February is a quiet month for an agent with little available to buy but that is why being Manager of Aislabie Stud near Newmarket dovetails so well. The stud is beginning to hit top gear with foals arriving and mares being sent to visit stallions.
At the small Tattersalls February Sale I bought two horses for Pakistan with a third, to fill the airplane pallet, being bought privately. Pakistan is a place I have been selling broodmares, race-fillies & stallion prospects to. The market is not big but the people are enthusiastic. At the Goffs February Sale I bought a couple of cheap prospects for Irish & English clients.
On the racecourse
Trainer Mark Usher has been having a good all-weather season, mostly with horses I bought. In Dubai Krypton Factor, a 2010 Tattersalls Autumn Horse-In-Training purchase, has been running with distinction and was a good third in the Listed UAE 2,000 Guineas. I was slightly perplexed by the ride Ryan Moore decided to give Strawberrydaiquiri in the Group 2 Balanchine Stakes. He knows her well as he has ridden her in most of her races, so it didn’t really make sense to me to change her tactics.
I undertake quite a few end of year valuations for various clients but the biggest of these that I do is the Newsells Park Stud valuation. They have a very large band of broodmares with their progeny – totalling around 200 horses. I find this sort of exercise very interesting and quite challenging at times too.
There are few sales to attend in March but I will be at the Goffs Kempton Ready-to-Run Sale on Tuesday 29th March (in 2010; 58 sold for a median of £12,500)