World's top trainers and owners descend on Newmarket for the Yearling sale

• Watch a report by ITV News Anglia's Matthew Hudson

Buyers from all over the world are in Newmarket looking to spot the next champion racehorse, as the annual yearling sale got underway.

More than 500 yearlings were going under the hammer during the three days of auctioning at Tattersalls in Newmarket.

The horses have never been ridden or even had a saddle put on them, but they come from some of the finest bloodlines in the world.

Some will be sold for 7 figure sums.

The skill for those who are doing the buying was trying to spot a winner who would become household names and trophy winners.

Racehorse trainer Hugo Palmer was at the auction and said that the tricky thing was finding that special something that would make a horse great.

"It's the bit inside, it's the heart, how hard they try and how much they want to win," he said.

"We can all look at a pedigree, we can all see what a horse might be and how it moves and we can all pay a vet to tell us if there is any medical reason why it shouldn't be a champion. But that bit that makes them a champion, that will to win, is the bit that no-one sees," Hugo Palmer said.

Covid travel restrictions have eased so that more people are expected from overseas to attend in person.

The auctioneers, Tattersalls, expected that to make bidding fierce and sales strong this year.