From its inception six years ago the Le Trot Sale system has been a kay part of our strategy of growing British Trotting in Europe and doing so in a way which is fair and equal to all, including those of more limited means.
Next Sale : week commencing 22nd November.
Subject to no major change to the customs and import procedures the November price is £3500.
From now on there will just be one sale a year, around this time.
We are now taking deposits (not names). Deposit £200 at HSBC TROTBritain 2018 Ltd : Sort Code 40-26-40 Account number 80031119. Reference your name and gelding or mare, or either. You can also pay by Stripe by going to https://trotbritain.org/payments/sale-deposit
Note that mares are treated much more favourably than geldings in their initial Rating in this country. A Gelding’s entry rating is 10% of their € lifetime earnings, capped at 3200. A Mare’s entry rating is 5% of her € lifetime earnings, capped at 1600 (Pictured are recent Sale mares Green Light, Feerie de Triou, Gipsy de Tillard and Catalane du Canet).
The order of deposit will be relevant when any prioritisation is needed, e.g. if we are oversubscribed, or there are fewer numbers of horses that meet our standards than buyers. So if you are serious, act now!
For newcomers, and as a reminder to others, here is how the system works.
We tell Emmanuelle Morvillers, head of the International Department of Le Trot that we want a Sale and the categories of horse we are seeking. The November 2021 Sale will be for mares or geldings aged 5 to 9 in 2022. In the French naming system they will be horses with names starting H, G, F, E, and D. They advertise the Sale, inviting inscriptions from French sellers, and eventually we receive the ‘Long List’ of the horses that have been entered.
Stage 1: The Long List is reduced to the Short List. On the basis of their race records and race videos, the TROTBritain Board (Bill, Jack, Mike, Paul, Ian, Joseph, Joe, Emyr) reach a consensus on those those we wish to see on the selection visit, or to pursue further by other means if they are out of reach for the visit. We err on the side of leniency at this stage – in Covid-speak, we try to minimise the number of false negatives.
Stage 2: The Short List is reduced to the Selected for Draw list. The Short List horses are invited to one of several northern tracks and trialled by our drivers on the visit. In a few cases where the horses are out of reach, newly-taken home videos/ photos are sent to us and studied. The horses that make the cut to go into the draw are those judged to be the best geldings/ mares after the trialing on the track (or inspection of the sent materials) and final consideration of their race record.
The draw is done on Facebook Live by Emmanuelle.
It is VITAL to note that TROTBritain and Le TROT are helping individual British buyers to buy a horse from an individual French seller. Le TROT does not sell the horse and TROTBritain does not buy it. We facilitate the process of buying and selling – and in our case arrange for the horse’s transport to GB. So, the moment you draw a horse, that horse is yours. TROTBritain will pass on your payment as part of a large money transfer to Le TROT, who will pass it on to the French seller, but both organisation are acting only as non-profit intermediaries and facilitators. (There is therefore eventually a formal invoice to you from the French seller – but this can be ignored as far as payment is concerned.)
That is not quite the end. It is beneficial to all parties to optimise the benefits of the efforts that have gone into organising the Sale. Accordingly, any horses that have not made the Selection for Draw List, for any reason, are available to purchase as sale horses, but at buyer’s risk. According to the judgment of the selection group, the standard of these non-selected horses will be inferior to the ones that go into the draw, or they will not have been acceptable for the draw for some other reason (e.g. their disappointing performance in the trial, their historical disqualification rate). In other words, they are not selected to go in the draw in order to ensure all those who get a horse through the draw are given as fair and equal chance as possible of getting a horse that will perform well here.
The relative performance in GB of other ‘non-selected for draw’ horses bought through previous Sales suggests our judgments are reasonably good.
The complex logistics of these Sales, from both our and the Le Trot sides, means that to have the possibility of acquiring a non-selected horse you must be at the draw. Being at the draw involves committing to buy a horse, taking time off, and travelling to and from France at your own expense. (As we all do.) The only alternative is to arrange for someone who will be at the draw to agree to act as your informal agent and guarantor. In this case, you should have studied the detailed information on the Short List, which will be made publicly available on the internet as soon as it is ready. And you must be ready to commit to buying immediately when contacted by phone by your contact. Ideally you will have been watching the live streaming of the draw and therefore already know which of the horses you are interested in have gone into the draw – and which haven’t. There can be no ifs, buts, it all depends, or maybe laters, because the decisions on all horses have to be communicated to the French sellers that day, and the complicated documentation and preparation for post-Brexit export started immediately.
Finally, note that, apart from yearlings bought at a public sale, no private imports from anywhere will be eligible for Le Trot races for the foreseeable future.