In a review of 2022, Greyhound Trader hosted 9 Track Sales and sold exactly 320 greyhounds in these. The highlight of these was of course the Towcester Pre-Derby Sale where £117,825 changed hands and produced an English Greyhound Derby finalist in Savana Beau (formerly Riverside Beau).
It is not just the big open race winners that Greyhound Trader take pride in, having provided plenty of graded runners and winners at every single GBGB licensed track. There have been plenty success stories from 2022 with value for money purchases going up through the grades at their local tracks and the best one of these will be rewarded with the newly created ‘Greyhound Trader Greyhound of the Year’ award that will run alongside the Greyhound of the Year award which is set to be announced in the next couple of days.
The Online Auctions were perhaps one of Greyhound Trader’s greater success stories in 2022, providing a drastic improvement on 2021 where they were close to discontinuing them. The first sales of 2022 were slow but after the Online Auction in June there was a sudden explosion in interest and that was the catalyst for £219,601 of sales in the Online Auctions for 2022.
In total, 72 greyhounds were sold from 10 Auctions, meaning an average of 7.2 sales per auction. Comparing these results to 2021, where sales results totalled £99,400 and a total of 18 greyhounds sold, that is some turnaround.
James Corden said “The Online Auction concept was a great success this year with many more people accepting them including some big owners. It’s great to watch the likes of Lively Lauren and Barley Panther perform admirably against the best in the business and showcasing the talent available from the auctions.
” These are very much going to continue in 2023 and there has already been strong interest from vendors for the sales in January and February which will hopefully result in some nice types available to the public. Ballymac Mags was the one to perhaps slip through the net this year, unsold at £5k and then going on to be favourite for the English Puppy Oaks. And I won’t ever let anyone (or myself) forget about this year’s Irish Puppy Oaks winner Ballymac Run who was also unsold for 2.5k in 2021!
“Many thanks to every bidder in our auctions for 2022 and also a big thank you to all vendors for supporting the auctions. Also a special thanks especially to Liam and Shane Dowling who never failed to supply a group of greyhounds for each auction this year.”
Greyhound Trader have had great success on the track this year, suppling their first Category 1 winner in Antigua Sugar who won the Juvenile Classic at Towcester and furthermore Category 1 Puppy Oaks winner Minnie Bullet.
They were close to achieving a finalist in all 3 English Classics too. Savana Beau made the English Greyhound Derby Final, Global Prima the English Oaks Final but Antigua Sugar unfortunately was unable to qualify from the Semi-Finals of the English St Leger for the full-house.
Not only was £175,000 on the line for Savana Beau, but he was also the greyhound who came closest to achieving the £10,000 GAIN Greyhound Nutrition Bonus for greyhounds sold in the sales who go on to win one of the English Classics.
2022 Category 1 Finalists:
- Annual Sydney – Private – Monmore Puppy Derby
- Antigua Lava – Towcester Pre-Derby 2021 (£5500) – Golden Jacket, Cesarewitch + George Curtis & Ballyregan Bob Memorial
- Antigua Sugar – Towcester Pre-Derby 2022 (£10,000) – Juvenile Classic (WINNER) + Oxford Challenge Cup
- Chelms Switch – Private – Sussex Cup (also won RPGTV Derby Plate)
- Flying Ada – Henlow Bonus (£1500) – 3-Steps To Victory
- Gizmo Smasher – Towcester Summer (£3300) – Oxford Challenge Cup
- Global Prima – Private – English Oaks
- Lively Lauren – Online Auction (£6000) – RPGTV Cowley Collar
- Makeit Bombay – Towcester Summer (£5100) – Bet365 Empress Stakes
- Minnie Bullet – Private – Bet365 Puppy Oaks (WINNER)
- Runwild Teddy – Towcester Pre-Derby 2021 (£1850) – Grand National
- Russian Sammy – Towcester Puppy-Derby (£5300) – 3-Steps To Victory
- Savana Beau – Towcester Pre-Derby 2022 (£12,5000) – English Derby
- Silverspring Ria – Towcester Summer (£5900) – Oxford Challenge Cup
So what’s in store for Greyhound Trader next year?
They have recently confirmed their sales schedule for the first half of the year.
Nathan Corden said “We’re delighted to be able to announce our sales for the first half of the year early on. More and more vendors are getting in touch every month asking to join the sales so we will plan to hold a sale each month this year (except December).
The Sheffield sale in January should be a good sale with greyhounds aimed for the Monmore Puppy Derby in March and the Sheffield Steel City Puppy Cup in April. Then obviously our big one is the Towcester Pre-Derby sale in March which produced a Derby Finalist last year! I hope to announce plans soon to invite owners for breakfast at the Pre-Derby sale and make it a special occasion for prospective owners. Henlow, Yarmouth, Oxford and Doncaster form the remainder of our 6-month calendar and I am hopeful that in the 2nd half of the year we can return to some of our former sales venues possibly.”
Nathan continues ‘”The Online Sales will continue on a monthly basis, which has been a revelation compared to weekly, and we will announce a similar 6-month advanced calendar for those so that both vendors and prospective bidders can plan ahead.”
The Greyhoundtrader.com Stakes on English Greyhound Derby final night was again a great success this year. Won by Antigua Sugar for owners Nic and Amanda Jeal collecting £1,500 the race also saw Brendan Matthews collect a £500 bonus for being the vendor of the winner. It is hoped that the 2023 running will be bigger and better as potentially it can be expanded to a 24 greyhounds competition during the Derby schedule at Towcester.
Nathan Corden added “Looking ahead to 2023, we will also be starting a new syndicate very soon via the website having just acquired two young pups. This will offer people the chance to purchase a share of some exceptionally well-bred greyhounds at what we think is a very reasonable price. Differently to purchasing a race-ready dog, shareholders will be able to follow their greyhound along their journey to the track and hopefully they can both turn out to be as good as we are hoping! We are also in discussions regarding something that could be very exciting for Greyhound Trader in 2023, but I will keep that under wraps for now until we get an agreement over the line!”
