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The Documentary: Horses for Courses

Bidders scrutinise horse for sale

25/03/2017 GMT

Horses for Courses

BBC World Service - The Documentary, Horses for Courses

The glamour, graft and glory at the most important thoroughbred horse auction on earth

The glamour, graft and glory at the most important thoroughbred horse auction on earth.

Horse racing has an ever-growing global following and financial value. For a few days each year the horse racing world descends on a small English town, as it has for over 250 years.  Buyers from over 40 countries bid against each other for the best young thoroughbred race horses on earth. 

Everyone is looking for the next great champion. The equine athletes sold at the most prestigious days in the Tattersall’s sales calendar are the hub from which the US125 billion dollar a year global business, and all its thrills, risks and rewards, emanates. 

Horses for Courses reveals the high-energy equine web that connects our world. Presenter Susie Emmett joins stable hands and sellers, breeders and buyers. 

Meet nervy young horses preened to prove the potential they possess. Feel the glamour in the company of Sheikhs whose Gulf wealth has taken the industry to new levels. Admire the grit in the daily life of hardworking Zimbabwean stable hand, once afraid of horses, who prepares a racer of the future for his few minutes in the auction ring. Marvel at the logistics of transporting high performance horses to all points on the planet. According to one dealer, “it’s the buying and selling of dreams.”

(Photo: bidders inspect horse in parade ring. Credit: Green Shoots)

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