Last week Goffs staged Ireland’s first public auction of thoroughbreds since February, followed this week by Tattersalls Ireland’s three-day sale.

Both of these sales were confined to ‘store horses’, which are unbroken and unraced three- and four-year-olds bred for jump racing. Many of them were returning to the sales ring having been bought as foals by pinhookers, hoping for a profitable trade.

Of course, under the current circumstances, those speculators had given up all notions of making money this year and were just grateful to have a chance to present their stock to buyers.

Even doing that was a huge challenge. Goffs and Tattersalls Ireland had worked together on a set of protocols which would have allowed British buyers to attend the sales here in a safe way, though it meant most visitors would not be spending two weeks in isolation on arrival.

However, just days before the Goffs sale, the Government ripped up the sales companies’ proposals and so British buyers had to rely on videos and photographs of the horses on offer, as well as recruiting Irish-based bloodstock agents to do the legwork. Bids could be made from abroad by telephone and online. Those in attendance were compelled to fill in a medical questionnaire and observe social distancing at the sales complex in Kill, Co Kildare.

If that wasn’t enough of an obstacle to trade, Goffs found itself in the middle of the three-county ‘lockdown’ which restricted movements through Kildare. In theory that development should not have affected business at the sales but it added uncertainty and fear at a time when confidence in the bloodstock market was already shaky.

Given all of that, the Goffs’ sale went surprisingly well. Some 73% of the horses offered were sold and the average price of €32,000 was just 12% down on last year. A total of 56 horses fetched €50,000 or more which was well down on last year but not far from the 73 who made that price in 2018.

Goffs’ chief executive Henry Beeby said: “The first thing that springs to mind was a degree of relief. It was a sense of relief and of satisfaction that we delivered, first and foremost, a safe and compliant environment in which to conduct a sale and to get a bit of liquidity back into the market.”

Ken Parkhill of Castletown Quarry Stud in Co Meath, a leading breeder and vendor, said: “It was better than I ever could have hoped for. Everything worked 100%. The people in Goffs moved mountains to get the sale on and they couldn’t get enough praise, it was absolutely fantastic. Even to have a sale at all, it was great.”