Doncaster Sales

C

Cantoris

At the Start
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Jan 7, 2008
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Was interested to see some of the lots going through the ring today. Johnny Two Keys and Be Definite from Dessie Hughes yard were pretty affordable at 16k and 25k I think. Mister Matt went for 25k and he's not even a winner!!
 
At those sort of prices I think there is better value in the horses in training than stores. Kim Bailey mentioned the same in the paper today when he said his owners don't want to wait 9 months now to find out if their horse is any good. There were some nice bumper winners going through the ring for £20-40k and they are ready to go hurdling straight away or go on Summer hols and be ready to rock and roll in 3/4 months with a known level of ability.

If there was interest, I would certainly consider it for the Nov horses in training sales. But not sure I could get the people together that quickly, normally take six months to get a syndicate together.
 
Ferdy Murphy could have a real bargain in Riguez Dancer (who beat Kalahari King as a novice).
Bought for only 32k and I know connections will be disappointed to have lost him for what doesn't seem a lot for a useful dual purpose horse.
 
The Doncaster Store sale is usually top end and pricey. However in the HiT sales you still get loads of stores - broken and unbroken - on offer. Some idiot paid £13k for a brute of a horse I looked at with a very bent leg.
 
There is that, I guess! I couldn't possibly see it standing up to training, not least since it was a big bruiser of a horse with a lot of weight that that wonky leg would have to support. There was some nice horses going for less than 10k that were entirely straight!
 
Shadow Leader said:
The Doncaster Store sale is usually top end and pricey. However in the HiT sales you still get loads of stores - broken and unbroken - on offer. Some idiot paid £13k for a brute of a horse I looked at with a very bent leg.
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Do you know who the idiot was by any chance?
 
I didn't get to see her Trackside, no. We had a stack of horses to look at reasonably early and she was going through the ring whilst we were in the stables looking at horses. Heard the bidding though.

I have seen the name on the sales returns, tetley, since bizzarely enough I can read. Anyone who spends £13k on a gelding with a leg on at two o'clock is an idiot in my opinion. It wouldn't even have been a £13k animal had the leg been straight, again in my opinion.
 
What is it to you? You're only trying to stir.

Kri, the leg was actually wonky rather than just being a bizarre mover.
 
SL - if you're going to throw around insults, you can't really complain when you're called on it.
 
Tetley's entire raison d'etre is to stir, and he generally only pops up every now and then to do so. He is trying to make me look silly - he wants me to say a Costello bought the horse so everyone can take the piss out of me. However, I inspected the animal closely - personally I didn't like it in the box especially anyway - and the creature has a very bent leg. It's not really the most astute of decisions to pay £13k for a horse with a crooked leg, is it? It's not even as though it's a well bred mare they can breed from, it's an unbroken gelding. IMO chances of him taking racing would be fairly slim due to the inherent weakness there.
 
Always interests me how cheaply the Juddmonte and Darley cast offs go for at this sale, some are amazingly well bred. Probably made of glass and/or are mentalists though.
 
A lot of them are simply big and backward GS, horses they don't want, or need, to give time to. Since they want types who will win black type races they don't really have to keep the big backward types that haven't immediately shown promise since chances are they're not going to be the black type performers they want. They'll often discard small animals as well, ones who haven't shown promise early doors. I looked at a lovely 2yo of Darleys at Doncaster either earlier this year or last year. Althoguh he was 2 he was already a full up 16.2hh - if not bigger - with plenty of bone and scope. He hadn't even left the pre-training yards to go into training since it was fairly clear he wasn't up to it yet. He has been running on the flat over trips of around 1m2f and is still a maiden, I was more interested in him to turn away for a while then try a bumper since he pedigree suggested he had a good chance of getting the trip.

Darley, Juddmonte and the big yards like that are very good to buy horses from; they are entirely up front about every injury/problem the horse has had. They have nothing to gain from lying about horses or covering things up merely so they make a few extra grand at the sales, the integrity of their name is more important to them. I'd always be interested in a Darley/Juddmonte or similar horse that looks the type I'd go for, for those reasons alone. You also know that they will have been broken in, educated and looked after properly.
 
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Thanks Shadz, I've always been interested in picking one up but I've never been involved with trainers who fancy the challenge and I don't possess the required nouse to know what to look for myself so we went for one who was currently running (error!).

I always thought there would be a lot of value in picking up one of their cast offs, I noticed Peter Hyatt and Tim Vaughan got a couple for a few grand yesterday and a half brother to Ice Planet went for something like 1.7k.
 
It depends entirely what you are looking for, GS. If you are prepared to give one a bit of time then the unraced ones are often perfect. The raced ones would also be good if wanting one ready to go with as well since they often won't waste a lot of time moving them onto the sales if they don't think they'll cut the mustard so they'll more likely than not have been running fairly recently. The ones that have run they'll often sell since they can tell soon enough whether or not they're going to perform at the highest level so whether they are worth hanging on to. Personally I think it is well worth buying a horse from them if you're looking for something to have a bit of fum with and win a few races; if you're looking for a Listed class animal it might be a different story since they wouldn't sell it if they thought it was that good!

They tend to have someone overseeing the horses at the sales with a large folder who can look up all the specific details of the horses you are interested in, if you ask. The woman who is usually with the Darley consignments is called Marie and I have found her very helpful and friendly. They're quite happy to talk to you and answer questions about the horses you are looking at.
 
Cheers Shadz, very informative. It's not something I'm looking at doing at present (got out of the syndicate game after the last one as it wasn't a fun experience) but I know a few people who are interested in getting involved again at some point. Finding a trainer who's reasonable and ambitious enough to take one on is tricky too.
 
Shadow Leader said:
Tetley's entire raison d'etre is to stir, and he generally only pops up every now and then to do so. He is trying to make me look silly - he wants me to say a Costello bought the horse so everyone can take the piss out of me. However, I inspected the animal closely - personally I didn't like it in the box especially anyway - and the creature has a very bent leg. It's not really the most astute of decisions to pay £13k for a horse with a crooked leg, is it? It's not even as though it's a well bred mare they can breed from, it's an unbroken gelding. IMO chances of him taking racing would be fairly slim due to the inherent weakness there.
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You don't need any help from me.

Why would someone with your vast experience bother to look closely at a three legged horse?
 
Yes darling, that's the point - I walked away from it, not interested. Strangely enough the catalogue didn't mention that he had a twisted leg. Funny that.

Now, did you have anything worthwhile to say? I thought not.

Isn't there something in the forum rules about trolling?
 
A fair few sorts in the Gigginstown batch that showed serious promise in the P2P field only to dissapoint under rules (the likes of The Gloves Are Off and War Of The World, amongst others, catch the eye).
 
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