Oli Bell talks to leading bloodstock agent Alex Elliott about the effects the coronavirus crisis is having on the industry.
Leading bloodstock agent Alex Elliott on the effects of the coronavirus crisis
"Usually in the week after Cheltenham I do a tour of Ireland looking at the breeze-up horses. I did one at the end of January even though they didn’t know then how far along they were with the horses but I did get an idea of the ones I like.
"That has stood me in good stead as I have a couple of clients looking to buy but the problem is there’s a lot of guesswork involved. It’s more like buying a yearling now, you can’t see them gallop and are going on pedigree and a video of their confirmation.
"They are looking at getting them for reduced rates but people that spent a lot of money on them as yearlings, which are the ones you want, don’t seem that inclined to sell.
"There are those who are looking to sell but they don’t seem to have the ones you want on paper or confirmation. They were relying on the breeze to sell their horse, buying 15,000 to 20,000 yearlings and hope they zip fast in the spring.
"With no sales there’s no income. The private market is stagnant and I’m feeling very bad for the breeze-up guys. They’ll have had lines of credit to buy the horses and need to sell them to reinvest in the autumn.
"It’s the same with the Irish point-to-point people. They have a lot ready to run but cant and no-one is going to buy. A lot of the money in the National Hunt game is guys in the city who have gravitated to jumping because they’ve more chance of buying success there than they have on the flat and they have been hit hard in the pocket by the crisis.
"That will impact the point-to-point guys, they have to buy their horses in May, June and July. They are store horses, they won’t have been able to shift their pointers, and could get wiped out.
"From my point of view some clients bought yearlings last year looking for two-year-olds who are ready to run. If you’ve got a sharp early juvenile who wants to get going and on to Royal Ascot your hands are tied.
"The are some many connotations here – whatever way you look at it, it isn’t good for the bloodstock game at the moment."
