Bargainer's Ring Cycle

Charlie Gordon-Watson reveals some sale secrets to Paul Castle

RACING REVIEW, February 2000

These days Charlie Gordon-Watson signs sales tickets on behalf of such distinguished clients such as Lord Lloyd-Webber, Sir Alex Ferguson, the Maktoums and members of Saudi Royal families. He has obviously come a long way since setting up on his own in 1985. "There was nothing else I could do," he reflects with a smile. "I had worked for Robert Sangster on the Isle of Man and as an assistant trainer. I was 25 and thought I'd quite like to be a bloodstock agent. Paul Cole got me started. I worked for him for 10 years and had success buying such horses as Pass The Peace, Snurge, Sri Pekan and Culture Vulture."

Gordon-Watson's sharp eye for a horse, coupled with an incisive knowledge of bloodlines, is reflected in the succession of top class animals he has purchased at the sales. He has clocked up 16 Group One winners and half a dozen classic heroes, so it's no surprise that his services are in constant demand."

I've reached the stage now that I've got numerous clients," he says. "There is a phenomenal amount of homework involved and I do the whole thing myself. People pay me to look at the horses - they don't pay me to pay other people to look at them."

When Gordon-Watson attends a sale, he applies his customers' remit with a confidence built on experience. He explains: "If a client gives you a budget to buy four or five horses, you pay more for one and less for another and average it all out. That's how I like to buy horses best, with a bit of flexibility.

"I study the sales catalogue when I receive it, usually two or three weeks before a sale, and then I assess which sort of orders I've got for what sort of horses. Then I put them into categories, match the horse, the pedigree, the conformation and the budget. You evaluate everything and go from there.

"Ninety per cent of the horses in the ring are no good. The art is buying more of the 10 per cent that are good than anybody else."

It is an art for which Gordon-Watson has a rare flair. His eye for a thoroughbred was nurtured growing up around horses in Dorset. "It was bred into me, I was lucky. I had a bit of a headstart over most people," he says, almost by way of an apology. These days his talent is widely respected. When Gordon-Watson patrols Park Paddocks at the Newmarket Tattersalls sales, the grooms are soon on their mettle. When he approaches a box with the instruction "let's see it walk", the next 20 seconds could mean the difference of hundreds and thousands further down the line. "I think you can learn much more about a horse moving than standing still," he reveals. "A lot of people get a horse out and stand it still for a minute, look at it, and then walk it. I walk it straight away and if I don't like what I see I put it back. It saves time."

Although clients may proffer the ammunition for his shots in the ring, this gunslinger prefers to operate alone." The biggest nightmare for an agent is to have an owner with you at a sale. I accept they like to be there, but they're better off letting you get on with it."

Gordon-Watson goes racing regularly, keeping in touch with his clients. "It's all part of the after-sales service and general PR exercise, although you obviously have to work harder whose horses aren't doing quite so well. The good clients are the ones who give you a budget, guidelines as to what they want, and let you get on with it."

One of his most successful owners has been Edward St George's Lucayan Stud, for whom he purchased a number of top horses to race out of David Loder's Newmarket stable. "He is the easiest client I have had to work for and, ironically, I've done better for him than anybody, with horses such as Bahamian Bounty and Desert Prince."

It was therefore a shock to the system when Loder threw his lot in with Godolphin and set sail for Evry to train Sheikh Mohammed's juveniles. "We had a lot of success together," Gordon-Watson concedes. "It was a relationship that worked and it was a big blow when he left. "Sir Michael Stoute always joked: 'how on earth are you going to survive without Loder?' Well I've now got a good situation going with Michael as well, buying the Saeed Suhail horses such as Beat All. He was really a 200,000 dollar horse. I loved the look of him at Keeneland and rather nervously stretched it to 280,000. When I called Michael to tell him he shouted 'What?' and nearly dropped the phone!" But Gordon-Watson remains confident the one-time Derby favourite can still become a star, suggesting the Freemason Lodge handler could transform the colt into another top class older horse. The two other trainers Gordon-Watson is most involved with are Ed Dunlop and Jeremy Noseda and the former is only too pleased to sing his praises. "I've known Charlie for some time, as he worked for Sheikh Maktoum who has a lot of horses with me," the young Newmarket-based handler enthuses. "He's been tremendously supportive and very kind sending me clients. Now I've been able to help him too by recommending his agency to new owners in the yard. He bought Night Style for me at Deauville. He took a Group One in Milan last season."

Another addition to Dunlop's Gainsborough stables is a Barathea colt purchased by Gordon-Watson for Sir Alex Ferguson. "I also bought Alex's first horse, Queensland Star who won his first two races. He cost 17,500 and was sold for a good profit". Although colourful and charming, 40-year-old Gordon-Watson is a sharp operator when working. As with poker, you play your cards close to your chest once the hammer is up. "There's a lot of psychology to bidding," he says. "There's an art to it which a lot of people don't understand. There are times to go in and times not to."

Thus sales week can prove to be a roller coaster ride for those in at the deep end. "What I call a working man's sale, take the Newmarket October, Goffs, Keeneland September, that's when you really have to get into them," Gordon-Watson adds. "Something like the October sale is absolutely shattering. It leaves your head spinning. Everything is carefully planned days in advance. I don't buy horses out of the ring like a lot of people do. I look at the horses I want to see beforehand. But you are concentrating hard all week, looking at the horses and dealing with the clients. It's never ending. "The Houghton sale has only 250 horses but it's the most important sale, the most expensive sale and quality sale. Basically, you want to have seen every horse in the sale you're interested in before it starts. It's very important to get a sale covered beforehand so you know what's coming up next. You can't do that at the Newmarket October sale because there are too many horses. It's the same at the Keeneland September."

Last year, Gordon-Watson spent about £6 million at the yearling sales, sums that can leave him stunned when his head hits the pillow in his Chelsea home. "I aim to have a Group One winner every year to keep myself at the position I'm at and I do worry about that. Luckily the last couple of years it's come early in the season, so I've been able to relax a bit." During the 1999 season, Gordon-Watson landed a Group One treble with Night Style in Italy, Fly To The Stars in the Lockinge Stakes and Seazun in the Cheveley Park. The last of that trio now figures prominently in the market for the 1000 Guineas.

Other recent successful acquisitions include July Cup winner Compton Place, Jersey Stakes winner Lucayan Prince and last year's Ribblesdale heroine Fairy Queen. But Gordon-Watson's biggest success to date must be Desert Prince, a snip at Newmarket's 1996 October sale with the hammer coming down at 62,000gns. "David Loder and I felt very strongly about the colt. I like his sire Green Desert and his second dam was Fairy Footsteps so he had a good chance of being a good horse. He looked very athletic." Two years later Desert Prince was being acclaimed Europe's top three-year-old colt after Group One wins in the Irish 2000 Guineas, Prix du Moulin and the Queen Elizabeth II stakes. It meant, as Gordon-Watson modestly puts it, the agent and trainer "got lucky".
Good fortune, of course, is only part of the explanation and Timeform's 'Racehorse of 1998' described the transaction as astute business, with Desert Prince now commanding a covering fee of IR20,000gns at the Irish National Stud.

"He had a pedigree and that's why he was such a good horse and sold for a lot of money. I think he'll be a very good stallion, "Gordon-Watson asserts. "But you need a horse like that every three to four years to maintain your profile." Just as quiz shows require the occasional millionaire to sustain their viewing figures.