A new specialist sale revolving around point-to-pointers will be held at Newbury on Coral Gold Cup Day, Saturday, December 2.
News of the event was announced this afternoon by Goffs, just a few days after Tattersalls revealed it had struck a deal with Jockey Club Racecourses to stage the Tingle Creek Sale for point-to-pointers at Sandown. The Newbury sale means there will be auctions for point-to-pointers at Newbury, Sandown and Cheltenham in consecutive weeks.
With Britain’s point-to-point season commencing on Sunday, November 5, there will be six British meetings before the new Goffs sale at the Berkshire track. Two more will take place before the Sandown sale and two more ahead of the Cheltenham December Sale. There is also a Tattersalls sale predominantly aimed at pointers on November 17 at Cheltenham.
It has been ten years since Newbury staged a bloodstock auction, but the Coral Gold Cup – best known by some as the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup – highlights one of the track’s biggest fixtures of the year. Goffs is clearly hoping that will lead to a solid attendance at its new event.
Announcing details, Goffs UK managing director Tim Kent said: “We are excited by the opportunities Newbury will offer as the racecourse has undergone extensive redevelopment since our last sale there just under 10 years ago and it now offers facilities that are second to none. Combined with the world-class Coral Gold Cup meeting, which is always attended by so many leading owners and trainers, it is ideally suited to have a sale of this nature, so we will use our extensive knowledge and experience, learned from years of offsite sales, to make this a success.
“We would like to extend our thanks to the Newbury Racecourse Executive for their enthusiastic backing of this event, we look forward to working with them in the coming weeks and, of course, to offering a world-class catalogue of pointers on Saturday 2 December.”
David Minton of Highflyer Bloodstock is enthusiastic about the sale saying: “We applaud Goffs’ initiative with this new sale as competition is vital. If the vendors support it, we will too.”