Arkle for sale

Not sure if there is some funny editing going on in this clip. I have a copy of the catalogue entry for the sale and he is shown as Lot148. Decent size for a maiden 3yo - 16.2 1/8.

I'm sure you will know far more about this than myself blackbarn and I expect you will be right.

Same Goff's sale as Flyingbolt. There must have been something in the water.

The good Duchess paid G1150 for Arkle and then later in the sale paid G2000 for Bray Flame (later Brae Flame) who ran just once, developed leg trouble and was retired.

2000 in 1960 would be worth 40,000 approx in today's money so pretty cheap bearing in mind what they pay these days.

Apologies as just checked and it should be 55,000.

I think you could buy a house for 2000 back then so that's probably a better ratio to look at !

from Google,

How much did a house cost in 1960 UK?
In 1960s the average house price was just £2,530, compared to a staggering £281,161 today.

Agree with Sparrow - I started with £2200 (gns2000) and used the RPI calculator and that gives 58k . I don't think you'd ever use house price growth for this kind of calc as they have risen exponentially, completely unrelated to any other measure of inflation. Still we know Arkle was cheap and Brae Flame was very expensive.

yeah but you can still buy horses for 2 grand and also 2 million

it was quoted as the highest paid at the time and as such you have to look at the higher end of the scale !

Yes blackbarn as my check was in pounds rather than the actual guineas so 58,000 nearer the mark.

Agreed Foxy.   Yes I heard Alistair Down say that, but I do not think it is true.  It would be unusual for a new record to be broken six lots later by more than 70%. Brae Flame was a three year old too. It is not mentioned in any of my Arkle books AND he apparently "did not move particularly well", "his frame was rather angular" and "everything about him suggested that if he were to become anything, he would need expensive time to get there", and Tom Dreaper told the Duchess that he didnt think he'd get beyond 2 miles on his breeding. Oh and all this at the August Sale (at Ballsbridge) when all the best horses went to Goffs in September and October at that time.

Down says '..highest ever price for a Baker horse'. Mary Baker was the breeder - she owned Bright Cherry.

Thanks Ged. That explains it, I thought he said maiden horse. I did think it was an odd term given he was unraced and broken but unridden.

Have passed the book on now , but think Brae Flame got a good mention in the Foinaven book by David Owen .The early part of the book was excellent .

On the house price point, my father paid £2,750 in autumn 1958 for a three bed semi in suburban North London.

Same house now valued at £720k by Zoopla!

Thanks Paulo.  I did have that book but it went in one of the purges. Apparently Bray (later Brae) Flame was a stunner. The Sale Show Ring winner by a country mile it was said, everybody was after it. Only one horse in the entire sale went for more money.