The Tattersalls October Yearling Sale closed in Newmarket on Friday 16 October with total turnover of 211,035,300 guineas, a record for the four-book auction, Tattersalls said. The median rose 14% on 2025 to a record 80,000 guineas and the average rose 7% to a record 149,883 guineas.

After the previous week’s Book 1, Books 2 to 4, sold between 12 and 16 October, show how far demand at the top of the market carried into the commercial middle.

Book 2 sets new benchmarks

Book 2, sold over three days from 12 to 14 October, turned over 75,166,000 guineas for 655 yearlings, according to the official Tattersalls results. The average was 114,757 guineas and the median 85,000 guineas. Tattersalls said turnover, average and median were all records for the book, the clearance rate was 89% and a record 100 yearlings made 200,000 guineas or more.

The top price was 650,000 guineas, paid by Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock on 13 October for a Lope de Vega colt bred and consigned by Yeomanstown Stud. Brown also bought the first day’s top lot, a Blue Point colt from Ballyhimikin Stud, for 600,000 guineas. That colt was offered as a Book 2 wildcard after being withdrawn from Book 1 when he showed signs of travel sickness. Tattersalls’ closing report for the book also highlighted Shadwell’s 460,000-guinea purchase of a Showcasing colt bred and consigned by Paul McCartan of Ballyphilip Stud.

Tattersalls said buyers from the United States made 24 purchases in Book 2 totalling more than 4 million guineas, having bought more than 50 yearlings in Book 1. It also pointed to a group of Australian buyers, buyers from the Gulf and purchasers from Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Turkey.

“Turnover in excess of 75 million guineas represents a new record for Book 2, once again reaffirming its position as Europe’s second highest-grossing yearling sale behind only October Book 1.”

Matthew Prior, Managing Director, Tattersalls

The lower books

Book 3 opened on 15 October with a record first-day turnover of 7,704,500 guineas and nine lots at 100,000 guineas or more, a record for an opening day, Tattersalls said. They included a 150,000-guinea Havana Grey filly from Whitsbury Manor Stud, bought by Anthony Stroud under the Stroud Coleman Bloodstock banner. Tattersalls’ releases do not give totals for the two days of Book 3, and Equanine could not open the Book 3 results page, so how the book finished against 2025 is not stated here.

Book 4, held on 16 October, sold 26 yearlings for 154,500 guineas, with a top price of 36,000 guineas, according to the official results.

Prior said this was the fourth time in five years that the sale had passed 200 million guineas. He said 68 yearlings had sold for 500,000 guineas or more, which he put at 75% of the yearlings to reach that level in Europe this year, and that buyers from the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Italy and Spain bought substantial numbers in Books 3 and 4. Tattersalls has not published a breakdown of turnover by buyer country or by consignor.

The company’s next sales in Newmarket are the Autumn Horses in Training Sale from 26 to 29 October, the December Foal Sale from 24 to 28 November and the December Mares Sale, which includes the Sceptre Sessions, from 30 November to 3 December.

Equanine’s reading

  • The Book 2 median is the figure most commercial breeders will price against: a record 85,000 guineas shows the lift reached the typical yearling, not just the top lots.
  • Book 3’s record opening day points to demand in the middle market, but until full Book 3 figures are available, vendors of more modest stock should not assume the Book 1 and Book 2 records apply to them.
  • Repeat American buying across Books 1 and 2 widens the bidding for British and Irish consignors and gives Tattersalls a case to make to vendors choosing between sales companies.
  • Foal and mare vendors heading to Newmarket in late November and early December now have a strong yearling market to point to, though no December results yet exist to confirm it carries over.