An incredible week

I can’t actually believe I’m sitting down to write a blog about us topping Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Sale. Of course it wouldn’t have been possible without Philippa Cooper’s stunning Dubawi colt out of her Group 1 winner Fallen For You, and both Jenny and I are extremely grateful to Philippa for her support of Norris Bloodstock and also to her advisor Anthony Stroud, as we are to all our clients who have supported us this year with yearlings to consign and boarders at the farm.

I won’t pretend that this hasn’t been a tough year for us. It was a wrench to leave Clairemont Stud which we’d developed from scratch but life is about looking forwards, not backwards, and after some really hard graft from all the team at home, we’ve achieved the best possible result at Europe’s most prestigious yearling sale. Normandie Stud’s Dubawi colt was the joint-most expensive yearling sold anywhere in the world this year along with another colt – yes, you’ve guessed it, by Dubawi – sold by Meon Valley Stud out of their great mare Zee Zee Top also for 2.6 million gns. Congratulations to Mark Weinfeld and his team who have been breeding good horses for decades.

So, with some other decent results for Philippa’s New Approach colt from the same family as the sales-topper and for Ballymore Thoroughbreds’ gorgeous colt by Shamardal from Peintre Celebre’s family, we ended the sale as leading consignor by average with four sold at an average price of 875,000gns.

There’s no time for resting on our laurels, however, as we have seven yearlings to sell this week in Book 2 and another two in Book 3. Once again, Jenny and her team have done us proud. The horses look fantastic and are showing well. If you’re at Tattersalls, please come to see us and the horses in Block M.

Jenny and I would like to say a very big thank you to all our team for their hard work, and to the many people who have congratulated us at the sales. Your kind comments really mean a lot to us. Here’s hoping for another good week.