8 minute read
In conversation with Edmond Mahony
The Tattersalls Chairman talks to Julian Muscat about generating new owners, foal-crop size and the implications of Brexit
JULIAN MUSCAT: It was another notable year for Tattersalls after near-record turnover of more than 330 million guineas in 2018. How did you assess it?
EDMOND MAHONY: These are good times for players at the top end of the market. I thought Book 1 was an amazing sale. We were very lucky: we had lovely horses to sell to a worldwide audience, which made it relatively straightforward. The Americans came over and made a huge difference to the middle tier.
Also, I do think that after a period of bedding in, the Book 1 Bonus has caught the imagination of middle-tier buyers, which was good to see. It was more tricky in the middle-to-bottom end, although it has been that way for a number of years now.
JM: What needs to change for that tier to rally?
EM: Well, the question arises at every industry meeting I attend. A lot of work went into the Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association’s Economic Impact study. I thought it was very well researched, and the study identified a lot of the areas that need help.
JM: Should the British Horseracing Authority lead the drive to recruit new owners?
EM: In my view, yes. If you don’t have a race programme that supports the bottom tier of the industry, you can’t expect anything to change. Of course there are some good-news stories like Bettys Hope (the £3,000 Ascot yearling purchase who won the £123,000 Weatherbys Super Sprint), but they are few and far between.
The need to stimulate ownership is deemed a problem in the circles I move in, but the nub of the question is whether the BHA sees it as part of their remit. I think it should be.
JM: What additions to the racing programme might make a difference?
EM: Unless you have a very broad series of races to support the bottom tier – auction races, median auction races, that kind of thing – it is very difficult to raise the bar. For instance, a series of £25,000 auction races for the progeny of sires with a sales average of less than £20,000 would hit a few targets that aren’t being hit at the moment.
I recognise that race-planners might feel it isn’t a particularly exciting way to present the sport, but we can’t afford to lose the small breeder. Stuart Williams raised the auction-race concept at the annual industry meeting we host every January. Tattersalls now has three of them, and Stuart very kindly got involved in working out how to make them attractive to trainers. It demonstrated how we should listen to people at the coalface when it comes to helping small owners.
JM: Talking of the BHA, what do you make of the authority’s review of sales ring practices?
EM: My reaction is that it’s a great opportunity to put something in place that stands the test of time. It should be more than a code of practice: a proper industry forum where the issues can be properly examined and looked at.
Having said that, the BHA need to tread carefully. The whole concept will require sensitive management, especially where bloodstock agents are concerned. The aims are good, and I think they have spoken to all the relevant people. (Marketing director) Jimmy George and I spoke to (BHA chief executive) Nick Rust twice, and they were productive meetings.
JM: Is there a need for this kind of regulation?
EM: There’s almost a perception out there that something needs to be done, but I suspect the reality is that there are very few transgressions, for want of a better word. This perception has been whipped up by people who I would describe as being on the fringes of the business. On that basis, it can’t do any harm to have a body that oversees this area. It will be good to find out the extent of the problem, if indeed there is a problem.
JM: Should the BHA get involved in matters like these?
EM: It’s a debate that has some way left to run, but my view is that it’s quite hard to be a regulatory authority and also do all the other things they do; projects like Great British Racing, for instance. The two parallel roles (regulation and marketing/promotion) don’t always complement each other.
But the last thing I want to do is criticise the BHA; they get enough of that as it is. What I would say is that an “us-andthem” mentality seems to have developed between the BHA and the industry. I don’t believe that’s the best way.
JM: Next year marks the first drop in the size of the annual foal crop for some years. Is that a welcome development from your perspective?
EM: I think the reduction in numbers will help because the supply and demand equation has been unbalanced for a while now. That’s nobody’s fault; it’s just the way it is. It’s clear that the market at the top end is very strong, but it is very different at the bottom. I think we have made that clear in the post-sale statements we issue, and I think transparency in that respect is very important.
The worst situation for us is when we don’t have a sale for people who want to sell their horses. That’s one of the reasons we started the yearling sale at Ascot, for consignors that didn’t have a natural home.
JM: What did you make of the breeze-up sales earlier this year?
EM: I think it helped that there were less horses in the system. I thought the Craven breeze-up was remarkably strong and even the sales at the back-end seemed to hold up quite well. The new sale we had at Goresbridge (May 22-23) was very good. There was a 90 per cent clearance rate despite the fact we had 200 lots. At least it showed that people want to buy racehorses. Goresbridge is really the last chance to do that.
JM: What prompted you to relocate the Ascot and Cheltenham sales teams to Newmarket earlier this year?
EM: Initially we ran the Cheltenham and Ascot business out of Fairyhouse because of the National Hunt connection with Cheltenham, but we thought it better to base it in Newmarket for practical reasons. Matt Prior is now running it.
Cheltenham is going extremely well. We’ve got a very good team headed by Richard Pugh, who sources the horses. The results speak for themselves, but because most of the sales are held after racing, it’s always going to be a boutique sale.
I was amazed at Cheltenham’s Festival sale in March how many people hung around after racing just to watch. Who knows what interest that might generate? It gives us the opportunity to connect with people we wouldn’t otherwise be able to reach.
As for Ascot, hopefully we can grow the business. We have introduced the yearling sale and Ascot has a great name, a brand of quality that maybe the sales hadn’t enjoyed in the past. The one advantage of Ascot is that the horses are not stuck on the end of 1,700 yearlings ahead of them. They have a home of their own.
JM: What are the implications for Tattersalls in a no-deal Brexit?
EM: I suspect it’s going to be a continuation of the uncertainty because nobody knows what’s going to replace it. We will go into a transition period where Britain’s future relationship with the EC will have to be negotiated. I suspect a general election will follow unless a deal is done between now and then.
Before the creation of the Single Market in 1993 horses from Ireland came to Britain on a sales docket. That docket is (again) in place with HMRC, which is what counts for us. That bit of it appears to be fairly straightforward, but we still don’t know whether it’s going to make any difference in practical terms. I’ve said it before, but all we can really do is wait and see.
The referendum took place more than three years ago and the biggest issue has been the uncertainty. Overall, I feel that businesses survive despite the politicians, not because of them. They seem to live in a different world to the rest of us. Somewhat perversely, however, sterling’s devaluation continues to work in our favour. It is attracting buyers from overseas.
JM: What else is new at Tattersalls?
EM: Well, we sponsored the Falmouth and July Stakes at Newmarket for the first time this year. As a board, we like to put as much back into the industry as we possibly can, and we have renewed our contract at the Curragh to sponsor the two Guineas races and the Tattersalls Gold Cup. I’m sure in time the Curragh will be a great asset to European racing.
We are also upgrading parts of Park Paddocks. Starting in January we’re going to redevelop the bloodstock sales office. We’re putting a new building between the buffet room and the sales office, which will be extended. This will create a new reception area.
And we’re redeveloping the whole of Solario Yard. We’re relocating all the hay barns and will build a yard with 80 new boxes. The facilities there haven’t been as good as others at Park Paddocks, and that should be finished for the start of the 2020 yearling sales season.
Otherwise, we’re continuing to improve the walking and showing areas right across the site, replacing the gravel with rubber walkways. Work started in January and is an ongoing process that will benefit vendors and buyers alike.
