It’s been a while but after partaking in my first auction for quite a long time here is a review from the Raceclubs’  auction on Sunday 26^th April 2009.

The second auction of the season had 251 entries with approx 150 horses changing owners. Splashing the cash was the on form Sky Castle Stables who spent £1224 on 3 year old Consolation winning Colt Duel Nationality. No doubt Frank has his eye on the St Leger Final this season and with 5 wins on his back there is still some options and play with the talented stayer. Although a seemingly overpriced purchase Sky Castle rarely gets things wrong in this game so is bound to be one to watch.

Sky Castle continued his big spending by bringing in High Jinks (£183.18 from Death Row) who has also won a consolation race and has only 3 wins to her name. The stayer filly has been lightly raced and has shown plenty promise against some tough fields and will have more wins to follow. For £171 from Dodong Stables Frank also purchased Aequitas Veritas who is only been lightly trained since conception two weeks ago. The relatively unknown quantity looks to be a low challenge type which will fit in perfectly at Sky Castle.

The second highest priced horse was Diabolus Trucido who has gone from Gods Country to newcomer Spanish Gold for £917.77. Diabolus is a 3 yr old Staying Filly who won the Stayers Final as a 2 year old and amassed £1829 in earnings to date. With 5 wins already it’ll be interesting to see if the 3 year old can continue with last seasons form for the remainder of her career which she will need to do if she is to recoup the monies spent.

One owner who is always busy in the auctions is the ever present Shotgun Mike who spent £1468.37 on 13 horses whilst raking in £947.72 from the sales of 46 of his many sales ring purchases. Of his buys Krakatoa Storm was most expensive at £358.75 and still only has 1 win to his name,  however that win was a 5 runner £2 nomination maiden race with less than impressive qualifier form on show. Perhaps Shotgun can turn things around for the classic 3 year old. Shotgun also purchased two other challenge 3 year olds with less than two wins Letselope and Jeru the damaja for approx £300 each from Green Mile Race Club and Hulk inc respectively.

The most expensive individual B Class sale was from Shanra to The Shay for £23.97. Birzebbuga Boy looks capable with an excellent run in a full field class B race finishing second with Tom Kerr aboard and carrying 138lbs.

The top two year old sold for a whopping £306.40 when Port Perry doing 14.19@2200 moved from Kingfillet Stable to swede Team Johansson’s already massive stable. The classic filly no doubt has plenty potential however is a massive increase on the £75 reserve originally set. TJ knows though that there is a lack of quality fillies at these distances and should still manage to turn over a profit given time and good age changes.

The single most expensive G2 was Dara’s dream who moved from Frankies Rockets to Irish Jeweller for £61.36. Little is known about the Colt having only joined the game a little over a week ago but is sure to have the time trials required to compete at the highest G2 level.

The only D class to  change hands this auction was Didnt add Up for £10.20 between Shawstead Racing and The Immortals. The D Class has run twice in rated company  finishing 1^st and 2^nd in near full fields. The 1200 runner may be one of the top D rated’s in the game but with little opportunities and extra weight how competitive the horse will be remains to be seen.