ENGLISH TEXTS
terms 90 % higher than in 2001. More often than not the August sale marks the end of the previous year’ s sale cycle rather than the beginning of a new one. Turnover at the Tattersalls October 1 and 2 sales is around double that of Arqana’ s combined yearling sales and so it is at Newmarket that the European trend is established. A fall in the aggregate at the Tattersalls sales in 2023 was followed by a similar fall in Deauville the following year, while the August sale was in many ways in line with the record sales in Newmarket in 2024. The yearling market in Europe, and the same could be said of the market for stallion seasons too, is very much determined by the very top of the range. In real terms, if for simplicity’ s sake we look only at the yearlings who were sold in the ring, this year’ s sale was close in turnover to the 2023 one as both had an aggregate of around 55 million euros, and yet the break down of the two sales is very different. The big rises in both aggregate and average came at the top and the bottom of the market, while the middle range saw falls in both indicators. The top 20 % in 2025 sold for a total of 30.2 million euros, up by 14 % from 2023 at an average price of 800,000 €, up by 33 %. The bottom 20 % sold for a total of 2.9 million euros, up by 13 %, at an average price of 75,000 €, 27 % higher than had been the case in 2023.
The changes at the bottom may well reflect a smaller catalogue, thirteen were sold for less than 50,000 € in 2023 and this type of yearling was probably not in the catalogue this time around. At the top, however, there has been a real change and the narrower the sector you look at the greater the rise. The top 10 % sold for a total of 22.4 million €, up by 26 % from 2023, at an average price of 1.2 million euros, up by 46 %. The most expensive 10 %, a total of only nineteen yearlings, sold for 40 % of the total at an average price which was nearly 50 % higher than at the previous peak only two years earlier. If the value of the most sought after yearlings is the positive aspect of the sale, the fall in the middle market is the negative aspect. The middle 60 %, a total of 117 yearlings, sold for a total of 21.8 million euros, down 17 % from 2023, at an average price of 190,000, down by 5 %. These horses were nearly all by elite and expensive stallions too, the average covering fee of those sold in the sale was 86,000 euros, and so many of these horses sold for between 300 and 100,000 euros will barely have made a profit for those who paid a nomination fee. If these broad trends are maintained in Newmarket and then back in Deauville for the October sale there will surely have to be some adjustments in the stallion market with a reduction in either stallions fees or in the number of mares the popu- lar sires cover, if not in both. Stallions appear to dominate the commercial yearling market. And yet it is not sure that stallions are as decisive a factor as they appear to be. The British analyst Tom Wilson produced statistics showing the significant influence the mares represented in the catalogue had upon the prices achieved by their progeny. Yearlings who were out of mares who had won a race sold for 41 % more on average than those out of non-winning mares. Yearlings who were out of broodmares who had already produced a winner sold on average for 39 % more than those dams had yet to have a winner. Yearlings out of stakes winning mares sold on average for 58 % than those out of mares who had not, and then finally yearlings out of mares who had already produced a stakes winner sold on average for 71 % more than those whose dams had not. All of the yearlings among the top 10 % of the sale were by elite stallions, and yet they were nearly all out of mares who had either won black type themselves or had already produced black type winners. The only exceptions were three who were out of young, winning half-sisters to top performers. Elite sires are important in the market but entirely logically they will not take a yearling into the top segment unless the mare is also part of the elite. For the time being there few elite commercial sires in France, only 31 or 16 % of
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