THE eyes of the Irish racing world will be fixed firmly on Punchestown over the next few days for the gripping climax of the Irish National Hunt season but this week represents a suitable opportunity to examine what has been a sobering few weeks for the European breeze-up market.

At the start of the month the Tattersalls Ireland Ascot Sale fell some way off the returns of previous years, this was followed by a respectable edition of the Goffs UK Sale at Doncaster before last week’s all important Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale.

The Craven represents the pinnacle of the breeze-up market in Europe and this was again the case as the much missed sire Scat Daddy supplied the top three lots who made 900,000gns, 800,000gns and 775,000gns.

In all, eight lots made 400,000gns – more than ever before – to help the sale to the second highest turnover in its history but elsewhere it was decidedly tough going for many of those to come under the hammer. Indeed the clearance rate for the two-day auction fell back to 66% having reached 79% in 2017 and 73% in 2016.

The number of lots to make at least 200,000gns dropped from 27 to 19 and the notably selective nature of this year’s breeze-up market was graphically illustrated by the clearance rate for this sale. Certainly it has been a testing few weeks for many members of the breeze-up fraternity.