With leading racing figures from around the world bidding for Royal Ascot horses in Britain’s capital city, the Goffs London Sale is a bloodstock auction like no other – as James Thomas reports
GB: If you think all bloodstock auctions are the same, then you clearly haven’t been to the Goffs London Sale.
The event is to Thoroughbred auctions what Willy Wonka’s place of work is to chocolate factories; that is to say the extravagance reaches such heights that it borders on the surreal.
First of all, there is the location. We are accustomed to sales taking place in the Thoroughbred heartlands of Kentucky, Kildare and Newmarket, but this particular event, as the name suggests, is held in the very centre of the British capital. Big Ben, the Royal Albert Hall and the Tower of London are but a stone’s throw away.
The setting is the gardens of Kensington Palace, which has the distinction of being the birthplace of Queen Victoria in 1819 and, more recently, home of Diana, Princess of Wales. Just days before the sale pitches up there is no sign that millions of pounds worth of horseflesh will change hands here, only tourists and picnicking families taking in the leafy surroundings.
There is an old adage about never mixing business and pleasure, but the London Sale proves in no uncertain terms that, if you think big enough, the two can make perfect bedfellows. This is high-society garden party meets the most boutique of bloodstock sales.
Walk into almost any auction ring in the world and you will find that caps and gilets branded with studs and stallion names are very much de rigueur. Here, the usual sales uniforms are replaced by smart shirts, linen jackets and summer dresses.
Teams of waiters hurry about with platters of canapés and bottles of crisp, refreshing rosé. There is a band, an ice cream stand, and two members of the Household Cavalry’s mounted regiment standing guard behind the rostrum, complete with glinting armour and fearsome-looking swords.
A different kind of horsepower
Another bit of horsepower on show is the type with four wheels rather than four legs, with a gleaming Aston Martin DB12, not dissimilar to the car driven by James Bond in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, stationed beside the parade ring.
This is not because a high-rolling bloodstock agent couldn’t find the car park, but rather because Goffs partners with a few luxury brands to bring together this unique sale. Aston Martin is one; Château Léoube, who supply the rosé, and the International Yacht Company are among the others. Think companies with deep-pocketed clientele.
Although the event feels quintessentially British, the guest list is deeply international. Just about every major racing jurisdiction is represented from the US to Japan, Australia to Ireland.
Look one way and you’ll catch John Gosden or Roger Varian shading under one of the marquees, turn in another direction and there’s Joseph O’Brien and Willie Mullins out on the decking.
Veritable who’s who of global racing
Down by the parade ring is leading Australian trainer Ciaron Maher and Melbourne Cup-winning rider Michelle Payne, and over by the German beer tent is the charismatic owner-breeder Clarke Cooper and other members of team Classic Causeway. There is even an international football star in attendance in the shape of Real Madrid defender Álvaro Odriozola, a passionate racing devotee. This is a veritable who’s who of global racing – and beyond.
The sale has positioned itself as the unofficial opening party to Royal Ascot week, a notion with which Thady Gosden, co-trainer with his father John, is in full agreement.
“The sale here is a fantastic concept and it’s always a great start to what’s a huge international week,” he says. “If you look around there’s people from all over the world. They’ve either brought runners or they’re just coming racing because it’s such an occasion. In terms of racing it’s obviously the focal week of our sport domestically, and this is definitely a brilliant way to start it off.
“Everyone’s a bit more relaxed than they usually are at Ascot, whether it’s in attire or in spirit!” Gosden goes on. “It’s a place you can come and know you’ll bump into everyone, whether that’s some old faces or new. It’s a cool environment and being right in the middle of London, where a lot of people are already staying, means it works really well. I think it’s a brilliant idea.”
Amid all the fun and frivolity there is also the serious business of selling some elite bloodstock, plenty of which has the added draw of an entry or two at Royal Ascot. With the meeting only hours away, the racing prospects remain in their stables so are sold in absentia. The only glimpse you’ll catch of a Thoroughbred are any broodmares on offer, who have spent the afternoon parading in front of the Kensington Palace Orangery.
The sale was inaugurated in 2014 and has gone on to hit some giddy heights in the intervening years. Five lots have changed hands for seven-figure sums, led by Cappella Sansevero, who finished runner-up in the 2014 Coventry Stakes less than 24 hours after selling, and the 2016 Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine Jet Setting. The pair fetched £1,300,000 apiece.
The London Sale also sold the first offspring of Frankel to be offered at public auction, with Crystal Gaze and her three-month old colt by the dual world champion bringing £1.15 million from Coolmore’s MV Magnier, also in 2014.
£1.1m headline act
This year’s sale sees 21 lots offered, 15 of which are due to run at Royal Ascot. The headline act is undoubtedly the unbeaten Marble Hill Stakes winner Givemethebeatboys, knocked down at a cool £1.1m. A warm round of applause rings out after the hammer falls, with the audience in full appreciation of the magnitude of what they had just witnessed.
There are emotional scenes in the aftermath of the stunning transaction as the vendors, Con Marnane and his daughter Amy, had picked up the promising youngster for just €11,000 a little over seven months earlier.
The Jessica Harrington-trained son of Bungle Inthejungle carried the colours of Marnane’s wife Theresa to victory at Navan and the Curragh.
If you were in any doubt as to how popular the Marnane family are in this part of the world, you need only to witness the lengthy line of well-wishers queuing up to offer Con a congratulatory handshake.
“It’s completely surreal,” says Amy Marnane. “There’s nowhere else where you could find an atmosphere like it. It’s just incredible; the whole sale and the price of the horse. I just hope that we’re leading in a Royal Ascot winner tomorrow.”
That isn’t to be, but Givemethebeatboys still runs a promising race rather less than 24 hours later, finishing fourth under Frankie Dettori after leading at the furlong marker in the Coventry Stakes, the meeting’s most prestigious two-year-old event.
Later in the session at Kensington Gardens, the unmistakable Aussie legend Gai Waterhouse gets in on the act. She has been attending the London Sale since its inception and captured the headlines again in 2022 when, along with bloodstock agent Johnny McKeever, she went to £1.2m to purchase Derby runner-up Hoo Ya Mal.
Waterhouse secures two more lots in the £300,000 Cuban Dawn, set to contest the Golden Gates Stakes, and the £260,000 Britannia Stakes contender New Endeavour.
Sensational concept
“The concept is sensational,” says the First Lady of Australian racing. “Goffs should get a gold award for this. People love the glamour, they love being here and everyone wants to have a runner at Royal Ascot because it’s a special, special race meeting.
“I said to my owners ‘You didn’t have to pay to have the horse come over and now we’re going to Ascot!’ It’s a dream in heaven. I thought we bought very well today.”
She adds: “It’s a very social occasion because everyone is here. We’ve been coming to Ascot for 40 odd years so we’re part and parcel of the furniture now, but this event is very special too. It’s grown and grown and it’ll keep growing.”
In total, 11 lots change hands, generating turnover of £3,770,000 in a little over an hour.
As the sun begins to dip and the crowd slowly evaporates, the Marnane family and a few friends take to the rostrum to treat stragglers to a rendition of the 1970s hit ‘Drift Away’.
A surprise international smash in 1973 for American soul singer Dobie Gray, the song’s well-known regular refrain goes like this: “Oh, give me the beat boys and free my soul – I wanna get lost in your rock ’n’ roll and drift away …” It was a fitting send off to a memorable afternoon.
Goffs bill this event as ‘A sale like no other’. While sales company PR marketing spiel is not always the most objective source material, surely no one could argue with that – least of all those who came and sipped the rosé, spectated during a seven-figure bidding battle or even bought a horse.
• Visit the Goffs website and the London Sale website
‘He is really something’ – Wesley Ward targets more Royal Ascot success with American Rascal
Royal Ascot: Adayar seeking to stamp Derby class on Prince of Wales’s Stakes
Seb Sanders: As a pundit I am not as hard on others as I was on myself
View the latest TRC Global Rankings for horses / jockeys / trainers / sires