,000 are awarded to the connections of British-bred and/or sired fillies, has paid out over £3 million since its launch in June 2020.
New for this season is the IRE Incentive Scheme, which awards a sales voucher of €10,000 to owners of Irish-bred winners from 150 selected races across the British and Irish Flat and National Hunt programmes in 2021. Winning owners then have until the end of the following year to spend their voucher on an Irish-bred at any Irish sale.
It works across the spectrum
Every lot catalogued to Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Sale is eligible for the £20,000 October Book 1 bonus. Owners make a one-off payment to qualify—in 2021, £1,700 paid by March 1—and receive a £20,000 bonus should their Book 1 purchase win an eligible race run during the British and Irish turf Flat seasons.
The scheme was launched for the 2016 season and within no time at all had gained appreciation within the industry. At the time of writing, Tattersalls has paid out 251 bonuses of over £6.5 million, 24 of them in 2021.
Unsurprisingly, it has proven to be a hit with various syndicates. A number of trainers have also latched on to it, among them Andrew Balding, who sent out Coventry Stakes winner Berkshire Shadow to land a bonus first time out at Newbury and Hoo Ya Mal to win Britain’s most valuable two-year-old maiden, the Convivial at York. Between them, the pair cost 80,000gns out of last year’s sale.
“We have paid out £6.5 million since it was launched,” says Jimmy George, marketing director of Tattersalls. “It’s a huge sum, and owners and trainers who have embraced it have been rewarded. It’s changed buyer behaviour. You have trainers like Ger Lyons, for example, who would have been in the Book 2 camp, but he embraced this scheme and has been successful with horses in that 20,000gns–100,000gns range.
“The beauty of it is the fact that it doesn’t matter if you get beaten in your maiden; you can go again and then again. So it works across the spectrum, allowing it to suit every type of horse.”
The likes of Berkshire Shadow and Hoo Ya Mal prove that while the sale average may hover around 220,000gns, value can be found; in which case, a £20,000 bonus can go a long way.
That much is also evident in the case of Acomb Stakes winner Royal Patronage, who picked up a bonus for Highclere Thoroughbred Racing when successful at Epsom in July. He was bought by John and Jake Warren for 62,000gns out of last year’s sale.
“The bonus has certainly become part of the mindset when attending Book 1,” says Jake Warren. “It’s a meaningful prize that feels obtainable for each horse we buy at the sale, and it's that aspect that encourages us to make sure we cover the sale entirely as despite what some people might think. There is plenty of value there if you're prepared to look for it.
“Royal Patronage, for example, was a beautiful yearling. He had an imposing physique with a noticeably deep front and a quality head—very much in the mould of the best sons of Wootton Bassett I've seen.”
If you find the crumbs, you need rewarding
Tattersalls also takes pride in its £150,000 Tattersalls Autumn Race while its sister company, Tattersalls Ireland, stages the €300,000 Super Auction Sales Stakes for graduates of its September Yearling Sale. Both are two of the company’s longer-standing events and remain extremely popular with owners and trainers.
Traditionally run for graduates of Books 3 and 4, the £150,000 Tattersalls Autumn Race will incorporate those from the Somerville Yearling Sale for the first time this year. This year’s Somerville yearlings also have their own race: a 6f event scheduled to be run next August on Newmarket’s July course.
“The £150,000 Tattersalls Autumn Race is one of our well-established events,” says George. “It’s something that is easy for trainers to sell for their owners.”
The race has a firm supporter in trainer Johnny Portman. The Lambourn trainer excels at sourcing value—a fine illustration being the Requinto filly Mild Illusion, who won over £66,000 having been bought for just 1,000gns as a Book 3 yearling.
Mild Illusion didn’t win the Tattersalls October Auction Stakes, but she came very close in 2019 when falling just a head short of Under The Stars. She won approximately £33,000 that day for her enthusiastic owners, the Old Stoic Racing Club, and went on to win the Listed Bosra Sham Stakes. She later sold for 160,000gns to Tally-Ho Stud.
“Every sale needs buyers at every level of the market and if you are one of the pigeons that finds the crumbs, you also need rewarding,” says Portman. “And the rewards are those races, such as the Tattersalls race, for cheaply purchased horses.
“Mild Illusion was offered for sale. Anyone could have bid on her and I was the only one. She was a lovely type and watching her walk round the ring, there was nothing to fault her. Not everyone was a fan of Requinto, but there was no reason not to buy her, especially at that money. And she nearly went on to win a sales race.
“I’m a great believer in them. I don’t enjoy the sales so much, but I do love scratching around and looking for value.” He adds: “We’d like to find a Mild Illusion every year. They’re very hard to find and we were very lucky, but we’ll keep trying. She was wonderfully straightforward to train and was leased to some wonderful individuals. And her sale to Tally-Ho was an utter joy for some of my creditors!”
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