At the close of trade, Goffs reported 13 lots sold for an aggregate of
£3,740,000 at an average of £287,692 and with a median of £300,000. Those
figures were down on 2017 auction, where 12 lots made £4,525,000 at an average
of £377,083 and a median of £340,000."It didn't match last year, but such are the vagaries of all horses-in-training sales," said Goffs group chief executive, Henry Beeby.
"You rise and fall with the catalogue you have and the market. Stats year-on-year are less relevant, and of course we benefit when they are up and play them down when they are down.
"The top price of £720,000 was very good, we've sold 13 horses for nearly £3.8m and some of those have very good chances over the next few days [at Royal Ascot] – and we've had a wonderful party."
Top price of £720,000 was paid for the broodmare Belle Josephine, the dam of stakes-winner Mildenberger.
Australian based Kiwi bloodstock agent Paul Moroney was active at the sale securing Marathon Man, a Listed-winning son of So You Think that has won four races in France and has been Group III placed.
Four year-old Marathon Man was bought for £380,000 and will now head to Ed Vaughan's yard before heading to Australia and will be aimed at the Group I VRC Cantala Stakes at Flemington on Derby Day.
Moroney hopes history can repeat itself with Vaughan helping prepare Fiorente before he headed to Australia where he subsequently ran second in the Melbourne Cup.
"We will send him to Ed Vaughan, who will get him ready and we will run him off the plane and I he won't race here before," Moroney told Racing Post.
"The timing of the sale is perfect - you can get hold of a horse, back off them and bring them over. People don't realise that Ed did a lot of the work with Fiorente before he ran second in the Melbourne Cup - he will get hold of this horse and do the work with him.
"The plan is to run him off the plane in the Group One mile on Derby day. He will ship out in October, will be ideally placed outside there on the weights and he should make the field."
Sydney based Matthew Smith Racing were also on the buyers list paying £300,000 for stakes-placed three year-old Dark Acclaim, who was last start fourth in the Group II Italian Derby.
Trained by Marco Botti, Dark Acclaim has never finished worse than fourth in seven starts and is by Dark Angel.
