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I was thinking over the weekend about how I could not remember the last time I saw a claiming race – and lo and behold, this article turns up in the “Racing Post”.
There has been a reduction of something like 90% in the amount of these races. I certainly remember seeing them a lot whenever I went racing, sometimes at prestigious tracks.
Watching the auction after a selling race was interesting. Would connections buy the horse back or would it be sold?
I think it is a pity they have almost disappeared. They were at least different from run of the mill, low grade handicaps.
You beat me to that one, Cork.
Interesting to see The Tattling running in a class 6 seller with an OR of 87 at that time, before going on to better things.I wonder how many of last years 31 sellers were run at Leicester?
They still seem to have one at most meetings, flat and jumps.
All the recent selling auctions I’ve seen in recent times at Musselburgh and Hamilton Park have been lively with good money paid for winners and a few sizeable claims for some of the beaten. Clearly an interest in the few such races that are run.
The horse named Clearance who’s racked up a few wins at Newton Abbott changed hands after sellers a couple of times.
Always quite liked sellers and claimers. They used to have quite a valuable one at York at one stage , and I recall Sir Henry Cecil having a runner in seller back in day .
I do recall an old horse running in a seller once , it had won a load for connections , did they bleat when someone brought him , talk about wanting cake and eat it .I remember there being some controversy after a claimer when an old horse which was like a family pet was claimed. I think it was trained by Hughie Morrison. He was presumably running the horse in claimers because the handicapper was not giving him a chance but with an “understanding” that no one would claim him.
Anyway, after one claimer someone did claim him. I suppose they technically had done nothing wrong but you have to wonder why they were claiming something like a 12 year old. I think they eventually backed down.
I also recall being at Windsor one evening when the first race was a seller. The post race auction was conducted by Milton Johns, better known as an actor. He served as announcer at Windsor and Plumpton for several years.
The horse was called Kylkenny, trained by Morrison and running in the colours of W R B Racing. The race was a 1M 4F claimer at Southwell in February 2006, which was won by the 11-y-old Kylkenny, with the 10-y-old Mi Odds in second.
Kylkenny was claimed by Diamond Racing for £14k and proved that they weren’t as daft as that claim sounds by winning a handicap at Southwell off a mark of 84 a month later. I haven’t been able to find a report with the details online, but as I recall events, they then gave the horse back to Morrison, who wasn’t allowed to train it because of the six month rule (claimed horse can’t return to original stable for 6 months). He sent it to Peter Cundell and it subsequently ran in the colours of Mrs Morrison, and was returned to their stable once the six month period was up.
Kylkenny was a big fan of Southwell, where he won 17 races – he never won on any other AW track. Mi Odds was by then owned and trained by Nan Macauley, but was originally bred and owned by Gary Wiltshire. Mi Odds was another Southwell regular, with 10 wins there to his name.
Bonkers decision making then , if he was a family pet sort him a home , if he’s in a claimer he’s up for grabs , did they max out his claim or take the total utter mick and slide him in cheaper. If he was not at least in at max it’s some kind of serious entitlement syndrome to moan .Truely ridiculous .
This evening’s Musselburgh 2yo seller winner Unspoken Love bought in for £22000. Three different opposing bidders in the auction.
No claims for the remainder at £25000.
Here’s the article in which the Morrison stable register their complaint:
That buy back this evening will cost the owners £2,200 in commission paid to the racecourse – the owners share of first prize money for the race was £4,267.
A little story from that Musselburgh auction. There was a presentation party on the podium for the race and they stayed there during the auction. A friend in the crowd waved at them just after the auction started…, “Is that a bid, Madam?” asked the Auctioneer, “No!” indicated the embarrassed spectator!
Racecourse Lesson – Keep your hands in your pockets when a seller auction is going on.
A follow up to that June 13th Musselburgh seller. There were five runners of which the first 3 have all won next time out, the winner won a £20,000 contest and the fourth finished second in a Catterick nursery today.
And just to add that the filly that finished a tailed off last of five in that Musselburgh seller, is up for auction at Newmarket sales tomorrow.
It was a sign of desperation that William Haggas sent this one, owned by Munir and Souede, all the way to Scotland to run in a seller. She’s called Kallippos and is quite well bred – she cost 36,000 gns as a yearling, but looks to stay no further than 3F.
Not wanting to admit she’d run in a seller, the update for the June 13th race in the sales catalog reads:
13/06/24 – 5th of 5 in 5f Class 5 (WFA), Musselburgh (GF)
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