|  A racehorse, or even just a bit of one, has long been a popular alternative investment, but the sport of kings offers another interesting home for your money in the form of the brightly coloured silks worn by jockeys to distinguish one stable from another.
It was back in 1762 that the UK’s Jockey Club, formed 12 years before, announced: “For the greater conveniency of distinguishing the horses running, as also for the prevention of disputes arising from not knowing the colours worn by each rider, the underwritten gentlemen have come to the resolution and agreement of having the colours annexed to the following names, worn by the respective riders...” This resulted in 18 members sharing 17 sets of colours. New owners were free to choose any colour and design until 1971, when the Jockey Club set the standard to ensure that silks were sufficiently distinct from one another. Weatherby’s, the UK’s national registrar of racing colours, currently holds 19,000 colour registrations compared with just 9,000 25 years ago. Nowadays racing colours must conform to the criteria set by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities. These standards dictate that a specific range of 18 colours, 25 body designs and 12 sleeve designs must be drawn from in order to create the pattern that denotes a horse as being from a particular racing stable. Although the specifications appear restrictive, the number of alternative combinations available ensures myriad different designs can be created. But while there are many attractive silks available, it is the so-called “cherished” silks, so called because they are usually difficult to obtain, that have proven an excellent investment in recent years. Cherished silks date back to the time of the Jockey Club’s original 18th-century ruling, and there are only 18 plain colours available. Once cherished silks are acquired by an owner, therefore, they tend to be retained for many years. The only family to still own the colours originally registered to it in 1762 is that of the Duke of Devonshire, whose jockeys wear distinctive corn-coloured silks. Perhaps the most famous – and successful – silk of all time, however, is the plain black selected by Viscount Bolingbroke when the Jockey Club first established the colours rule. Something of a black market for the most coveted colours had developed by the mid-1990s, so in order to establish official control of their distribution, the British Horseracing Board decided to offer currently unregistered colours through the inaugural Racing Sale held in 1996 by auctioneers Sotheby’s. At that first sale, 12 sets of cherished and distinctive colours were sold for a total of £129,260 (€190,370), with the highlight being the purchase of a plain dark blue set for £28,750. The dark blue colours have become a familiar sight on jockeys riding the highly successful horses of the international Coolmore stud, as have the plain lime green colours bought in 2004 for £69,000 by stable owner John Fretwell (together with a plain pink set bought by Mrs John Magnier, the latter colours hold the current price record). Auctions of cherished and distinctive colours made available by the British Horseracing Board are now conducted by Graham Budd, one of the specialists who helped establish the sales. Once a set of colours has been bought, it is the responsibility of the owner to re-register it with Weatherby’s each year. If a sufficient period of time lapses without colours being re-registered, the right to them can be lost and they may be re-offered for sale to a new owner. www.grahambuddauctions.co.uk
www.weatherbys.co.uk |