ENGLISH TEXTS
and success are all engrained within the company and we must never lose sight of that when promoting Tattersalls. The marketing team’ s job is to attract purchasers to attend our sales and buy horses as well as attract vendors to bring their horses to our sales and sell them. From a digital marketing point of view in particular, a key statistic that has stuck with me is that, on average, you have just four seconds to grab a user’ s attention before they scroll on. Scary.”
03 OTHER DISCI- PLINES
BY MÉLODIE JANVIER
FRENCH TROTTING
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FROM STUD FARM TO SALES RING: THE EPIC OF TROTTING AUCTIONS
A land of exceptional breeding, Normandy witnessed the birth of the first major trotting sales and, over the decades, saw a market take shape that has since become a benchmark. From local initiatives to major national agencies, the system became organized, professionalized, and eventually concentrated. A look back at the construction of a market reflecting the excellence of French trotting.
Normandy is a land of excellence in horse breeding, whatever the discipline. The number of its leading breeding farms is considerable. It was indeed through breeding that the first seeds of sales were sown, as Alain Pagès, director of the Grosbois Trot Museum, explains:“ Ernest-Charles- Eugène de Croix, known as the Marquis d’ Heuchin, a military officer and senator of the Second Empire, was a breeder of trotters. Alongside Éphrem Houël, he contributed to the creation of the French Trotter and became the first president of the Société du demi-sang. Following his death, in 1874, what can be considered the first trotting sale in France took place. It is the first auction for which we still have a record of the results: 58 trotters sold for a total of 195,875 francs.” In 1898, the British company Tattersall established Tattersall Normand in Argentan. In February 1920, at the Rousseau stable, horses in training, broodmares, foals and stallions were offered for sale. Previously, it was mainly notary offices that conducted sales for inheritance, liquidation or debt recovery. A few months later, on July 30, 1920, the Chéri establishments, already well established in the Thoroughbred market, organized what would be the very first public auction of half-bred yearlings in
Deauville. The sale was held the day after the Caen races and was described by the organizer as an annual sale. Thus were born the first editions of what would become the future yearling sales.
The Centre-East: Early Beginnings If Normandy is a breeding land, so too is the Centre- East. The region quickly understood the importance of organizing local sales in order to reduce the significant costs associated with transporting horses to Normandy. As early as 1968, the AETCE( Association of Trot Breeders of the Centre- East) held the first edition of its yearling sale. Traditionally, the AETCE sale kicks off the yearling sales season, as it is scheduled at the end of August. Since 2024, the auction has once again been held at the Bellerive racecourse, after having long taken place at the Marault site in Magny-Cours. The organizers, aware of safety concerns, chose to return to Vichy, which had long hosted the AETCE. Attentive to the sector’ s concerns, they have also introduced, since 2024, a trade fair dedicated to equine welfare and the retraining of racehorses. Despite market difficulties and sometimes mixed figures, the AETCE sale remains an important date for professionals in the Centre-East.
Ventes de Caen: Between Volume and Success In trotting, breeder associations are often at the origin
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