An interesting race took place at the Curragh racecourse in Ireland on Sunday the 13th of September. The Tattersalls Ireland Super Auction Sales stakes for 2 year old horses was the seventh race on the card. A condition of the race was that only yearlings bought under the hammer at the Tattersalls yearling sale in September 2014 could enter. From an initial 186 applicants, 30 horses were lucky enough to gain entry to the race. These 30 horses competed for a share of the €250,000 prize pot. Each share depended on their finishing position. The most expensive horse in the race was Viren's Army, sold for €115,000 and the cheapest was Prove the Point who went for only €2,500.
I watched on from the stands wondering whether the most expensive yearlings performed best? The graph below plots the relationship between the price of each horse and their finishing position. The more expensive horses did tend to perform slightly better and a moderate relationship exists between price and performance. Glass House, at a cost of €35,000, finished first and scooped €123,000 for her Qatari owners. Not a bad return!
You can check out the full results of the race here.