HARRY Angel is one of the poster boys when it comes to the promotion of the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale. The son of Dark Angel went through the ring at Doncaster as a yearling and sold for a relatively modest £44,000.
A Group 2 winner in just two juvenile starts, he went on the next year to become the champion three-year-old sprinter in Europe, beating Tasleet and The Tin Man in the Group 1 Sprint Cup at Haydock, and accounting for Limato in the Group 1 July Cup at Newmarket.
Harry Angel’s first crop are being watched with great interest and one of his sons stole the limelight at Doncaster on Wednesday, selling from Houghton Bloodstock for £220,000 to Alex Elliott (Lot 296). The colt was bred by Cheveley Park Stud and is the third foal of the stakes-winning Exceed And Excel mare Red Box, herself out of the Group 1 Prix de Diane heroine Confidential Lady.
Market opening
Elliott was unable to name his client, for whom he has made a number of purchases already this year, but he did suggest that the colt’s new owner was exploiting an opening in the market caused by the absence of Shadwell as a buying force. The agent did reveal that the colt would be trained by Harry Angel’s handler, Clive Cox.
Five of the eight yearlings offered by Harry Angel sold, and next best was Norris Bloodstock’s half-brother to three winners (Lot 156). He cost Peter and Ross Doyle £90,000, while bloodstock agent Jill Lamb spent £80,000 on Whatton Manor Stud’s son of the Excelebration mare Exacting (Lot 118).
The nearest challenger to the sale-topper came later on the second day when Tally-Ho Stud’s Kodiac colt (Lot 359) was knocked down to Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock for £210,000. The colt has a stallion’s pedigree, his Pivotal dam being a half-sister to the dam of Buratino, while his grandam is a half-sister to Danehill Dancer.
Fahey trains
Richard Fahey will train the colt for Sheikh Juma, and that owner’s brother won the Group 1 Prix Morny at the weekend with another colt bred by Tally-Ho, Perfect Power. Tony O’Callaghan bought the colt’s dam as a three-year-old for 77,000gns.
Tally-Ho had two other notable sales of yearlings by Kodiac, getting £90,000 from Charlie Hills and McKeever Bloodstock for a half-sister to six winners (Lot 36) and £80,000 from Middleham Park Racing for a colt (Lot 213) from the family of Territories.
Magnier impacts with single purchase
THOUGH absent from the sale ring, M.V. Magnier was listed for a single purchase, the bidding and signing being done by Eddie Fitzpatrick and Kevin Buckley.
The object of desire appeared in the final hour of the Premier Sale (Lot 381), a daughter of Starspangledbanner, the first foal of a Bated Breath mare. The mid-January filly was sold by Alice Fitzgerald for £160,000 and bred in the name of Summit Bloodstock. Fitzgerald had failed to sell the dam, Under Offer, carrying this yearling for 75,000gns. Fitzgerald and Mike Doyle of Summit Bloodstock gave just 10,000gns for Under Offer as a filly after she had been placed a couple of times.
Another of the better lots by Starspangledbanner was a colt from Lynn Lodge Stud (Lot 23), and he too was the first foal of his dam, the stakes-placed, three-time winning Footstepsinthesand mare Beach Wedding. Peter and Ross Doyle Bloodstock secured him for £90,000.
Ross Doyle signed for the second highest-priced filly at the sale, Dandy Man’s daughter of the placed Frozen Power mare Nuclear Option (Lot 268). She cost £130,000, quite an advance on her foal price of €29,000.
The beneficiary of this big value increase was Jimmy Murphy from Redpender Stud. The filly will, not surprisingly, join Richard Hannon and that stable has purchased the likes of Canford Cliffs and Toormore from Redpender in the past.
Quality rules for Ballyhimikin
RIBCHESTER is already in double figures with winners from his first crop of juveniles this year, and Ballyhimikin Stud sold a son of his, a half-brother to four winners, to Richard Hughes for £125,000 (Lot 244). The trainer was hugely impressed with the colt, bought on spec, and is hopeful that a purchaser will soon appear on the horizon.
Seven of the eight yearlings by champion miler Ribchester sold, and this was the most expensive by some way. Hughes purchased a second son of the stallion at the sale.
It was a fine day’s work on Wednesday for James Hanly’s Ballyhimikin. They brought three colts to the sale and sold them all, the other pair realising £80,000 each. The Ribchester was the first to sell, and he was followed by a son of Holy Roman Emperor (Lot 314). He caught the eye of Oliver St Lawrence who secured this second offspring of a stakes-placed Nayef half-sister to Group 1 winner I’m Your Man.
Completing the holy trinity from the Co Tipperary nursery was a Fast Company colt out of the Acclamation mare Tilthe End Of Time (Lot 371). Bred by Hanly in partnership with Trevor Stewart, this half-brother to the stakes-placed Snazzy was signed for by Armando Duarte. The colt is from the outstanding family of Group 1 winners Halfway To Heaven, Magical, Photo Call and Rhododendron.
Dance to success with Dark Angel
YEOMANSTOWN Stud sold a pair of Dark Angel colts to Manor Farm Stud, owned by John Dance, and they will join James Horton who has been installed as private trainer, having been assistant most recently to Sir Michael Stoute.
Horton was assisted by Ed Sackville in making the two purchases. The more expensive of the pair (Lot 109) was the second foal of the stakes winner and group-placed Elusive Beauty, and he cost £120,000. The following day the same purchasers gave £82,000 for a full-brother to the juvenile winner Future King, this colt being out of the three-time winning Dandy Man mare Relation Alexander (Lot 299).
Manor House Stud was listed for four purchases, one of them in a private transaction. The only filly they bought was Lynn Lodge Stud’s daughter of Showcasing (Lot 146), the first foal of the winning Shamardal mare Girls Talk. She had cost 52,000gns as a foal and sold this time for £82,000.
Mehmas is all the rage
AFTER a weekend when his daughter Going Global won a Grade 1 race in the USA, Tally-Ho Stud’s Mehmas was having a cracker of a week in the sale ring. Five yearlings catalogued, offered and sold, they ranged in price from £75,000 to £115,000, and signs are that the sire’s progeny will be lighting up the sale rings in Goffs and Newmarket in the weeks to come.
Tally-Ho sold three of his yearlings this week, but the best price was achieved by Shinglis Stud’s colt out of the winning Dutch Art mare Interweave (Lot 175). He cost Sheikh Abdullah Amalek Alsabah £115,000, and was bought on behalf of that Kuwaiti owner by Billy Jackson-Stops. Next stop is trainer Andrew Balding’s yard.
The best Mehmas filly was Tally-Ho’s daughter of the stakes-placed Rock Of Gibraltar mare Fainleog (Lot 121). Alex Elliott paid £100,000 for her and she will join Archie Watson.
Mehmas is a son of Acclamation and that Rathbarry sire had a number of high-priced lots this week. Best of them all was Lynn Lodge Stud’s son of the winning Dubawi mare Dukinta (Lot 95). The dam is a half-sister to the Grade 2 winner Grandeur and Johnny McKeever and Charlie Hills combined to pay £100,000 for him. He left a little profit on his €82,000 foal price.
Ross Doyle paid £80,000 for Loughtown Stud’s Acclamation filly out of six-time winner Gladiatrix (Lot 147).
That mare is already dam of a stakes-placed winner, while the immediate family is that of the current dual Group 1 winner Campanelle.
Havana father and son highlights
WHITSBURY Manor Stud’s Havana Grey, the Group 1 sprint winning son of Tweenhills’ Havana Gold, has his first yearlings for sale. He had the remarkable record of having 16 lots catalogued, all 16 appeared at the sale and every one of them sold.
Leading the way was Grangemore Stud’s colt out of the Exceed And Excel mare Exrating (Lot 120). The dam’s only previous offspring is this year’s juvenile winner Ehraz. Teme Valley Racing now own the mare’s second foal, purchased for them by Richard Ryan, and the new buy will join Clive Cox.
Guy O’Callaghan was left with a nice profit, having spent 36,000gns on him as a foal. The colt’s dam is a half-sister to Group 2 winning sprinter Pearl Secret, and this is the family of Dutch Art, Up and Palacegate Episode.
The following day another son of Havana Grey made a splash, Whitsbury Manor receiving £85,000 for the first offspring of the Dandy Man mare My Lea (Lot 253). She was a Group 3 winner of nine races in Italy. Matt Coleman signed for him.
Havana Gold himself was not to be outdone and he was responsible for Baroda Stud’s first produce of the stakes-placed, three-time winner Golden Spell (Lot 151). Oliver St Lawrence was the successful purchaser at £105,000, standing with Bahraini owner and trainer Fawzi Nass.
Ten out of 10 for Whatton Manor
ED Player’s Whatton Manor Stud had the distinction of selling the first six-figure yearling of the week, a daughter of Kingman for £100,000, and they got the same price a day later for a son of Ardad, whose son Perfect Power won the Group 1 Prix Morny last weekend. The consignor brought 10 lots and all changed address.
The daughter of leading sire Kingman (Lot 74) is the second produce of the Group 3 winner Daban. That daughter of Acclamation was placed in the Group 1 1000 Guineas. The filly was bred by Rabbah Bloodstock and Mick and Sarah Murphy of Longways Stables bought.
Rabbah Bloodstock spent £95,000 on Baroda Stud’s No Nay Never colt (Lot 294) and he is the second foal out of a winning Exceed And Excel mare. Blandford Bloodstock signed for the Whatton Manor-consigned Ardad colt (Lot 282) who was bred by Fiona Denniff.
His sale prospects were boosted by Perfect Power’s win in the colours of Sheikh Rashid, and that owner will race this son of the Overbury Stud sire.
A sale of two halves, or was it?
IT’S a well-worn phrase, a game of two halves, but it is almost an appropriate description of trade this week at the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale. Held over two days, the Wednesday trade eclipsed that of Tuesday by producing the top five lots.
That said, 24 of the 40 lots to bring prices of £80,000 or more were sold during the first session. However, this was helped by the fact that 40 more Premier Sale lots were put through the ring on the opening day in order to facilitate the staging of the Silver Sale.
The sale turnover and average were both up on last year, though some way off the previous number of years. A key contributor was the reduced numbers for sale this time, allied to the regrettable absence of the Shadwell buying team. At the 2019 renewal Sheikh Hamdan’s team, headed by Angus Gold, spent almost £2 million on yearlings.
Goffs UK’s managing director Tim Kent was happy with this year’s outturn, and said at the sale’s conclusion on Wednesday: “The Premier Sale is back on track! Last year’s sale endured its own covid-related challenges but, with the help of a very loyal band of vendors and purchasers, we’ve seen a remarkable trade over the two days and proved to everyone that 2020 was a one-year blip due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control.
“The car park has been overflowing since Sunday morning and the footfall of genuine buyers has been incredible. There has been a real buzz around the sales complex and it’s great that this has resulted in trade which started well yesterday [Tuesday], finished strong last night, and kicked on again today. The impressive 89% clearance rate shows the demand for Premier yearlings is as strong as ever.
“The fact that the 13 six-figure yearlings were purchased by 11 different buyers demonstrates the diversity of the buying bench, whilst our policy of going ‘back to the future’ when selecting the traditional ‘Donny yearling’ has clearly proved popular with buyers. It’s also rewarding to see the sale topped by a son of Harry Angel.
– a brilliant sprinter who we sold at this sale in 2015. The Premier Sale has proven its ability to produce the very best, having also sold the likes of Dark Angel and Wootton Bassett, and to see them excel at stud is a great advert as to what can be found at this sale.”
The Irish top the tables
IN a year of outstanding success for their sires and for horses bred on the farm, Tally-Ho Stud emerged from this week’s sale as the leading vendor, selling 20 lots for £1,188,000 and an average of £59,400.
Tony O’Callaghan’s had to give best to Houghton Bloodstock when it came to the top lot of the week, but the star of the Tally-Ho draft was Kodiac’s son of the Pivotal mare Stunner who sold to Blandford Bloodstock for £210,000.
Their only other six-figure lot was a £100,000 Mehmas filly out of a stakes-placed daughter of Rock Of Gibraltar, while other highlights included a £90,000 Kessaar colt from the sire’s first crop, and an £88,000 Cotai Glory filly.
O’Callaghan’s nephew Eddie O’Leary sold 11 lots for £693,000 and an average of £63,000 through his Lynn Lodge Stud, and he kept another uncle, Gay O’Callaghan of Yeomanstown Stud, out of the runner-up spot. The latter sold 10 lots for £617,000.
Seven of the top 10 vendors by aggregate sales were Irish, Baroda, Rathbarry, Manister House and Ballyhimikin completing the list. A special mention for James Hanly’s Ballyhimikin who brought three colts to the sale and sold them all for £80,000 or more.
Agents busy
Peter and Ross Doyle Bloodstock was some lengths ahead of the rest in the buyer’s race, spending in excess of £1 million on their 16 purchases. SackvilleDonald finished second with 14 buys, their final bill amounting to £576,000.
Signing for the top lot at the sale, Alex Elliott spent £559,000 on five lots, and that group included a second six-figure sum. Rabbah Bloodstock got into double figures with their number of purchases, though they averaged just £33,818.
No silver lining as sale concludes
WITH 47 of the 69 lots offered being sold in the Silver Yearling Sale which concluded the two-day trade at Doncaster, averaging a modest £8,830 and producing a median of £8,000, the trade wound to a finish with just a couple of minor highlights.
It was one of the first lots in this section of the catalogue that prevailed as the top lot. A £30,000 son of Brazen Beau out of a half-sister to the Grade 2 winner Ferneley, the St Patrick’s Day-born half-brother to four winners was sold by Sarah Fanning, for Vanessa Thompson, to Italian owners Scuderia Semeso.