BY some distance, and setting a new record for the BBAG Yearling Sale, a son of Camelot sold to Godolphin last Friday, their representative Anthony Stroud seeing off opposition from Coolmore, Alex Elliott and Joseph O’Brien to secure the catalogue’s outstanding offering.

The new record is now set at €850,000, surpassing by €30,000 the old mark which was achieved on two occasions, in 2019 and the following year, and both times by daughters of Sea The Stars. After he signed for the colt, by a large margin the best of the six lots sold by Gestüt Brümmerhof, Stroud revealed that the colt would join Charlie Appleby.

Named Del Maro, and born on St Patrick’s Day, the sale-topper is the second produce of the Group 1 Henkel Preis der Diana-German Oaks winner Diamanta, herself a daughter of Maxios. Her first foal is this year’s listed classic trial winner Diya, by Dubawi, and Godolphin were always favourites to win the bidding duel for her sibling. According to Stroud, Del Maro ticked all the key boxes: pedigree, source, dam and conformation.

Godolphin’s spend was rounded up to €1 million when Stroud later purchased Gestüt Fährhof’s son of Teofilo out of another Maxios mare, this time a stakes-placed half-sister to 10 winners. They include the French Group 3 winner Steel Princess, and her best runner is the Grade 1 Canadian International heroine Sarah Lynx.

Gestüt Park Wiedingen supplied the next two best-priced lots, both colts. Alex Elliott spent €320,000 on a son of Soldier Hollow, a full-brother to three stakes winners and a group-placed winner. Anthony Stroud was the underbidder. The purchase will be trained by Ralph Beckett for a new client, and his dam, a winning Shirocco mare, has clicked phenomenally well with Soldier Hollow.

The standout among the colt’s siblings is Whispering Angel, the champion two-year-old filly in Germany six years ago, and she has made a great start to her own breeding career, responsible for this season’s Group 3 Bavarian Classic winner Wilko.

Gleneagles son

Liberty Racing has won the most recent two editions of the Group 1 Deutsches (German) Derby, and last year’s winner of the race, Fantastic Moon, put himself back in the spotlight when winning a Group 1 on Sunday.

Two days earlier, at the sale, the syndicate bought a son of Gleneagles for €200,000, and little wonder. The Castlehyde stallion is responsible for Liberty Racing’s winner of this year’s classic, Palladium.

The group’s new acquisition is a half-brother to the 2015 German champion juvenile filly Dhaba, now the dam of a pair of stakes winners, one of whom was classic-placed in Germany in 2022. Liberty Racing’s Lars-Willhelm Baumgarten has sourced other good performers from the same vendors.

Equalling the price for the Gleneagles colt was a Kingman filly from Gestüt Görlsdorf, and their 11 yearlings sold for a total of €501,000. Not surprisingly, the best filly in the sale is out of a full-sister to Sea The Moon, and is from an outstanding female line. Wilhelm Feldmann offered the winning bid of €200,000 on behalf of owner Eckhard Sauren. Only Godolphin spent more than Sauren at the sale, his five purchases coming to a total of €629,000.

For Ireland

One for Ireland is Gestüt Etzean’s daughter of Lope De Vega, and she heads to Ballylinch Stud. Just the second produce of a multiple stakes-placed daughter of Gleneagles, the filly’s stakes-winning grandam bred Lucky Lion, and he was a Group 1 winner in Germany, landed their Group 2 Mehl-Mulhens Rennen-German 2000 Guineas, and was second in the Group 1 German Derby. The filly cost €190,000.

The final figures for the sale were on a par with last year, though the numbers sold were down three points to 72%. The median was on a par with last year, the average fell by 3%, and turnover declined by 8%. Full results are available on bbag-sales.de