THE 2014 Tattersalls October Sale saw Book 1 records, and the three-day turnover of 78,234,000gns was, at the time, the highest ever for a bloodstock sale in European auction history. A decade later, that figure had grown by more than 60%.

Ten years ago, the aggregate, average and median were all new records, and the sale was topped by a son of Galileo, sold to M.V. Magnier for 2,600,000gns. While the Coolmore man took home the best of the sale, John Ferguson parted with almost 17.5 million guineas for 38 lots. Two sires totally dominated the results, 10 sons and daughters of Dubawi averaging 654,500gns, heading the 22 lots by Galileo who averaged 577,727gns.

With no more Galileo yearlings about, Dubawi is still to the fore, and nine of his produce averaged 893,333gns this week, with three of the colts joining the Godolphin team. By average, Dubawi was third on the sires’ table, ahead of Wootton Bassett (600,000gns for 19 sold), but behind Frankel and Siyouni. A bid or two would have taken Siyouni’s average for six yearlings to 900,000gns, but Galileo’s stranglehold on the list for years is now taken over by his son Frankel, with 17 yearlings averaging 938,235gns.

Ten stallions sired the 16 yearlings who brought seven-figure sums, with three responsible for more than one on that roll of honour. Frankel had four representatives, Dubawi three, while Coolmore’s Wootton Bassett’s growing repute saw him with two. In alphabetical order, and with one each, were the Arc-winning sire Camelot, Dark Angel, Mehmas, No Nay Never, Sea The Stars, Siyouni, and Too Darn Hot.

Leading vendor

Newsells Park Stud was the leading consignor this week, with a record turnover of 17,095,000gns. General manager Julian Dollar said: “It has been an amazing sale; I wish I had more horses to sell! I am not that long in the tooth, this is my 19th year doing the Newsells draft, and I have never known a market like this, I really have not.

“I want to be the first to congratulate Tattersalls on the job the company has done bringing people to this sale this year. It is the premier European sale. Slightly reducing the size of the catalogue has been a good move. We will enjoy it, I am not sure I can really believe it, but we will enjoy it.

“People like buying horses, and sometimes on a wet January or February night when you have a problem with a mare foaling, you think ‘God, this is not much fun’. Then you come and watch these lovely horses walking around the parade ring on a sunny afternoon and you think ‘God, this is some job’. There is something about a horse that is magical – the dream of buying a top-class racehorse is alive and well in all of us.”

Head-to-head

The talking point of the week was the frequent head-to-head battles conducted by Amo Racing and bloodstock agent Anthony Stroud, representing Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin. The latter’s presence at Park Paddocks caused more than a ripple of excitement in the build up to the sale, and Sheikh Mohammed reacted to a number of runner-up efforts to Kia Joorabchian on day one with a buying spree on Wednesday.

Yulong and M.V. Magnier were purchasers of a millionaire yearling each, while William Haggas was the only other to do so. The Newmarket trainer spent 1,700,000gns on a filly by Wootton Bassett, his affection for the filly and her family obvious as he has trained a number of the filly’s siblings. Haggas had to repel a number of interested parties, notably agent Richard Knight and Amo Racing.

“She has been bought for Tony Bloom and Ian McAleavy,” said Haggas. “We have had lots of the family before and she is fairly typical of them.” The filly’s siblings My Oberon, a Haydock Group 3 winner who went on to enjoy Group 1 success in Australia, My Prospero who won the Group 2 Prix Eugene Adam and was Group 1-placed, and listed winner My Astra have all been trained by Haggas.

The filly’s dam My Titania, by Sea The Stars, won the Group 3 Park Stakes at two when in the care of John Oxx for the Tsui Family’s Sunderland Holding, and they also bred this filly who was offered from The Castlebridge Consignment. My Titania’s half-brother, Group 2 King George Stakes winner Muthmir, also raced from Haggas’s Somerville Lodge Stables. Bloom and McAleavy own the Haggas-trained Lake Forest, runner-up in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup at this year’s Royal Ascot.

WHILE purchasing progeny by Dubawi is always to be expected from Godolphin, and they bought three of his seven-figure sons, they also spent large sums on yearlings by Siyouni, Dark Angel, No Nay Never, Sea The Stars, Too Darn Hot and Mehmas.

The two most expensive buys by Godolphin this week were impeccably-bred fillies, daughters of Siyouni and Dark Angel. Newsells Park’s great week continued on the third day when their Siyouni half-sister to the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile winner Ylang Ylang sold for 3,700,000gns, the third highest price for a filly in the history of Book 1. The filly was bred in partnership by Newsells Park and Merry Fox Stud, and the battle to secure her was between Coolmore and Godolphin.

Joint-breeders Graham Smith-Bernal from Newsells Park and Craig Bennett from Merry Fox were pleased. “It is tremendous. Graham’s team has done a brilliant job,” said Bennett. “The dam just keeps on giving, and we are very lucky to have her. We are delighted with that result.”

Smith-Bernal added: “It is hard to believe where this market is at, it is very strong. We knew she was very special, reflected by the fact that we had so many vettings and scopes, and the way she has conducted herself here. She is a beautiful, beautiful filly and we wish the new owners all the very best. We are very happy because we have a lovely Frankel filly foal on the ground, a full-sister to Ylang Ylang, and we will keep her, and Shambolic is in foal to Frankel.

“I also still retain a stake in the Kingman colt with John Gosden. He is called Kaizen. Watch out for that name because the recent feedback from jockey Oisin Murphy after a piece of work was that he could be a special colt.”

Anthony Stroud commented: “The market for fillies has absolutely ballooned. When the market is up 100% it is very difficult to anticipate what these horses will make. I am surprised how buoyant the market is. When you get all these organisations in, it propels the market to a different stratosphere. I also think the smaller catalogue was a positive move.”

Yulong buy and sell at the highest level

ANOTHER Frankel joining Team Amo is a colt out of the Oasis Dream mare Atone who was acquired for 1,100,000gns. He is out of an own-sister to six-time Group 1 winner and champion mare Midday. Consigned by Baroda Stud, the colt was bred by Yulong Investments, BBA Ireland having purchased the dam from the Juddmonte draft at the 2022 Tattersalls December Mares Sale for 300,000gns.

Baroda was the week’s second leading consignor, selling 15 yearlings for over six million guineas.

David Cox of Baroda said of the Frankel colt: “He was a lovely foal and I was delighted to be able to bring him here. The lads have done a great job to prepare him for the sale. He showed perfectly every day, is a great mover and is the image of his father. Coming here I was hoping he would make close to a million and it is great to go over.

“Mr Zhang has been a great supporter, he is selling and buying here, and this horse was always going to be offered. Yulong has a bunch of horses they are going to sell, a bunch to go into training, a bunch to go to Japan, and some going to China. It it is a worldwide operation and it is great to be involved.”

One for Coolmore

Frankel-mania continued into the final day of the sale, when his daughter out of Prize Exhibit, the own-sister to Mohaather, consigned by Barronstown Stud, was bought by Coolmore’s M.V. Magnier for 1,500,000gns. Prize Exhibit is dam of the Group 3 winner History, bought at this sale by Magnier for 2,800,000gns six years ago.

The purchaser said: “She is a very nice filly; we have been very lucky buying horses off David and Diane [Nagle]; they are great breeders. We bought History here a couple of years ago, and she is in foal to Justify, carrying a colt. The sale has been incredible, Tattersalls has done a great job getting everyone here. You could feel a couple of days before the sale a great buzz around the place, and Tattersalls got the horses and the people here.”