You dare not scratch your nose at the wrong time

Our reporter was a fascinated observer at the world famous Irish bloodstock sales arena yesterday

Andrew Nolan is up on his balcony. Down below is a gangly yearling filly, being led around a circular padded floor, on parade for the highest bidder.

If she is the prize, it is Nolan who is centre stage. As an auctioneer for the world-renowned Goffs Orby Sale in Kill, Co Kildare, he has a very serious job but you could sit down in the arena and enjoy the entertainment of the ritual he participates in, without having one iota of a clue what is going on.

It is pure theatre. Nolan has more voice intonations than John Gielgud or Ian McKellen. His linguistic tongue-twisting is on a par with Busta Rhymes or NoClue, and equally as incomprehensible. After a while, you realised there were numbers in there somewhere.

“48 thou.”

There are four spotters around the outside of the ring, facing those on the tiered seats rising to the back of the auditorium. It is the spotter’s job to identify a bid and emit what sounds like a tortured yelp but clearly is a message to the auctioneer. You dare not scratch your nose at the wrong time.

Things have stalled momentarily. The digital monitors revealing the euro bid and its equivalent in sterling, US dollar and yen haven’t stirred. Suddenly, Nolan pauses before going on.

“You’re surely not going to walk away?” he asks with staged incredulity, as he attempts to cajole a few more grand from the floor.

It is early on Wednesday morning, but already, millions of euro have changed hands. By last night that figure had multiplied many times.

This is a very serious business. And it is important to remind people that it is a business, because in the eyes of many, it is a rich man’s play-zone.

But while the numbers are astronomical at the top end, with six-figure sums regularly doled out, that money filters all the way through the system. There is a whole industry around getting horses to the race track and back into the breeding barn, and a few more ancillary ones that rely heavily on that process.

The bloodstock industry is one of the few areas in the world where Ireland is a genuine world leader, and has been for generations. Part of that is the accident of fortune. A temperate climate that facilitates lush fields and limestone-heavy soil is ideal for raising young horses. The results compared to America, Britain, France and Australia are testament to that.

There is also the Irishman’s natural affinity with the horse. You won’t ever travel too far in rural Ireland without seeing some class of horse or pony in a field. And no matter what racing or breeding centre you go to around the world, there will be Irish people at most levels.

That is why all the major breeding operators — Coolmore, Shadwell, Darley and the Aga Khan — have centres in Ireland. They are all represented in Kildare this week.

Many who are not au fait with the role breeding has in Ireland as an employer and its benefits to the economy, deplore the tax breaks surrounding the industry but it is akin to the corporation tax that is so central to attracting foreign investment.

Of course breeding is complex. Not the actual act, which takes a few seconds, but the strategy. It is all about bloodlines.

The catalogue lists pedigrees of the colts and fillies for sale, which amounts to a family tree. The only difference is that any lifetime achievements are included. It’s a maze for the uninitiated but the experts can scan through it in no time.

Yearlings were available for viewing on Tuesday. Each horse has been assigned a barn number and anyone interested just comes along and requests that the horse be walked and trotted.

The expert eye is checking conformation and movement — the eye, the head, the neck, backside and legs. You are looking for perfection but depending on your budget, some flaws are more acceptable than others. Jose Mourinho and his eggs come to mind.

Prior to the actual bidding, the yearlings are walked around a pre-parade ring. They are only babies and some of them can get quite fractious. One lady was heard to remark that a particular colt had small testicles. Talk about being exposed.

The recession had its impact on this industry but there is a definite upturn in fortunes this year. So the international brigade are out in force this week. From Dubai, Qatar, France, South Africa, Asia and Ukraine, they are here to spend big.

Last year, the top purchase was by South African agency Form Bloodstock, who forked out €800,000 for a Galileo colt. Total turnover for the sale was €102m.

On Wednesday, Shadwell spent €520,000 on a Raven’s Pass filly. MV Magnier was splashing the cash for Coolmore throughout the two days and drew gasps from the auditorium as he went all the way to €2.85m for a beautiful bay Montjeu colt out of a former European champion two-year-old filly and Irish and English 1000 Guineas winner Finsceal Beo.

Dungarvan man, Michael Ryan has had many memorable days with Finsceal Beo and Al Eile, but this probably trumped them all.

Everyone has a story. One man revealed how he was part of a group hoping to buy a colt with a view to moving on at a breeze-up sale in six months at a profit.

They were willing to go as far as €70,000 but were blown out of the water as the colt was purchased for €310,000 by John Warren for Highclere Racing! And yet he wasn’t bitter.

Once there was money going around, there was a chance.

The dream lives on.