Business Good at Goffs' First Kempton Breeze-Up Sale

Goffs managing director Matt Mitchell expressed pleasure as the Irish bloodstock company’s first Kempton Park Racecourse breeze-up sale generated over £2 million (pounds) in business with an average of £31,908.
 
"If we had achieved £1.5 million, we would have been happy so it has exceeded all our expectations and the clearance rate of over 80 per cent is also very high," Mitchell said.
 
"It was new for both us and Kempton and, from an operational point of view, it all went very well. Time and again vendors and purchasers said to me that selling on this surface (Polytrack) is the future because of its consistency -- it is especially good when you are breezing early two-year-old types.
 
"The key things were that the timing, surface and venue were correct while having Heathrow Airport so close was great for overseas buyers."
 
Goffs’ inaugural breeze-up sale held in Kempton's panoramic restaurant on the evening of March 9 enjoyed a great start when a Soviet Star colt sold for £110,000 to Irish trainer Michael Halford. The colt, offered from Ireland’s Knockatrina House Stud, cost 29,000 euros last year.
 
John Ferguson, Sheikh Mohammed’s bloodstock advisor, arrived hotfoot from the Fasig-Tipton breeze-up sale in Florida to watch the workouts.
 
Bidding through Goffs chairman Eimear Mulhern, he went to £90,000 to buy a Xaar colt offered from the Co Meath-based Oak Tree Farm.
 
FIGURES
YR/CAT/OFF/SOLD/AGG/AVG/MED
2007/101/82/65/£2,074,000/£31,908/£26,000
2006 no sales