Norris Bloodstock sales season underway at Goffs UK
The yearling sales season is now upon us and we offer our first two yearlings under the Norris Bloodstock banner at the Goffs UK Premier Sale at Doncaster this week.
First through the ring for us on Tuesday is an athletic first-crop son of Epaulette, whose foals really impressed me last year. I bought this colt last year at Goffs for Dan Tunmore and he’s pleased me all winter.
Since then it’s been great to see Epaulette’s three-parts brother Helmet make such a good start with his first runners – he now has 12 winners from 37 runners for an impressive 32% strike-rate – and I’m sure Epaulette’s first yearlings will be popular with breeze-up pinhookers and trainers alike this season. Jenny has him in great shape and he was busy with shows as soon as we started on Sunday morning.
Our colt is lot 61 and his young dam, who is a grand-daughter of the champion two-year-old Ma Biche, has already produced two winners.
On Wednesday we offer a really strong daughter of Bated Breath (lot 61), whose first-crop runners have made a pretty impressive start, with 11 winners on the board already including the Group-placed Al Johrah. This dark brown filly is all class and has been really straightforward to prepare for the sale.
Selling as lot 290, her dam was unraced but is a full-sister to the Group-winning sprinter Miss Anabaa, while champion sprinter Owington is also close up in the family. As you can tell, it’s a family with speed stamped right through it and this filly certainly looks the part in that regard.
It’s nice to be able to ease ourselves into the season gently with a small draft at Donny. Our consignment at Tattersalls is slightly larger but still very select. In October Book 1 we are selling five colts by Dubawi, Shamardal, Intello and New Approach, as well as a High Chaparral filly who is a half-sister to our dual Group 1-winning former pinhook Shalaa.
We have a further seven the following week for Book 2 and two for Book 3 – a great number to get us going in our first year. We can’t wait to show them off to everybody.
