Owners of 2-year-olds purchased at the 2024 Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale will again be eligible for the lucrative £250,000 (US$315,000/£1.26=US$1) Tattersalls Craven Royal Ascot/Group 1 Bonus, which has been earned by outstanding group 1-winning 2-year-olds Vandeek and Native Trail since its inception.
The £250,000 Tattersalls Craven Royal Ascot/Group 1 Bonus will offer a £125,000 bonus for the first Craven Breeze-Up winner of any of the six 2-year-old races at this year’s royal meeting, with £100,000 being paid to the owner and £25,000 to the vendor of the horse.
An additional £125,000 bonus, with the same £100,000/£25,000 split, will be paid to the first Craven Breeze-Up winner of any of the 15 European group 1 races open to 2-year-olds, including the all-age Nunthorpe Stakes (G1) at York and the Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp (G1).
The bonus was won in 2023 by Vandeek, the 625,000gns ($815,386, 1gn=$1.30) co-sale topper at last year’s Craven Breeze-Up Sale when offered by Glending Stables. Unbeaten in four starts for KHK Racing and Simon and Ed Crisford, the striking son of Havana Grey followed his win in the Prix Morny (G1) with a 2 1/4-length romp in the Middle Park Stakes (G1) to be crowned the highest-rated 2-year-old trained in Britain.
The Craven Breeze-Up Sale has produced the highest-rated British-trained 2-year-old in two of the past three years, with Vandeek following in the footsteps of European champion 2-year-old Native Trail, who won the inaugural £125,000 Tattersalls Craven Group 1 Bonus in 2021. The Charlie Appleby-trained colt was a 210,000gns ($303,063) purchase by Godolphin from Oak Tree Farm at the 2021 Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale and went on to claim a classic victory in the Irish Two Thousand Guineas (G1), before retiring to Godolphin’s Kildangan Stud.
Tattersalls chairman Edmond Mahony said: “The £250,000 Tattersalls Craven Royal Ascot/Group 1 Bonus reinforces our commitment to rewarding owners with multiple bonuses in addition to our ever-popular £25,000 Tattersalls October Book 1 Bonus, which has seen more than £8 million in bonus prize-money paid to owners since the scheme’s inception.
“That the Craven Group 1 Bonus has been won twice in three years is testament to the outstanding quality on offer year after year at the Craven Breeze-Up Sale, which once again in 2023 produced more group and listed winners than any other European breeze-up sale.”
The 2024 Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale will take place April 15-17, with all 2-year-olds breezing the morning of April 15 on the Jockey Club Estates’ watered gallop at Newmarket’s Rowley Mile racecourse.
£250,000 Tattersalls Craven Royal Ascot/Group 1 Bonus qualifying races (all races are stakes)
At Royal Ascot: Coventry (G2), Queen Mary (G2), Norfolk (G2), Albany (G3), Chesham, Windsor Castle.
UK group 1 races for 2-year-olds: Nunthorpe, Cheveley Park, Middle Park, Fillies’ Mile, Dewhurst, Futurity Trophy
Ireland group 1 races for 2-year-olds: Phoenix, Moyglare Stud, National
France group 1 races for 2-year-olds: Prix Morny, Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp, Prix Marcel Boussac, Prix Jean-Luc Lagardère, Critérium International, Critérium de Saint-Cloud
